4:13pm: The Diamondbacks and Angels have announced the trade.
3:47pm: The Angels and Diamondbacks have agreed to a trade that will send right-hander Matt Andriese from Arizona to Anaheim, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Minor league righty Jeremy Beasley is headed to the D-backs in the swap, per Robert Murray (Twitter link). The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan tweets that it’ll be a one-for-one swap of the two right-handers. Beasley isn’t on the 40-man roster, so the trade will drop Arizona to 39 players on its 40-man.
The 30-year-old Andriese pitched in 54 games for the D-backs in 2019, working to a 4.71 ERA with 10.1 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 1.02 HR/9 and a 50.3 percent ground-ball rate in 70 2/3 frames. Andriese’s 25.5 percent strikeout rate this past year was a career-high, and his 3.72 FIP, 3.88 xFIP and 3.82 SIERA all create some reason for optimism moving forward.
Andriese doesn’t throw especially hard, averaging 92.5 mph on his fastball this past season. But he does generate above-average spin rates on both his heater and his curveball, and opponents generally struggled to barrel the ball against him this past season (6.5 percent), which helped to limit his home run rate at a time when the rest of the league was serving up long balls at a record rate.
Although Andriese has experience as a starter with the Rays and even logged 127 1/3 innings for the Tampa Bay organization back in 2016, he’s been more heavily used as a reliever in recent seasons. However, Angels general manager Billy Eppler told reporters Tuesday that Andriese will be given a chance to win a rotation spot in Spring Training (link via MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger).
If he doesn’t succeed, he’ll give the club a relatively affordable multi-inning relief option; Andriese settled on a $1.395MM salary for the upcoming season this past Friday. With four-plus years of Major League service time, he can be controlled through the 2021 season via arbitration.
The 24-year-old Beasley had a big season split across three levels in 2018, when he topped out at Double-A, but his 2019 was more of a struggle. In a combined 122 1/3 innings, he logged a 4.49 ERA with 8.5 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 1.0 HR/9 and a 45 percent grounder rate between Double-A (108 2/3 innings) and Triple-A (13 2/3 innings). He ranked 18th among Halos farmhands over at MLB.com, where he’s described as a likely reliever who has at least opened some eyes in recent years with his perhaps unexpected success in a starting role.
Interesting. NL to AL swaps are cool.
Which is why Archer and Quintana going from the AL to the NL went so well for them…oh wait..
He just said they’re interesting, not that they inevitably work out well. Relax.
Cue the “That’ll fix the pitching problems” comments.
true ace
That’ll fix the pitching problem comments.
For real. Those are so annoying.
Id just like to comment that this move will fix the pitching problems.
All pitching problems are solved when they play against the Mariners
Or the “The Angels’ pitching staff looks decent” comments.
Commenting on the pitching problems been fixed.
What pitching problems?
Beasley looks like a solid prospect. nice get for DBacks.
Eppler continues to trade from the very thin minor league pitching side. 4 for Bundy and now Beasley.
I’m assuming Andriese is a long relief candidate.
Do not underestimate Mickey Callaway when building a bullpen out of what looks like spare parts. He won’t hit on every guy, but by mid-July Angel fans will wake up and realize that they have a very good bullpen.
I’m excited about Callaway. And I see the need for a long reliever/swingman with Ohtani on pitch limits, Heaney being injury prone, and Canning being young.
We had a pretty good pen last season before extreme overuse tanked their overall numbers.
Overuse aint going to change much with the rotation as is.
Andries FIP a full run better than his era last year..interesting… could help Angels pen perhaps
HHJJ – If the minor league pitching side is very thin, how does Eppler keep trading from it?
Good point. Perhaps I see it as thin because he keeps trading from it.
is he doing what dipdip did before leaving? but we still have top prospects!
He wasn’t much of a prospect. The Angels got a major league caliber pitcher.
I like that a lot better than many of the pitchers the Angels threw out there last year.
Salary dump for AZ and still get an arm in return. Andriese was straight trash in AZ!
