The Angels have added a pair of players out of the break, acquiring lefty Adam McCreery and catcher Josh Thole from the Dodgers in exchange for cash considerations.
The move will help bolster the Halos’ depth. It’ll also clear needed 40-man roster space for their cross-town rivals. The Dodgers activated outfielder A.J. Pollock today from the 60-day injured list. He’ll be joined by Corey Seager and David Freese in returning to the active roster.
Acquired last November, McCreery had yet to appear at the MLB level with the Dodgers but did hold a 40-man spot. In 35 2/3 upper-minors innings this season, he carries a 4.04 ERA with 9.8 K/9 and 5.8 BB/9. The southpaw briefly cracked the majors last year with Atlanta but has yet to receive a full opportunity — due in no small part to the fact that he has not yet conquered persistent walk problems.
The 30-year-old Thole was once a consistent presence in the majors, functioning mostly as a reserve backstop with the Mets and Blue Jays from 2009 through 2016. He hasn’t cracked the bigs since, however, and has mostly carried marginal offensive numbers at Triple-A that befit his lifetime .242/.313/.306 slash through 1,499 plate appearances at the game’s highest level.
At least they don’t have to move
That’s a haul right there.
If I were the angels I would move a few pieces because they have value and I would look for controllable young pictures or minor league pitching prospects the candidates that I would trade would be Simmons Calhoun Robles Bedrosian Hernandez Bohr if you can get anything for Cahill or Harvey if not designate them for assignment bring up some young pitching prospects
The Angels have been drafting a ton of pitchers, they are pretty stocked up on pitching prospects. I agree with controllable young pitchers both starting and bullpen. I wouldn’t blow up the team just yet, I think the season’s direction will be determined after the result of the 4 game set with the Astros next week (assuming they win the Mariners series). Emotions are high with the Skaggs tragedy, they may get momentum and closer to a wild card spot. I would just release Cahill, Bour, and Harvey though, rather take a chance with in house options.
McCreery’s a sneaky good pick up. He’s probably going to be a pen regular by the end of August
So the Angels were willing to settle for McCreery and Thole for cash considerations. Can someone wake up the Blue Jays front office? This would have been a nice time to give defensive-minded backstop Reese McGuire some MLB time by dealing Luke Maile, and Tim Mayza. Blue Jays, you have some catchers primed for a promotion at the lower levels. Maile should have been traded a year ago.
Have been banging on their doors for most of the day……..No one answering…..Jay’s FO must be really heavy sleepers :)
Comatose….
Jays mgmt is sad. We all know that now.
Atkins last interview was a good indicator of that. He said a few interesting things but clearly he is a Shapiro puppet when it comes to communicating and big decisions.
Surely the Rogers board has to be getting fed up with this nonsense.
Man…I have to think the Angels gave Toronto a call. It’s time to have Reese catch about 2 games a week unless he gets hot with the bat, then you play him. He’s never been great offensively and he projects as a defensive-minded catcher. That screams backup.
The catchers deep in the system have hit ok and deserve a promotion. That should be the main focus. There is still too much dead weight in the system and to keep teams intact because the Single-A team will make the postseason is a joke. All they are doing is delaying development.
“…the Angels were willing to settle for McCreery and Thole for cash considerations.”
Don’t you mean the Dodgers were willing to settle? Sounds to me like the Angels took advantage of a Dodgers roster crunch and the Dodgers had to settle for the best they could get..
No. Angels were willing participants and clearly felt they needed two players.
I could have sworn Thole retired and became a coach somewhere
Maybe he did and the Angels did know it yet…….Just bought a retiree!
Housekeeping?
Couple nice pickups. Definitely can’t hurt and will help right away.
Wow! With these moves I think the Angels will be sellers this mid-season. McCreery is a re-tread (drafted & signed by the Angels in 2014 then traded for Jhouliys Chacin in 2016) and Thole has not played at this level since 2016?? These guys most be “fillers” to plug the holes left by injuries. I wonder about Billy Eppler’s philosophy lately…
I could not agree with you less about these acquisitions being a sign of anything other than the Angels seeing an almost no-cost opportunity to build organizational depth.
Exactly agentx. This trade has nothing to do with anything except bringing in a couple of AAA players because you have room on the 40 man to do so. The pitcher is at least a little interesting and a veteran with backup catching experience is good to have around. Not like they gave up players, and anyone currently a free agent they could’ve signed instead is truly god awful.
Lucroy is on the IL, and the Angels have zero LH relief pitchers.
What’s going on is pretty obvious. Temporary bodies.
Since the AS break, there hasn’t been a lot of trading action going on. Mostly, interviews with GM”s/owners and the home town fans are going to get rowdy if trades don’t start happening soon.
You could call me an at large fan because I have no favorite team, just baseball in general. I can see teams waiting until late to make any moves especially teams that have players coming back from injury.
Good job on the Dodgers part with clearing a spot on the 40 man roster for Pollock.
Dodgers needed to do a little housecleaning open up a roster spot for Pollock
LH RP, What’s the worst that can happen? As for Thole, since Jake Marisnick decided to use Lucroy as a doorway, the Angels needed to do something.
been a tough couple of weeks for the Angels losing Tyler Skaggs losing Tommy Lastella now losing Lucroy injured riddled season as for free agents panning out this year the only halfway decent was Lucroy between this year and last year Billy Eppler with free agents Eppler is terrible at picking free agent though it seems like he’s done a good job with the minor league system if I were the angels I’d be looking for a new GM
Eppler needs to be bolder with FA signings, they’ve all been stopgap FA signings, not star FAs. His work on the minor league system is a noticeable improvement, also he’s made some nice trades, trading for Simmons being the best.
You left out Cozart getting season ending shoulder surgery! What a horrific loss.
5 minutes later: RA Dickey making a comeback with the Angels
Nah we already have Cahill and Harvey
didn’t realize they threw the knuckler.
They throw knucklers with very high spin rates.
Josh Thole is still in the MLB?????
If I were the angels I would move a few pieces because they have value and I would look for controllable young pictures or minor league pitching prospects the candidates that I would trade would be Simmons Calhoun Robles Bedrosian Hernandez Bohr if you can get anything for Cahill or Harvey if not designate them for assignment bring up some young pitching prospects
Deja vu.
What ever happened to Andrew Toles?
link to mlb.com
That is really old news. He has since reported to training camp.
He reported to AZ in late-ish April, but went back home due to the personal issues. He’s been on the reserve list since March.
Like we need another guy with walk problems … smh
Interesting. Idk if this was solely for 40 man roster spot, or to gain a little extra cash for a future upgrade. Tholes was never going to help LA with Smith poised to start next year if not this year barring an injury to Barnes. Minor league pitcher at 26 who still can’t find the zone…lucky we didn’t get a bag of baseballs in return. Something tells me Friedman has something bigger cooking. This is one of the first of many trades yet to follow for all mlb teams in the next two weeks. Go Blue!