The Angels have signed former Nationals righty Wander Suero to a minor league deal, per Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle. The REP1 Baseball client will provide the Halos with an experienced option to carry in Triple-A.
Suero, 30, is a veteran of four big league seasons, all with the Nats. He at times looked like a potential key piece in Washington but has yet to find the consistency needed to solidify himself at the big league level. Suero has twice posted sub-4.00 ERAs (2018, 2020), and he’s generally racked up strikeouts and limited walks at better-than-average levels.
Home runs, however, became a glaring issue for Suero in 2021, when he served up a whopping 11 round-trippers in just 42 2/3 innings (2.38 HR/9). That only exacerbated a longstanding issue in stranding baserunners, which he did at just a 59.7% clip in 2021. Suero ultimately yielded a 6.33 ERA last year, and the Nationals opted to non-tender him at the end of November rather than pay him a raise in arbitration.
Even with last year’s rough showing, however, Suero has a career 4.61 ERA with even better marks in FIP (3.80) and SIERA (3.78). He’s whiffed 25.4% of the opponents he’s faced in the big leagues against a solid 8.4% walk rate. He’s not a flamethrower, averaging just over 92 mph on his go-to cutter, but Suero possesses strong spin rates on both his fastball and curveball. And, prior to the 2021 season, he consistently limited hard contact at rates well better than the league average.
Suero has three years and 110 days of big league service time, so if he does make it to the big leagues with the Angels this season, he can be controlled for multiple years via arbitration.
The Braves are going to miss him!
I guess he’ll just wander around the league from now on.
On a side note, the Nationals have been one of the more atrocious teams of the ‘20s. They should become the Richmond Roosters.
I mean they did win a championship two years ago but you go princess
*Three years ago
Facts are facts. They have been awful in the ‘20s.
We aren’t even 2 and a half years into the 20’s. Obviously you aren’t wrong but what that amounts to is two seasons. Not that alarming.
The following changes should be made immediately…
Houston Astros become San Antonio Scorpions
Miami Marlins become Tallahassee Turtles
New York Mets become Rochester Rabbits
Oakland Athletics become Sacramento Squirrels
Philadelphia Phillies become Scranton Sheep
Tampa Bay Rays become Sarasota Sea Horses
Washington Nationals become Richmond Roosters
LOL! Give me one for the Braves please. =))
If you want to go international instead…
Miami Marlins become Zimbabwe Zebras
New York Mets become London Werewolves
Philadelphia Phillies become Halifax Demon Ducks
Washington Nationals become Peru Howler Monkeys
Oh man. You did the ENTIRE NL East except the Braves. Harsh dude. =(
Last year he would have been a late inning reliever.
Now the Angels could sure use a shortstop.
I think Fletcher can hold down SS long enough to assess if the Angels are WC contenders. If so, they will acquire a SS before the deadline. I had been hopeful that the D-backs would make Ahmed available, but it’s beginning to look like another lost year for him due to his on-going shoulder woes.
According to stat cast, Fletcher can not go to his left. He doesn’t have the arm to go to his right, which forces him to play in, which is where he excels.
Do you have many barrels Fletcher had last year? Zero.
His value is his defense and he doesn’t have the tools to play good defense at short.
Last year Perry’s unforced error was the bullpen, this year it’s middle infield.
This will cost the Angels, I just hope this will not cost the Angels as much as the bullpen fiasco of last year.
And as I write this, Mayfield boots a DP ground ball. That doesn’t happen if Fletcher is at 2b and we have a SS.
It’s Spring Training. As I am posting the Angels have a 10 to 3 lead in the top of the 6th inning. Whom do you want to play SS if you were the GM?
I would have tried to acquire a shortstop this offseason instead of two utility players.
By not addressing the issue you have to wonder if they realize there is an issue.
It doesn’t mean you are going to bring in the right guy, but at least you have to try.
If the Angels are in contention at the trade deadline, I believe they will attempt to acquire a SS. I suspect they would have done the same last year with the BP if they reasonably believed they had a shot at a WC. The roster will evolve and be upgraded throughout the season provided the Angels are in contention for a playoff spot.
Regarding Fletcher, he was a Gold Glove candidate last year. And his OAA of 9 placed him in the 95th percentile. That’s not too shabby for a guy that can’t go to his left. It may be more fair to say that Fletcher, while good at going to his left, is better going to his right.
He can’t go to his left. At least you didn’t say he could.
I’m a little worried they don’t seem to know our middle infield is a problem.
This is not going to be the issue the bullpen was last season. This will cost the Angels an out or three every week. The bullpen cost the Angels an out or three every game.
I’m concerned about this, but not close to how much I was concerned about the BP last year.