Snakes likely have (w/ a $120M budget) about $8.4M available to spend on a CF or elsewhere with this move.
Dbacks got quite an interesting piece in Jeremy Beasley. Great mound presence and determination, though middling stuff for the most part with the exception of an excellent splitter—one of the nastiest I’ve seen in the minors.
Great to have pitching depth. Andriese has spent time in the rotation and the bullpen so we’ll see where he lands for us.
Hazen is a true master. Trading Andriese for some prospect, whatever his potential, is awesome.
A 30th round pick is NOT a prospect, its minor league filler.
Not all minor leaguers are prospects. Please learn this.
Hazen is a true master. Trading Andriese for some minor league filler with almost no chance of breaking into the majors, is awesome.
He was literally just ranked as the Angels #18 prospect. Draft position has no bearing on anything. You either outperform or underperform your draft expectation. Not very relevant anymore. Trevor Richards wasn’t even drafted—does that make him a nothing major leaguer? No it’s just another idiotic statement from the King of idiotic statements.
You obviously didn’t read the article or have any clue about the prospect you just spouted out crap about.
Tell that to Mike Piazza.
Please keep in mind it is the Angels trading a pitching prospect. (no matter where he is ranked in the Angel organization) This would most likely make him around the 2,170th ranked pitching prospect. in baseball
Say that to Patrick Corbin and Mike Clevinger.
Yikes. Corbin and Clevinger both blossomed outside the organization. And LAA certainly doesn’t have a very strong pitching pipeline in the minors. Even w all of that said, Beasley isn’t a nothing prospect. He’s likely a reliever prospect but one with a chance to help a ML team.
He’s terrible. This is a typical Angels move. He’ll be out for the year by mid May, if he is still in majors.
This deal just keeps getting worse all the time!
I am altering the deal — pray I don’t alter it any further.
Would you get goin’, you pirate!
0.9 WAR in 428 IP in his career…yeah this aint it
Why is the Angels FO so utterly terrible at building a pitching staff???
Most relievers aren’t going to accumulate much WAR during their careers. That goes to the closers and sometimes top setup men.
That’s certainly one way to horribly misuse the WAR statistic. Thank you, Strike Four.
Bobby, can you tell us another way to misuse WAR?
Fangraphs has him at 3.5 WAR in 428 IP. Also had a 3.88 XFIP last year, which was lower than any Angel pitcher last year. Traded for a guy that at best becomes an average reliever.
Between Eppler and Arte, I’m not too sure who’s worse for the Angels franchise. Maddon isn’t going to save this team.
Unless Trout starts pitching, they are going to finish no higher than 4th and probably will finish last if the Mariners young guns start to pan out.
Angels not only have no pitching, but outside of Adell, they have zero minor league depth too.
Yikes… they might not have added the huge piece on the mound, but they upgraded big time from Harvey and Cahill AND adding Ohtani back in the mix. Plus Rendon adding to the offense, i can’t envision a 4th place finish, let alone last.
Agree. Not to mention getting Castro and hopefully full years from Simmons/Upton and some value from Adell. And there’s still time.
Upgrading from Harvey/Cahill isn’t saying much.
The fact that Eppler even purchased those two explains his low baseball IQ!
Ohtani: limited innings, coming off TJ
Canning: young, with upside, got knocked around most of last year with a 5ERA
Heaney: Always injured with a 4+ERA
Bundy: Might be better suited in Anaheim, there could be upside 4+ERA
Teheran: Solid SP, no complaints.
Sorry, there’s not much faith in this rotation.
Eppler had four years to build a rotation and this is his end project..
You’re right though, I don’t see them finishing 4th. They’ll finish 3rd. A few games over .500
Man, I get so sick of these comments too.. Yes, the Angels have a big problem with starting pitching. But the farm is at least average now. The bullpen is pretty good, The offense is very good. And the defense is off the charts.
Go find me a winning team with “big problems” in their starting rotation.
The farm is barely average.
The other three statements might be true.
The Chattanooga Fist
Angels, 2002. No ace. What did we do that year? I can’t remember.
Only had to go back almost 20 years eh?
