The Angels announced they’ve designated reliever Junior Guerra for assignment. The move opens a spot on the 40-man roster for the recently-signed Noah Syndergaard.
Guerra had been eligible for arbitration. Had the Angels tendered him a contract, he’d have been in line for a salary in the $1.3MM range, in the estimation of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. Coming off a disappointing 2021 campaign, Guerra looked like a non-tender candidate. Today’s designation will indeed function as something of an early non-tender, as he’ll be eligible for minor league free agency if he passes through waivers unclaimed.
From 2016-19, Guerra had a generally solid run as a swingman with the Brewers. He’s scuffled over the past couple seasons since leaving Milwaukee, though. While Guerra posted a solid 3.04 ERA over 23 2/3 frames with the D-Backs in 2020, his peripherals were less impressive. Arizona released him after the season, and the Angels signed the veteran to a minor league deal in January.
Guerra cracked the season-opening roster and spent the entire year in Anaheim, but he didn’t fare particularly well. The 36-year-old pitched to a career-worst 6.06 ERA over 65 1/3 innings of long relief. That came with a subpar 19.9% strikeout percentage and a far too high 15% walk rate, Guerra’s third consecutive season issuing free passes to more than 10% of opposing hitters.
@brewcrewball ?
I’m guessing this means he passed his physical?
Yes. Angels announced the signing on Twitter a couple hours ago
Thank god…dude was a dumpster fire every time he pitched. Makes me like the Thor signing even more.
back to brewers!
He was so bad. Was a decent gamble on a minors deal but like so many others came here and sucked.
This was a horrible gamble from the beginning. The Angels used a roster spot for a pitcher that was unlikely to be better than what they had.
They should have used that roster spot for a better pitcher with a better chance
That should be clear to everyone by now. It’s why you don’t sign pitchers like this.
Perry totally botched the 6th through 8th innings. That’s all on him
Dude, let it go– move on. Perry was very limited last year in budget and flexibility. Guerra was not his first choice. You sound like he was excited about Guerra? Perry had to backfill an entire bullpen and signed three pitchers the day before opening day because he couldn’t find enough arms. He did the best he could with what he had to work with. Now he has money and more flexibility. You like Syndergard and that’s just the beginning. He’s going to grab two more big arms, and he’s going to stack the bullpen– they’re spending money and trading. I think their payroll goes to $220MM knowing $28MM comes off in 2023 with Upton’s deal. Perry has no emotional attachment to most of the minor leaguers we have, so he will move anyone he doesn’t think fits into their plans to better the team now to fill our needs.
Don’t tell me to let it go. You people slammed me last year and now you tell me to let it go.
Why don’t you guys learn something before you tell me to let it
go.
You didn’t see it last year and now you are going from good move to defending Perry for the bad move. Priceless.
I think he’s trying to say It is what it is. No use in complaining about it now. What happened happened and it’s done now. It didn’t work out, oh well. Can’t really do much about it now. Just move onto the next off-season and hope it’s better.
Mlb1225
It’s only done if Perry has learned. The Angels went into Spring training with only 1 RP who was likely to be good. Maybe a couple…maybe… who were 50-50. The rest were more likely to be bad.
It was a horrible gamble and I was pummeled for pointing it out.
There was no excuse, there is no excuse for doing it again.
It’s only over if the powers that be have learned something. I hope they have. I hope they realize it was a terrible gamble and I hope they have realized there was no excuse.
let it go
How about someone who wasn’t obnoxiously rude to me last year telling me to let it go?
How about someone who understands why these were such horrible moves telling me to let it go.
People like you have disqualified yourselves.
don’t let it go. but hope perry learned a lesson not to appease the manager any longer. what was worse last season was maddon was inept at managing pitchers.
Maddon didn’t have any pitchers to manage. I can’t blame him.
As it stands now, the Angels have 1 lock to make their pen. When you have so many openings, the Angels can add another pitcher like Guerra.
When much of the bullpen is set. And you don’t have the necessary talent or openings, which was the Angels last year, you can’t.
