The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent reliever Daniel Hudson, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). A client of Jet Sports Management, Hudson would earn $1.5MM upon making the roster and can earn another $1.5MM via incentive pay.
Hudson, set to turn 32 in a month, spent the 2018 season with the Dodgers and tossed 46 innings with a 4.11 ERA, 8.6 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a 37.2 percent ground-ball rate along the way. A two-time Tommy John patient, Hudson’s fastball remains potent, as he’s averaged better than 95 mph in each of the past two seasons. The right-hander has a solid track record of missing bats since converting from the rotation to the ’pen and can be counted upon for roughly a strikeout per inning — albeit with a few too many walks at times (3.7 BB/9 over the past four seasons).
Hudson will compete for a spot in first-year manager Brad Ausmus’ bullpen — a collection of arms that will be anchored by offseason signee Cody Allen in the ninth inning. Among the team’s setup options are Ty Buttrey, Cam Bedrosian, Hansel Robles and Justin Anderson. Hudson stands out as the team’s most notable non-roster invitee to camp and, with a good performance in camp, could very plausibly claim a bullpen spot.
This is a terribly slow and uninteresting off-season.
obviously interesting enough for you to comment
No. He has it right. The “hot stove” is a thing of the past.
Pretty sad that this guy can’t even get a major league deal.
Does he deserve a major league deal?
Trust me, it’s not sad that he got a minor league deal. He’s going to be 32 next year, and has had 2 consecutive underachieving seasons.
Agreed. The numbers don’t do him justice, in a negative way. He’s been hot garbage the last couple seasons.
Can the Angels add a Left Hander in the pen? Is that asking too much?
Add Moustakas and Sipp and call it an off season.
Don’t need Moose. Got Cozart (healthy coming to camp). Better hitter and much better fielder.
Cozart has been a better hitter one season. I’ll give you the fielding.
You’ll give him fielding? Based on what evidence.
He was bad at third last year. He ranked in the lower 25 percentile. At no time last year did he look like he could handle third.
I absolutely give Cozart fielding over Moustakas. I base that it on career UZR;
Cozart: 34.9
Moustakas: 15.1
Aside from statistics, their respective ranges also pass my eye test. Cozart has more range to get to a ball that Moustakas likely couldn’t get to.
I chalk up Cozarts initial struggles on new ballpark, nes team, new
Damn autocorrect… basically new everything.
I’m sure why people think Cozart can handle 3rd. He ranked 41st out of 52 in defense at 3rd (250 IP minimum) Moose was 19th.
As far as Fletcher. He ranked 331 out of 332 in batted ball speed.
So you have Cozart, who he has not shown he can handle 3rd and Fletcher who has not shown he can hit.
You take a way two questions marks with one reasonably priced free agent. Your opinion on this is based on “hope”. with no evidence of success.
On what planet? Moose has his flaws but fielding isn’t 1 of them. Cozart is very good defensively at SS…..at 3B, not so much.
You are exactly right, at least so far. Most SS can handle 3rd, however Cozart at no time looked like he could handle third.
Cozart hurt his shoulder June 13th. diving for a baseball. For two months he was a bad 3rd baseman and that had nothing to do with his shoulder. Two weeks after that he had surgery.
I’m a fan of adding Sipp. The Angels bullpen as a whole was pretty bad against lefties last year.
Adding Sipp, a full year of Buttrey, and a little bounce back from Allen would create a drastically improved pen.
I’m a bit shocked that Sipp doesn’t have a deal yet. If any reliever possibly deserves to do better than a minor league deal it would be him.
Dear Angel fans, I am truly sorry for all the blown leads and/or near blown leads against teams you need to win against you will get from this guy if he makes the MLB roster
From, a Pirates fan that watched Daniel Hudson all of 2017.
Not since the days of Bob “Round Tripper” Kipper did I loathe seeing someone come out of the bullpen as much as Daniel Hudson.
You go back a long way.
When Hurdle sent him to the mound I thought that it was the game size equivalent of the Houston Astros annual size tanking scheme.
Dear Pirates fan,
I’ll laugh if he makes the team and he’s lights out when the Pirates come to Anaheim this season. (…like I said “if”)
From Optimistic Angel fan
I like your optimism. I had that attitude too when we signed Daniel Hudson.