Lights out bullpen tho. You aint got that neither.
You mean like the A’s last year? Did you look at the A’s rotation prior to last year? or how about the A’s rotation the year before?
You guys make it sound like every rotation in baseball is awesome.
So..double negative means you like our ‘pen?
What’s the Chattanooga fist? I’m gonna start calling myself now cause that’s where I’m from
When I lived in Knoxville it was the name of a team in some amateur softball league. I played for the Knoxville LunchBox
The stupid runs strong in this trolly post. Im guessing if he is Strike Four that he has no balls.
S4 is one of the most consistently entertaining and thought provoking commenters here.
Entertaining in the same sense as a 12-car crash in a NASCAR race
Incremental improvement. Maybe Eppler is saving his powder for mid-season, since all the impact arms are gone already?
That’s would be a horrible strategy. Especially if they’re under .500 mid season. Then what?
As a Dback fan, best trade of the year. Terribly inconsistent pitcher.
Soak a da year, mon!!!
Wow that Eppler sure knows how to build a,pitching staff. He walks up to a smoldering pile of rubble and digs out the ashes from the bottom , usually overpays then talks about winning a wild card.
Scratched my head when Hazen offered Andriese arbitration. Apparently Andriese had some trade value, so he cashed him in on a lottery ticket. I’m ok with that.
However, this probably means the Dbacks and Angels are no longer off-season trade partners. Angels may have been looking at Robbie Ray, but Dbacks wanted Adell, so no deal. But during those talks Dbacks made Andriese available.
So not sure what to think about this trade. I agree we need more arms and innings but this doesn’t really move the needle or improve the rotation. 1M for a mediocre long reliever is a bit much. Hopefully we don’t need him in the rotation. But for how things have gone the last few seasons….I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts at some point. Who knows tho…can’t be mad at Billy for trying.
So not sure what to think about this trade. I agree we need more arms and innings but this doesn’t really move the needle or improve the rotation. 1M for a mediocre long reliever is a bit much. Hopefully we don’t need him in the rotation. But for how things have gone the last few seasons….I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts at some point. Who knows tho…can’t be mad at Billy for trying.
I don’t understand this move… you trade an interesting prospect for a kinda crappy bullpen arm. Idk… feel like any minor leaguer could be called up and perform at the same lvl and cost league min. Including the 18th ranked best prospect in a somewhat weak farm system …. can afford to give prospects away…
Can’t* afford to give away prospects …
Maddon must know of him from his Tampa Days. Lets see if he can get something out of him.
A franchise whose pitching has been comically inept, that also has one of the most shallow farms in baseball…
Well that franchise has now removed 7 pitching prospects to add the mediocre at best pair of Andriese and Bundy – 2 filler pitchers that have comparables available on the FA market at this time.
I just don’t get what they think they are doing. The value of all the pitchers removed to add these two, even if not much, greatly exceeds the value these two expendable to bad club stopgaps will bring to the Angels franchise, and similar production could have been had without throwing all said prospects away.
It’s embarrassing
The Angels don’t have one of the more shallow farms in baseball, that makes you ignorant.
The fact of the matter is the Angels were setup to be a force. They just finished the season with the most wins in baseball and had Shoemaker, Richards, Skaggs, Heaney and Weaver. Then Three TJ surgeries, 1 death, Shoemaker breaking down, and Weaver fallling off a cliff.
Since then they have had one starting pitcher not go on the DL. ONE!!! And he was out of baseball the following year.
This didn’t happen because the Angels were inept. If you were not comically ignorant, you would know that.
First, maybe you need to learn a definition
Inept: lacking in fitness or aptitude
The fact you go on to whine and cry about the Angel’s pitchers not being fit to pitch is hysterical, and really shows you need look in a mirror for that ignorant person you see in this conversation
Second, Andriese is a scrub – a below average for his entire career filler like endless others available on the FA market or on waiver claims. This is solely a filler pitcher, just like Bundy was earlier in the offseason …yet the Angels gave up 7 pitching prospects total to add those 2. SEVEN!
