The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent right-hander Jesse Chavez, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter links). He’ll join their Major League camp once the deal is official and once he goes through intake protocols.
It’s the second Angels stint for Chavez, who struggled as a member of the Halos back in 2017 (138 innings, 5.35 ERA). He went on to rebound with the Rangers and Cubs the following season, parlaying that strong showing into a two-year pact to return to Texas.
The 37-year-old Chavez is a well-traveled and experienced arm who has pitched both as a starting pitcher, a long reliever and a late-inning/high-leverage reliever. After bouncing between the Pirates, Royals, Braves and Blue Jays early in his career, Chavez found himself with the 2013 A’s and has been a steady presence on MLB rosters since that time.
Dating back to that 2013 season, the righty has piled up 755 2/3 frames of 4.18 ERA ball with a matching 4.18 FIP and a 3.87 SIERA. Along the way, he’s started 77 games and made 248 relief appearances while posting a solid 21.4 percent strikeout rate and a strong 7.1 percent walk rate. The 2020 season was a rough one, as Chavez yielded 13 runs in 17 innings of work, but his overall track record is that of a versatile arm who’ll help deepen the Angels’ rotation and bullpen mixes.
THANK GOD!!!
As for the Angels…
Why Angels?? I guess he can serve as a mop up guy.
I am Waiting for the haters
Ok. Long relief will likely be greatly needed this year. Chavez is a nice guy who grew up not far away.
But……hard to see a ton of value in this signing. Not a lot of risk, either.
I disagree, Long relief should not be greatly needed. The Angels already have Barria and Pena. And Suarez and Sandoval, Slegers in the minors ready to be called up What the Angels don’t have are pitchers that can be expected to hold the lead I close games.
You hold a vastly lower impression of Iglesias than everyone else. Most view him as the best closer we’ve had in years. We’ll see.
The bridge getting from 5 inning pitchers like Heaney, Canning, and Cobb to Iglesias will be well trodden this year. We’ve seen the middle relievers simply ground down year after year.
Barria and Pena will be the first wave, but there will definitely be a second or third wave needed.
Iglesias is another Kenley Jansen. If Iglesias was so good why would the Reds just give him away. The Dodgers go out the get players like Betts and Bauer why the Angels go the cheap way and put together a pathetic pitching staff with bondo and gorilla glue to hold it together. Keep thinking the Angels are any good HaloFan.
What. When did I insult Iglesias? If you carry 8 RPs, two long RPs are plenty. But they have to be good RPs, Which we only have one… Iglesias.
2020 numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt as last season was basically extended spring training. Guerra and Buttrey are decent bridges to Iglesias. I don’t know why the expectations of so many Angels fans are that they should sign every starter and reliever available. The Angels rarely spend on starters and almost never spend on relievers. This has been common practice since Arte bought the team
Rsox someone that knows a thing about how the Angels operate!!!!! How refreshing on this site. HaloFan and his buddies are convinced the Angels will win 100 games and make the WS with a garbage pitching staff.
Hyperbole much Dodger Jr.? Why do you people feel the need toco e on a thread about a team you don’t root for and flat out lie. You must have issues.
Dodger Jr is a huge troll no doubt but I think hes sorta right here-
The Dodgers and Angels are in different stratospheres
Your “over 100 games” kinda invited this attention tho wouldnt ya say Halo?
first off, Dodgers Jr is an idiot, I’m sure you’ve noticed. Don’t forget Mayers, he should be our 8th inning guy. We’ve tried to sign pitchers, but they went elsewhere.
The tables in SoCal have definitely turned. The Angels were crushing it early in the 2000’s. A WS ring, lots of AL West titles, packed houses. Meanwhile the Dodgers were going through tough times highlighted by the eventual bankruptcy.
Dodger Jr. probably wasn’t around for all of that. If he was, he wasn’t popping off like he is now that they’re on top. LA is a huuuuge front runner market.
But over the last 5-6 years the franchise trajectories couldn’t be more different. The Dodgers brought in a top notch front office and gave them unending resources. Meanwhile Arte has blown cash on aging, ineffective sluggers and cut the front office to the bone.
Oh, You’re not talking about my claim of 100 games. Wrong Halo. I’m hoping the Angels can win 88 games. But to do that, the pen needs to over achieve.
With the exception of cheaters, I don’t go on threads of other teams and rip their players or fans. What’s the point?
The Angles are building a heck of a roster for 2014.