I didn’t not have your optimism.I knew from the start that Hudson could be NH worst signing ever.Any pressure,DH was worthless.I think that his velocity and other things impress way too much.He got a two year deal for a fair amount of money which very much surprised me.Fortunately,NH made up for it when he traded DH to Tampa to help get Dickerson.It also helped get NH off the hook for an embarrassment.I hope that that has not inhibited him from signing a ML reliever now.
JCY The lights will be going out,but it will be because of all the home runs the power starved Pirates are hitting.
From a pessimistic Pirates fan
Another hard throwing reliever. Pretty clear velocity is the factor that Eppler hopes will make the difference for the pen. I wonder what the analytics say on the matter…?
Eppler has stated that velocity is the #1 predictor of success.
This signing follows his well established love of the radar gun
The Angels just seem to love pitchers that go on the DL…
The Angels dump truck is already full of other teams garbage
Like who? Or are you just trying to be funny.
Cahill was wanted. Lucroy was wanted. Harvey was wanted. Allen was wanted. I don’t know how coveted Bour was, but the Angels needed a LH first baseman who can hit RH Pitchers. Bour has shown the ability to do that.
Are the angels really only going to trust Jerez in the bullpen as the lefty specialist? I like his potential but they should sign an established lefty.
I agree.
Yep
I like this pickup. Could end up being top 3 reliever by middle of season. Since has had two TJs already, the Angels curse couldnt extend to 3. I keep my fingers crossed with every Angel pitcher
I’m not a fan of what Billy Eppler is doing as a GM. He over prioritizes his farm system and return we will lose a great player ( Mike Trout)? Trouty would resign with the Angels if the the Angels went out and put a team that will compete for a Championship. Im also not happy with the ownership ( Arte Moreno) . Time for Arte to sell the team to someone who will spend the money for a Championship club and to compete against the Dodgers for a LA Market. Very sad!
I do not know a lot about the Angels but I think that the complaint about Arte should be that he should not decide who to spend the money on with the contracts that he gave to Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton.It seems to me that he worked off too much emotion and too little brain power,and had way too much stupid money to spend.
Pujols was a bad baseball move but a great business move.
The Angels signed Pujols then a 3 billion dollar TV deal.
How do you people know the Angels are going to lose Mike Trout. And to counter you illogical claim, if winning was important to Trout, the stronger the Angels future, the more likelihood Trout will sign for the Angels.
No one said baseball fans were logical.
Because Mike Trout is from back east with his family in New Jersey. He’s a Eagles fan and has already been link to a few Phillies players during the off season. He likes being with the Angels organization, but not on a losing team. Grant you, Pujois and Hamilton were bad signings and at the time, Zack Grinke should have beea signed to a mega deal when he was a FA, instead he went to the Dodgers later to the diamonbacks. As he opt out of the dodger deal. Arte made a hugh mistake on that deal. Right now I wonder if they even offered Trout an extension?
The Angels were never going to outbid the Dodgers for Zack Greinke.
Meanwhile the Yankees, Red Sox, and Astros are enjoying perennial contention doing exactly what Billy Eppler is doing. If Mike Trout leaves that still frees up $30+ million to supplement their young players with all kinds of depth.
I understand your reasoning RyAn,but as you well know Trout is truly the best player in the game,without a doubt a future Hall of Famer.It would behoove the Angels now to make sure that they are competitive enough that when he is a free agent they can compete with the Phillies to sign him.That is why it Is important now to see if the Phillies sign Bryce Harper because even Middleton may not have enough stupid money to sign both Harper and Trout.
Smart move for Hudson. Can’t blow it again in the World Series if you’re on a team that won’t be there. Checkmate.
Omg I better go get my playoff tickets Hudson going make trout stay This gm going to trade Mike to the Yankees For crap player prospects that will never pan out
Wouldn’t surprise me. Your right
Yep
Why do we keep getting “Throwers” instead of “PITCHERS”???? Cause a guy doesn’t throw 95+ doesn’t mean he can’t get guys out … That does not make up for the amount of walks will soon follow
If you think is going to stay on a team that won’t offer an extensive that the Red Sox, Yankees, or the Phillies can offer. The Angels won’t compete as long as Eppler is the GM. Might have been better off with Dipoto as the GM. Arte made a hugh mistake getting rid of Dipoto because of too much power with Scioscia.
I’m sorry don’t have too much hope for this team this year. Wish there could be better owner that wants to win now.