And the fact you cant even be honest about how shallow the system is shows how much of a homer you actually are. But here, fun question for you – how many minor league affiliates did they have finish at even 500? Let’s see all that depth in action
As I said, you are comically ignorant. The last two years that farm has produced Ohtani, Fletcher, Sandoval, Buttrey, Suarez and Canning,
Suarez was a top 100 prospect last year and will start the year at AAA. Adell is ranked as high as second. MLB just did a prospect rankings and Marsh is considered one of the most underrated prospects in baseball. Fangraphs has him at 74. I hope they add another pitcher so Sandoval can start the year at AAA and would be another top 100 prospect.
And you call that one of the most shallow? As I said, comically ignorant.
As far as injuries… Fine. Every team plans for not having a healthy starting pitcher for a five year pitcher. Happens all the time.
To prove how “deep” the Angels minor leagues are, you give a list of guys without rookie status remaining. Still somehow you keep calling me the ignorant one tho. I’m honestly a bit embarrassed for you
But since you’re apparently too afraid, or embarrassed, to do so, here are the minor league affiliates records:
.432 AAA (Salt Lake)
.368 AA (Mobile)
.410 A+ (Inland)
.471 A (Burlington)
.395 RK (Orem)
.339 RK (Arz)
.365 RK (DSL)
There you are, the depth that is the future of the Angels (well this was before they traded/released a bunch of the recent draft picks and some fast movers/notables)
And it’s been about a decade of Angels pitchers being constantly unhealthy. Despite that, pitching has not been their main focus in drafts, in signings, or in trades, and they keep trading away from what minor league arms they do have. So yes, the club clearly has shown it has no idea what it’s doing when it come to the mound, and removing 7 more pitching prospects for 2 easily replaceable for nothing fillers is not a sign they are correcting this decade old trend (and that stands no matter how much you bury your head in the sand, stomp your feet, and scream out insults at anyone who dares see actual reality)
And there are going to be a lot of players that no longer qualify as rookies who will be part of this farm system this year. They don’t count? Thais, Suarez, Rengifo, Barria and Walsh don’t count because they don’t qualify as rookies?
Do you really care about records of teams? Really that’s what you care about?
And you said the Angels are incompetent. Is that the Scioscia group? The Ausmus group? Or this current group? Are you saying Callaway and Maddon are incompetent?
Here is the reality, if Puk and Montas and Luzardo and Manea all three years with injuries, I bet the A’s have a hard time recovering as well. How they got traction out of that staff in 2018 and 2019 is beyond me.
They gave up nothing to get Bundy and Andriese. Getting Bundy was about innings, and Andriese was about having a durable arm that can bounce between the the bullpen and the rotation. The Angels’ farm system has vastly improved over two years ago. It’s been mostly position player heavy, which is why we’ve been spending all offseason caught up in the discussion over them getting starting pitching. But that has been the case for the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Cubs, and the Astros hasn’t it? Those organizations have rebuilt their farm systems over the last 5+ years mostly with position players, and have had to spend their money on the open market for starting pitching. So I wouldn’t sleep on the Angels’ future. Just the fact that their ownership is willing to fork out the money, with the best player in the game at the center, means that they’re more likely to turn it around than most franchises. Look at the Lakers right now. The 49ers. The Angels can charge at any time.
I agree. I’d say that the strength of pitching in the Angels system is unknown. In the 2018 and 2019 mlb drafts, they took something like 57 pitchers total. They didn’t sign all of them, of course, but they added a huge pool of potential arms. They were cautious, and didn’t have any of them pitch in the minors in the year they were drafted. That’s probably a very good idea. Add to that the fact that they have been signing a number of interesting very young prospects in international signings. I think it was Baseball America who recently did an article on those international pitchers, saying that he Angels did a pretty good job. Of course, it’s going to take some years before we see the results of those drafts and signings at the upper levels or the majors, and Trout isn’t getting any younger. Still, there’s hope for the long run.
Eppler shoulda stayed under Cashman’s wing.