2010
Talking about building did you see where dodger Stadium its built on Chavez Ravine pulled away From Hispanic families ripped off Their land way below market value From all those poor Hispanic families homes stolen so they could build dodger Stadium how quickly you forget once you got a couple of nickels in your pocket to rub together
Well if they punctuate like you, they deserved it.
& it’s getting upvotes,@Nebraska –
It is so absolutely perfect I took a screenshot of it. It’s inspirational. In it’s own special way.
Nailed it
Its a minor league signing, but … huh?
I was about to say the same thing… huh. Slegers is the first man called up if there is an injury. I guess Chavez would be the second.
Don’t forget Guerra or Sandoval (I like him out of the bullpen for some reason).
The plan is for Guerra to make the team. Barria will take up the first open spot in the rotation. Sandoval has better stuff than every pitcher the Angels added not named Iglesias.
I think that’s the plan with Guerra, too. Just a question of whose 40 man roster spot he takes. Of course, any reliever going on the IL to open the year solves that problem, at least temporarily.
Halo it seems the plan is to throw a buncha sh@t at the wall and see what sticks
Like what Capt? Any specifics or are you just being a jerk. My guess it’s the later.
Its Feb 26 th Halo….If it were Dec 26th my take would be different
I never try to be a jerk, I call it like I see it, the Angels Bp is a mess and I doubt theres a plan at all
Yes I have a plan, Ive shared it with you many times. Stop overusing the pen, define some roles along the way, dont kill Buttery
Its too late to talk about free agents but I was all about Colome, Petit , and Trevor May for them before free agency started ..
I think they will get greater length from the starters this year which should help , Id like to see Buttery healthy with first crack at the 8th …
Capt, I misread your post. I thought you implied I was throwing mud on the wall. You’ve been reasonable. I was surprised you were attacking me.
As you wrote, The Angels are throwing mud against the wall and hoping some sticks. They are going to blow a lot of games before figuring out the mud that sticks.
Bridging from the 5th inning to the 9th all season is going to be a tall, tall order for this club as currently composed – especially if they intend to go with a 6-man rotation. That would necessitate some seriously creative bullpen management. Thankfully, Maddon is known to be a creative manager, among very few who I think could be up to it.
Personally, I think as long as you have your starters doing bp days in between starts, why not make them available for an occasional inning or two on that day? I believe this team can win a lot of games – even enough to make a good playoff run, with reasonable health and some good game management. But their margin for error will be much smaller than some of the better built teams out there.
Still, I was really hoping more for an Odorizzi announcement rather than a used up Chavez…
nice guy with cool tattoos but if I remember right he walked a lot of batters.
Can’t wait for everyone in these comments to overthink a minor league deal. And if anyone is confused, google the phrase “pitching depth” and you can try to figure it out from there.
SoCal product, cool guy. Not sure how much is left in the tank. We shall see.
Chavez is like a soldier. Two tours of duty in Toronto, two in Texas, and now a second tour in Anaheim
waiting for Halo11’s take…
I gave my take. Chavez is no one and he’s not taking up a spot which should have gone to a much better pitcher.
He looked like a villain from Sonic the hedgehog with that hair last year.
Auditioning for Pitching coach? lol
ChavezPog
This guy throws baseballs
Welp…he is a pitcher.
Another one year, depth signing with an eye toward 2022 when money comes off the books and the young SP (Canning, Detmers, Rodriquez, Sandoval, etc) have another year under their belts. Alas, this won’t move the needle in 2021.
those need to wait foryhrir turns while arte signs a ss for $30 mil per season.
I bet Trout feels much better about this season now!
Can you tell me why the dodger fans boo Mike Trout when he comes up to the plate at dodger Stadium are dodger fans jealous or are they a bunch of low class Bums?
Just asking
Anybody got any answers one of the nicest guys in baseball does so much for kids the face of Major league-baseball why does Mike Trout get booed at dodger Stadium
Trout , himself, would probably be more disturbed if he didn’t get those BOOs at Chavez . It’s called Greatness Geno, ill stop here as the waters getting a little too deep for ya now
Can’t answer for LA fans at the stadium as I haven’t lived there for 25 years. I would never boo Trout. He is an all-time great.
