The Angels have agreed to a contract with lefty Sam Freeman, according to reports. It’s a minors deal, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Freeman, 31, was just cut loose by the Braves. He had been tendered a $1.375MM contract by the Atlanta organization and received 45 days of that as severance pay.
Last year, Freeman worked to a 4.29 ERA over 50 1/3 innings. He carried a 52.1% groundball rate and 10.4 K/9, but also dished out 5.7 free passes per nine innings.
The Halos had a need for veteran lefties after the recent decision to drop Dan Jennings. It doesn’t seem that Freeman will head onto the MLB roster to open the year, but he’ll be a prime candidate to ascend at some point. The club’s current MLB depth chart doesn’t include any southpaws in the pen.
As a Braves fan, glad he’s gone
I don’t understand this move or the Stratton move. Jennings is a decent lefty with quite a bit of success for years and Freeman not so much. Barria was good last season and he was healthy while Stratton struggled. I hope Eppler knows what he is doing.
era+ of 168 in ’17? there seems to be high upside.
His FIP IN 2017 was 3.34 and his walk per 9 was over 4. I think is era+ is a reflection of how lucky Freeman was.
Eppler likes pitchers with high K%. Jennings did not exactly fit that mold and didn’t make up for it much with his middling BB/9 the past couple years.
I know but Jennings produced…..
Jennings was hit hard in spring training and was left off the Brewers postseason roster last fall because he was ineffective against lefty batters, despite his decent ERA. Freeman throws harder, and could be a better fit if he improves his control.
Watch Sam be amazing this year now.
…just like Kevin Maitan…
“Walk them all Sam” has great stuff when he isn’t issuing free passes. He pitched great in stretches during his Atlanta tenure but at other times was horrific.
hopefully, angels ride his high tide.
Angels acquire another broken toy for Mike Trout to play with
He clearly lost it last year. It was more than mental