There is nothing wrong with adding another pitcher for the pen. So the Angels add a major league player to the pen that will be the 7th or 8th man out of the pen. How is that a bad thing? This move is a good move.
However I’m not happy the Angels are going into the season as Sandoval as their sixth projected starter. The Angels missed out on Kluber, they missed out on Wood. Both were obtainable. They are going to have to go four for six on these starters and that’s a gamble they didn’t have to take. I would feel a lot better if they were going into the season hoping they would hit on four out of seven.
I’m really bummed the Angels didn’t sign Alex Wood.
A lot of Angel fans upset over the pitching staff. I don’t blame them but I wonder how many realize the situation looked better than it really was.
Do Angel fans wish AM would have beaten the Yankees offer to Cole? Should they have tried 10 years/360?
What about Strasburg? Do Angel fans think they should have beaten the Nationals offer? Deferred money or not that contract is crazy. Should the Angels have beaten it?
Bumgarner? His road splits and xFIP should be all the reason to stay away from him..except maybe the Angels. Their rotation is that bad.
Ryu? This might be more of a valid move AM should have been able to make but in those 4 years he is signed, he seems like a long shot to even total 600 innings. Would Angel fans have liked to see Arte top $80 million?
What about Zack Wheeler? Paying him $118 million seemed like an overpay, at least in LAST years market, though from the looks of things, the market has changed and now what an overpay is has changed as well. Should the Angels have beaten that?
Dallas Keuchel? I think this name is starting to push the boundaries of meaningful arms that move the needle. This guy has all sorts of warning signs attatched to him. For 2 years in a row now, his H/9 has been over 9. In 2019 his FIP was 4.72, and his BB/9 was the highest its been since his rookie season. His HR/9 was elevated to but that was the case for most pitchers last season. But giving up a lot of hits AND walks while being a soft toss pitcher is not a good recipe for success. Still, perhaps the reason he might be a difference maker is because he would absorb a lot of innings and like Bumgarner, he also might be better than any pitchers the Angels have..other than Ohtani.
I really am curious about what Angel fans think Arte M. should have done in each of these cases and am not being facetious. I know there were other pitchers that were available but the Angels really needed a difference maker.
Once these pitchers were gone, the market really didnt have impact arms left. From what I have seen on the trade market, I don’t think their are any TORS available for trade, really. Names like Boyed and Robbie Ray may be useful arms but do either of them strike anyone as the kind of pitcher you would want to give the ball to because you absolutely need to win that game? David Price? Come on..
If a TOR were to emerge on the trade market, I still don’t see how a trade works out because for a pitcher of that ilk, there are no untouchable prospects and the only one they have that could fetch an ace is an Adell package but we have all seen the reaction Angel fans have to the idea of trading Adell.
Look..I agree that Adell is special but that is the kind of price you pay to get a legitemate ace because aces are pretty special too.
If there are any Angel fans that can think of an ace that is attainable, I’m all ears. Please share your thoughts.
If the Angels had given to Cole, most of the Angels fans would be still crying about them over paying. Giving up Adell or Marsh, would have depleted their best trade pieces. I would not want the Angels to give up either of them for injury prone pitchers. Bour, Stroman, and Paxen are all free agents after this season. Other than Paxen, the other two might be on the trading block this summer.
They Angels could have acquired Kluber and they could have signed Alex Wood. They can’t go into the season as Sandoval as their #6 starter.
The Angels are much better off with him at AAA and then replacing one of the others that likely will get hurt.
About Sandoval, from fangraphs last week.
Sandoval has a solid four-pitch mix, highlighted by his changeup, a pair of swing-and-miss breaking balls, and three different velocity levels. I love when a young pitcher has a changeup locked and loaded right off the bat. His fastball needs some work, but he sits 93 mph from the left side which is above average and if he can improve the command, there’s some major upside here.
@macstruts the Indians asked for both Fletcher and Marsh for Kluber. Which would have been an over pay for a 34 starting pitcher, coming off a injury plagued year. Alex Wood I don’t understand why not.