I wish more dodger fans were civil like you towards the Angels I would never go to another board and rip apart someone’s team
I understand that we’ve become a rivalry but we don’t have to be bitter towards each other
But can he pitch…sorry, just continuing the trend of typical responses to Angel signings. Seems to apply here
Are we signing him as the new pitching coach?
kinda interesting that chavez, kazmir and milone all signed in the last few days – it is like a revival of the 2014 A’s rotation
Well, at least for this deal, Angels fans don’t have to ask if the player can pitch besides playing their normal field position. The question for Jesse is….can he still Pitch.
Jesse was involved in 2 Pirates deals. The first was one of Dave Littlefield’s late deals before he was canned and was a good trade, sending a washed up Kip Wells for him. Then he was one of Neal Huntington’s early deals and an it was a stinker, shipping Jesse to Tampa for Aki Iwamura. Hated that deal when it happened.
Nice. Old GM would have paid him big $$$ like he did to Harvey, Allen, Cahill, Tehran.
A poor man’s Oliver Perez….
A rich man’s Oliver Perez…
Oliver Perez part deux
we should compare all players to Oliver Perez. Mike Trout is a rich-man’s-Oliver-Perez-but-he’s-a-hitter.
Mike Trout would prolly pitch like a poor man’s Oliver Perez provided that he would throw left handed to be more like Oliver. Now that would be interesting 🙂
Oliver Perez is Oliver Perez
I thought it was just some of her Perez
Angels trying to counter the Dodgers signing of Bauer
Again? Lol
The Angels are the kings of dumpster diving for pitchers……….but, seriously, diving into the SAME DUMPSTER??!!!
They need to upgrade to dumpsters in a better part of town. Quit checking the dumpsters behind Salvation Army and Goodwill. Nothing of value there!!
Relax! He’s try out for the league, and a safety net in case the Angels have a injured ravaged pitching squad breaking camp.
Most people on here, the Angels have the worst pitching staff in the majors. The Rockies, Red Sox, Rangers, Tigers, Diamond Backs, all say hi. Name me one starter the A’s have that is so much better than what the Angels have? The Astros have Grienke and a bunch of question marks on their starting staff. Do they have anyone left in their bullpen? Seattle, well they are Seattle. You take Gonzalez off of Seattle starting rotation, they would be worse than the Angels. Every AL West team has huge holes that leaves question marks. Do I believe the Angels are the best team in the AL West? No. But it’s not as big of a gap as people want to make it to be. The A’s and Astros lost key players this off-season. Tell me one key player the Angels lost?
The Angels don’t have a bad pitching staff.
I fear they don’t have a top of the line starter, but who in this division does?
The Angels have a lot of starters capable of being solid. And I say that without including Cobb or Quintana. They have a chance to be mediocre, they have almost no chance of being solid.
Hallo11Fan like I’ve said before, Cobb should be the long reliever over Barria. Barria struggles with his location early in the game, which is not good for a reliever. Cobb is built more as a typical long reliever. Same as Pena. I would feel better if the Angels would have deepened the bullpen over getting what they got this off-season.
Was awful for the Jays, but I know he rocks badass cars haha
wow, he does. and a tank, too!
They need to sign Odorizzi
They don’t have room for Odorizzi. If you would have said the Angels needed to sign Odorizzi before they acquired Quintana or Cobb, I would have agreed with you.
They still need to sign him. Way better than those scrubs.
We all must remember several relievers have been overused then they go through a period of trash statistically. At times Jesse was a stud for the Rangers then was awesome for the Cubs. Once they started stretching him out asking for more innings he lost velo and control. If not over used he will throw some quality innings. Really good signing if he is healthy and fresh. We can’t just read his annual stats and “know” if he will be good or bad. Relievers are very different than starters.
angels had a chance to sign jeremy jeffress for cheap. he would have been the second best in the pen pitching in 8th.
Once the Angels signed Claudio, the Angels had very little wiggle room to add pitchers to their pen. Once they signed Guerra, that wiggle room was gone. Then, I was surprise how few people noticed. Now, I’m really shocked how many fans still don’t see it.
Nothing wrong with picking up veteran arms on minor league deals. You never know when guys might break through. Zero risk for the team
Good pickup for the Halos. Stockpile arms…
And just when I thought the Angels were going to let me down this off-season they go and do nothing!
Great job!
Finally the bullpen move to put them over the top! Good job Arte!! Great team you have there!!
These are the pathetic moves that don’t get you anywhere but knocked out of any sort of playoff series
Same GM but different name. What the F.
I’m tired of this S
No Moore!