The Angels announced following tonight’s game that they’ve optioned first baseman Justin Bour to Triple-A Salt Lake. They’ll make a corresponding roster move prior to tomorrow’s game, which, according to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (Twitter link), will be to select the contract of first baseman/left-handed reliever Jared Walsh.
Though Bour is a veteran of parts of six big league seasons, he’s still a couple of months shy of the five full years of MLB service time. Players with five or more years of MLB service can only be optioned to the minors with their consent, but Bour entered the year at four years, 64 days of MLB service and is now at four years, 111 days.
Bour, 30, was non-tendered by the Phillies in the offseason and inked a one-year deal worth $2.5MM with the Halos. At the time, the hope was that he could help fill in for Shohei Ohtani early in the season and then move into some kind of timeshare at first base and designated hitter. But while he entered the year as a career .260/.344/.466 hitter with 84 home runs in 1563 Major League plate appearances, Bour has batted only .163/.268/.316 through 112 plate appearances with his new club. He’s drawn 13 walks in that time, demonstrating strong knowledge of the strike zone, but has also shown questionable contact skills with a 27.7 percent strikeout rate.
If Bour is able to eventually turn things around, the Angels will be able to control him through the 2020 season as an arbitration-eligible player this winter, but that’s a long way from being a consideration at this point. For now, he’ll simply work to earn another crack at the big league roster.
As for Walsh, the 25-year-old is off to a .302/.398/.604 slash with 10 homers and a dozen doubles on the season so far. He’s also pitched five innings of relief and allowed a pair of runs on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts. He’s more of a position player than a pitcher — Walsh has just 13 2/3 professional innings under his belt in the minors — but he’s an intriguing player to monitor as he gets his first call to the big leagues.
Walsh is coming up
Another HR or K slob taking up roster space. Good riddance.
BIG SEXY CAN PLAY 1B TOO………
He cant pitch lefthanded
Had so many moments with mental lapses. So many weird errors.
I would imagine that starting pitching still being suspect is why they’re bringing up Walsh instead of Thaiss.
How Walsh would be used (he could easily be used creatively to play 1b/OF and pitch in the same game, for example) would be interesting to see, although the DH rule would wreak havoc with some of the more creative scenarios–if he starts off on the mound then moves to 1b, say, who comes out of the game?
Walsh was playing significantly better. Thaiss is playing well, but needs to improve his power numbers before he hits the Majors.
hmm so the angels now have 2 two way players
That’s funny cause the Yankees have players that go both ways!
Another guy I saw play at High-A Inland Empire last season. Dude has legitimate power.
That makes at least 3 now, who’ve made their major league debuts this season.
The roster turnover continues. Glad for Walsh, he’s earned his way up the ladder.
I’m excited to see new talent. Makes the season more interesting.
Enjoy it now, because there ain’t much following behind him, except Jo Adell….if he ever gets healthy.
What’s the point of this comment, other than to troll? Jose Suarez and Patrick Sandoval are two good young arms who could make the bigs this season, we’ve already brought up Canning who is studly, and Jo Adell is ahead of schedule in his recovery from his freak injury. There are also a bunch of early round college arms making their way through the system quickly, Brandon Marsh is about a season and a half away, and there are other guys who are exciting to watch develop who will be here not long after that (D’Shawn Knowles, Jordyn Adams, Jeremiah Jackson).
Angels have in the middle of their biggest infusion of young talent in probably 10 years.
Marsh is extremely overrated. And yes, I’ve watched him play. My local team, unfortunately, is Inland Empire. I’ve been a fan of theirs since I moved to Kalifornia in ‘89.
They’re pitiful again. Glad I didn’t waste my money on season tickets this year.
When you see guys like Rengifo, Canning, and Walsh go from A-ball to the majors in a season, that’s proof they have a weak system.
This system does have some intriguing young 18-19 year olds but it is weak. Adell is the only near term impact prospect that is going to come up. Guys like Jam Jones and Marsh have been taking steps backwards and will have to rebuild their value. This system is particularly weak on upper level talent which is why you’re seeing guys like Rengifo get the Call up before he’s really ready. He’s not wrong at all about the farm.
TIme to brush up on your farm systems.
I don’t know if that’s directed at tribe fan or not but he’s not wrong about this. The angels had an absolute garbage farm system a few years ago that they strengthened a good bit but those guys have essentially all been taking steps backwards recently. Jam Jones has been very bad the last 2 years. Marsh has taken a step backward. Honestly look at their top 10 prospects, most of them are performing very poorly. With the graduation of Canning, if they were to re rank farms this system is damn near bottom 5. With Adell being the saving grace that might keep them slightly higher than that. Barring some serious improvements, come back here when the mid season prospect rankings come out and tell me if I’m wrong. I doubt I will be.
another position player epp brought in. anther mistake. list gets longer.
I mean at least tommy la Stella is playing baseball. I’d argue the pitching debacle was much much worse. He lit 32-35 MM on fire by signing Harvey,Cahill, and Allen.
Two point five million on a player who has hit RH wasn’t an mistake, It just didn’t work out. Did Buttrey work out? How about Ohtani? You don’t think Eppler was a big part of that? Is Felix Pena working out. The afore mentioned LaStella? Is our catching working out? Luke Bard? Justin Anderson? How’s Robles and Ramirez.
He’s built the makings of a really good pen But all you probably see is Cody Allen.
Did he sign any of those guys? I was talking about dollars lit on fire in FA. Simply making the argument that more dollars were wasted on pitching recently…Please don’t argue me on that. You cherrypicked the pen but failed to mention one of the majors worst starting rotations. So it hasn’t exactly all been great in Anaheim.