I have no idea who the Indians asked for, but no way do I give up Fletcher and Marsh. The Indians just got so little for Kluber you have to feel it was doable. .
Fletcher is a ball player. 3.4 WAR last year. Altuve 3.5. Ramirez. 3.3. JD Martinez 3.3. Tommy Pham 3.3 And the WAR doesn’t measure how good this kid is. Some people are just players.
I have done a 180 on that kid in just one year. No way do I give him up.
The story was, the Indians wouldn’t move off of Marsh. Eppler said no.
The Indians moved on, and the best package they felt they had was the Rangers. Apparently, they see a lot of upside in the reliever Clase because the Indians outfield already has three DeShields.
The thing with Kluber is, nobody really knows how well he is going to pitch, post-injury, but the Rangers are going to pay $35M over the next two seasons to find out. Going into his Age 34 season and almost no pitching last season (and what little there was wasn’t encouraging: 83 pitches in 3.1 IP one start, 89 in 2.2 in another—yikes!), I don’t see him as the prize so many others do—the fact the Indians felt comfortable parting ways made me think they didn’t have high confidence in his full recovery, either.
Marsh I would have included. Not both. like Marsh, I really like him, but sometimes you have to do something.
The Angels need another starting pitcher with high upside. I’m very upset they didn’t sign Wood and start Sandoval at AAA. If Wood tanked… SO WHAT. The Angels still need another starter with upside. Who is left… Walker?
Not signing Wood ticks me off.
That’s a book you just wrote.
Kind if a meh trade. Beasley was not on the 40 man and not likely to ever make the major league squad, but Andriese has never been anything more than an average reliever in the majors. Maybe Callaway saw something in his delivery he thinks he can fix.
Koamalu you honestly crack me up. You talked up the lefty, borderline non-prospect you got back from the Giants as a solid pitching prospect. And now the #18 prospect in your system was never going to make the big league squad? I mean that’s just comical.
@jbigz12 Koamalu isn’t an Angels fan. He’s “Pads Fans” pretending to be someone else.
I see this as a simple move to raises the floor of the big club, nothing more nothing less. Andriese is a MLB caliber player, hopefully he makes it to where we no longer have to rely on the Dillon Peters, Chris Stratton, or Jose Rodriguez’s to get outs.
Beasley is kind of a non prospect. He ranked 18th on a list that hasn’t yet been updated. A 24yr old AA pitcher with less than 1K/IP and a 1.50 WHIP. Not much to get excited over
From Jeff Fletcher (Angels beat writer):
And Jeremy Beasley, the pitcher the Angels traded to the DBacks, was 18th on MLB in 2019 but is 28th in BA for 2020.
MLB Pipeline doesn’t update rankings throughout the year often. Baseball America just updated their rankings.
Looks like Beasley took a step back, other prospects who performed well overtook him and the draft added better prospects.
Every team needs MLB pitching depth. Is Matt Andriese MLB depth? Peripherals look fine, but he just can’t seem to put it together. Maybe a change of scenery will help. One thing for sure, Beasley is not depth and doesn’t have a good shot of making it to the show. From reading the DBacks fans replies, sounds like they were happy to trade Andriese anyway.
Seems like a fair trade for both sides that will probably turn to nothing.
It’s depth with more major league experience than the slew of young arms they had to put out there when their rotation fell apart again last season.
This move is simply a depth arm that can move between the bullpen and the rotation if needed. With Ohtani’s schedule, they need someone who can bounce back and forth. But I still don’t think they’re done finding another starter. They exposed enough young arms in the big leagues last season that can be part of a trade package. It’s a lot easier to evaluate big league experience in young players than prospects who have never played a game in the Majors. I just don’t think it should include Adell. Marsh was too much to ask for Kluber and Clevinger. It reminds me of when Bill Bavasi had a deal in place to acquire David Cone in 1995 from the Blue Jays, who were asking for a package centered around either Garrett Anderson or Troy Percival. 7 years later in Game 7 of the World Series, GA got the bases clearing double that gave the Angels a 4-1 lead, and Percival saved the game. What if either of them were traded for Cone?