Do you think Buttrey would have retired if he made the opening day roster? I didn’t have confidence in him, but when you guarantee spots to the likes of Guerra and Claudio and Buttrey has options, you use them.
There was no excuse for last year and it’s amazing how many people still don’t get it.
Both of you nerds let it go..
I’m a proud nerd.
Hey proud nerd I agree with you the bullpen was botched last year but we were expecting Buttrey to be there and saw Mayers have a rough first half. Those two guys were our main stakes for the 7th and 8th. If Chris Rodriguez didn’t get hurt he would’ve been a nice 6th inning guy slash swing man but we had to rely on Guerra who was supposed to be an experienced vet in this role but got lit up. This is baseball. No crystal balls. Move on let it go
@halo. Okay Mr. hindsight2020!
Horrible gamble?!
Did Perry pitch in 2021? Nope
if Guerra had pitched as effectively as he did in 2019/20 he would’ve been a solid RP last year.
The signing of a guy that in 2019/20 had a mid-3s ERA, ERA+ of 129/145 is hardly a risk.
LET IT GO.
If you don’t realize going into that season with that pen was a horrible gamble, then you haven’t learned a thing.
You were wrong then when you pummeled me and you are wrong now. A wise person learns.
He was so good Arizona released him. That’s only a good gamble if you have spots and three or four guys who you can count on.
I said it, it happened and you still don’t get it.
@halo I love how you start the post about the player (Guerra) being a horrible gamble, but then pivot to the bullpen in total when it suits you.
Was the bullpen bad, yes. no question some moves sucked and didn’t pan out. A few did pan out which you rarely mention, a few were added/called up later in the season as well. not everything happens in Nov-Mar. and it’s never set in stone all season…for ANY team.
HOWEVER, back to Perry signing Guerra…based on Guerra’s 2019/20 numbers and what the Angels were rebuilding (the pen), Guerra didn’t have glaring red flags for a 6th/7th inning RP. Certainly not 6 ERA red flags!
So AZ released him, so what, teams do that all the time for various reasons. i doubt it was entirely due to his 2020 stats…salary maybe? (he was bought out for $100k, vs paying $2.5m+ in a pandemic/financial nightmare season)
Don’t get me wrong, i’m not defending Guerra’s work in 2021, he was BAD, but based on 2019/20 numbers it was hardly some obvious “horrible gamble” at the time.
You still don’t get it. The state of the bullpen is why it was a bad gamble.
I have no idea why this is difficult to understand.
I’ll tell you what, I’ll let it go when you guys buy a vowel.
it is not difficult to understand. they know what they did. they just want to hide the fact that they were soooo wrong!
To be fair 11 called our bullpen horrible before camp opened.
Mostly due to Claudio.
Mostly due to only one pitcher who was likely to be good and in such situations the Angels needed to guarantee roster spots to pitchers who were likely to be good.
I can’t let it go because I fear it’s going to happen again.
There is Nothing wrong with adding high upside or serviceable relievers to the back of your pen IF you have guys you can count on.
At most Guerra and Claudio were serviceable. I don’t think they were, but at most they were serviceable. The Angels were taking up spots that needed to be used for better bets.
I don’t understand why this is still so hard to understand. It’s not rocket science.
@JJ. The bullpen was horrible in 2019 AND 2020 AND 2021.
I feel it’s more to do with the teams pitching coaching staff more than the players.
Something is off when you have multiple players come in with decent numbers the season or two before and completely flop with the Angels. Players that had ERA+ 120-150 pre-angels and ERA+ 60-80 with the Angels.
its not just Guerra or Claudio…
Guy has been in pro ball since ‘01
He’s played in Italy and Spain
Still pro ball maybe not US but pro
Actually makes sense why the decline. He will be 37 next year! Didn’t come into his own in the mlb till he was 31.
Every time he pitched I got irritated. Later.
Good riddance
Can Bard and half of the Bullpen be next?
They should have signed Senior Guerra instead.
I only remember him having 2 solid outtings (one against the dodgers iirc). I’m sure there were more but really not very memorable. Cya
Surprised this dude and Jacob Barnes/Holby Miner held onto their jobs last year