All acquired players require money, it’s just a degree of how much.
Two point five million is nothing. One year contracts are virtually nothing, no matter how much they are. Cahill was the best healthy A’s pitcher last year. It’s not working out. Two years ago Allen was solid, it’s not working out. Harvey was an expensive flyer. It’s not working out. There is still time. There is nothing wrong with one year gambles.
I’m still looking at a 2020 staff of Ohtani, Skaggs, Heaney, Canning and someone like Cole. Do you really have a problem with that staff?
The Angels are hoping to compete this year, and it’s close. Closer than a lot of people think. But the big deal was always 2020. And nothing the Angels have done has hurt them for 2020.
By the way, a pitching debacle is
Evolodi 68
Britton 39
Happ 34
Lynn 30
Miller 25
Melancon 62
Volquez 22 M
Price 217 M
Cueto 130 M
Samardzijja 90
Leake 80
Chen 80
Kennedy 70
Kazmire 48
O’Day 31
One year contracts don’t hurt you.
Macstruts for the win!
Boom.
Most of the same people roasting Eppler over Harvey and Cahill are also claiming the team should sign Keuchel, which would be a 4.5-year commitment the team would ultimately regret, especially since his stated AAV expectations equal the combined salaries of Harvey and Cahill.
Keuchel should be signed but after the draft for a half the year 8 million and no draft pick attached. But I agree Eppler is amazing scout and gm. I only wish Dipoto left sooner.
Bour was a good buy-low option. unfortunately, those dont always work out.
nl stats don’t translate well to the angels. epp seems to make same mistakes repeatedly. it was a cheap mistake, though.
I would like to hear your rationale about NL stats not translating to the Angels in the AL.. He came from Miami, which is a larger park that hurts power. It’s not like he are referring to a SP here and he gets to pitch to other pitchers or something.
cozart, bour, pujols. ben revere and so on?
What does Eppler have to do with Pujols? Ben Revere? He was a forth outfielder and hit 275 and stole 21 basses. Trout played in 114 games that year. Who expected that? Who was Eppler going to get as a fourth outfielder on the free agent market to fill in for Trout.
Sorry, didn’t see the prior comments.
You people make this stuff up as you go along.
You mean players like Simmons, Freese and La Stella who all hit better here than the NL. You mentioned Ben Revere, he hit better with the Angels in 2017 then he did with Washington in 2016.
Cozart only hit one year in his life. Bad move by the Angels for believing in him. And Pujols is 39. Unless you are on PEDs. That was not really a good comparison.
Tommy LaStella?
Article fails to point out the interesting thing about Bour’s service time: that if they do end up bringing him back up but they leave down long enough such that when he comes back up he only accrues another two months of service time (ie he ends the season with his current 4.111 years plus ~2 mos and so ends with ~4.170, then they will actually be able to control him through 2021, thereby gaining a year.
a year of control with a guy that was non tendered and signed for 2 million plus was just demoted after an awful start isn’t that valuable
It’s not really valuable at all but if the post chooses to discuss his service time and the extent of the team’s control over him (which it did) then it’s completely silly not to discuss it fully.
The Angels can keep dumping all these players they like, but Earth to the front office. YOU CANT WIN WITHOUT PITCHING.
angels have great pitching. though it is the pen that’s great.
They have great pitching in the pen. Do you realize that’s almost all Eppler.
Marlins should bring him back… doesn’t hurt to try with the way the offense has been…
Bour is awful. Goodwin has completely stopped hitting and is a very poor LF. The Angels have to find a way to keep Fletcher in the lineup,
Walsh can play first and outfield. . Bats left. When Calhoun comes back send down Rengifo (he’s not ready) Give Fletcher and Walsh more ABs. Give Goodwin and Cozart and Pujols less ABs and go from there.
If Goodwin was in a slump, putting up 4 hits yesterday kinda snuffs that out.
I wonder how the new rules regarding two-way players will effect a guy like Walsh who is a reliever. The new rules seem to account for two-way starters like Ohtani, but I don’t know how they are going to make guys like Walsh and Cowart work within the new guidelines.
If we pitch them, they’ll have to take up a pitchers’ slot in the rotation — to my understanding at least
I love that they’re finally sending down, trading or releasing these guys when they’re not performing. I can’t recall the Angels ever doing this. Thank God for the post Scioscia era.
I wish Bour was cut a couple of weeks ago, but I agree. I’m looking forward to seeing Walsh. I’m also thrilled Fletcher is getting more ABs.
I was not high on him coming into this year, but now he reminds me of Eck.
The big difference isn’t regimes. It’s contract length.
Goodwin is just in a slump. He’s going to hit with decent averages and pop. Not going to find much better packages than that when it comes to fourth outfielders.
I would have rather seen this before pinch hitting for Fletch last night….what did everyone expect? Bour seems to set on hitting bombs and not putting the ball in play. If only we went back to more small ball play. Just can’t rely on home runs every time/game…
Playing small ball all the time risks running into the same problem with producing runs. That was the Angels’ downfall last decade when they were making the playoffs every year. They got away with it just enough to be a 95 win team. But against the Yankees and Red Sox in the postseason, it became their weakness. This Angels team is a lot more patient than any Angels lineup I’ve seen since the late 90’s. They need that more than they need small ball. Teams are more likely to score more runs when they’re patient and getting extra base hits.
What the heck happened to this guy? He raked and production came crashing to a halt just last year at age 30.
Glad to see them making moves based on performance.
put a tent over Bour’s head and you got a one-man three-ring circus for hitting, fielding, and base-running.