@Halo But that wasn’t the question? If you take the less than $2M total that you are using for Duffy and Wade and had to get an upgrade to Fletcher at short, who would you get?
The Angels are always around the same payroll amount. Arte has complained that the Angels are always over budget. He is one of 4 owners to vote against raising the cap. You have to assume there are limitations when it comes to spending. There were a lot of available SS this off season, but I think the Angels did the right thing and focus spending on pitching for a change. A more proven SS would be nice, but the FA SS were high dollar talent.
I have accepted that David Fletcher will be the opening day SS. There are not a lot of available options right now. I believe Fletcher can be at least league average. I know statcast said he can go to his right, but neither can Trevor Story and the Red Sox just gave him over $20M a year. We will need to see how it plays out because he will be our SS for at least the near future.. If it is a disaster then there may be better available options in the future.
I can’t call 29 other GMs.
I would not have brought in two utility players and moved our best second baseman to shortstop. Who would?
I’ll make is simple on you. I would much rather have Simmons or Iglesias and kept Fletcher at 2nd.
Fangraphs projects the Angels to have the 26th best second base productivity in baseball and the and the 23rd worst at shortstop.
There is a problem there.,
angels have $28 mil under new threshold. they should have gotten a starting ss instead of getting 2 duds.
Last year I was upset. The signings were mammoth blunders.
Not adding a shortstop was an unforced error, but this team is in a much better position to win than last year. There is still time to correct this mistake. This mistake is not going to kill the Angels. It will hurt them, it won’t kill them.
You don’t make sense. Your “answers” to shortstop are projected to be worse than Fletcher at SS, . Cubs are #24 and the Rockies are #28. No one cares about projections because never accurate, particularly when it comes to the relief pitchers.
I am sure the Angels would like Simmons at SS, but Simmons quit on the team and burnt that bridge, so that really isn’t an option.
@winonesooner You don’t follow the team. The Angels never base their budget based on the luxury tax threshold. This year they are little more, but they are always around $180-$185M.
current estimated 40 men payroll which includes arbitration/settlement is at $201.6 mil. last season, it was $198.9 ml.
It doesn’t make sense.
Now we are bad at shortstop AND second base.
THINK!!!!!
according to cot’s baseball contracts.
Telling people to think when you say things like adding a negative WAR guy like Iglesias is a good idea. You want to add -18 OAA, $15M/yr guys like Gregorius. You insist Heaney is a great pitcher when everyone else sees otherwise. The world is not as you see it. The Angels will be better than you think and Fletcher will be the SS until he proves he can’t be,
The Angels are also bad at LF and RF according to projections, but that doesn’t mean they have to be. I am optimistic that Adell continues to improve this year. He cut down his SO nearly in half and improved his defense greatly. When you see that much improvement in a year in one player. I think there is a reason to be optimistic. LF I am a bit more skeptic on.
All I am saying I would rather have a unknown commodity like Fletcher than a proven bad commodity like Iglesias or Gregorius.
If Fletcher is one of the worst second baseman in the baseball, then it makes total sense. Is that what you are saying?
Fletcher might be the worst shortstop in baseball. I’ll take Simons and Iglesias WAR this year over Flecther. I don’t either will be nearly as bad as they were last year.
But now the Angels are talking an adequate second basemen, in totality, nothing special, and moving him out of position to shortstop.
We get weaker at second base and shortstop. On what planet does that make sense?
Only in bizarro land.
The ONLY thing I like about Gregorius is Fletcher doesn’t have to play out of position.
Did you see today’s game? Did our second basemen blow two or three plays?
lol, i don’t follow the team? tell that to my wife!
I don’t necessarily believe the Angels will be weaker with Fletcher at SS., Iglesias was -1.1 WAR for the Angels and Fletcher was 1.8 WAR last year.. Total combined WAR of 0.7 WAR from your MI positions.. How does that rank in production from 2B/SS positions. I assure you it is not very high. Can it be higher with Fletcher at SS? I believe so.
Fletcher isn’t playing out of position. Fletcher has played SS throughout college and in the minors, The only reason he relegated to 2nd is because Simmons, the best defensive SS this generation was playing SS. Fletcher has played SS in the majors. In nearly 300 attempts, he is -1 OAA, which is far from the worst SS in baseball. If you remove his -2 OAA in 13 attempts from his rookie year, he would be in the positive.
Halo, are you seriously suggesting Fletcher may be the worst SS in MLB? In limited opportunities over four years, Fletcher’s SS OAA is -1. Last year Didi’s OAA was -18. And it was -8 going to his left. Didi isn’t just the worst SS, he was the worst defender in MLB last year.
We get it, you don’t like Fletcher at SS. Let’s get 60 games under our belts and reassess. If the Angels are healthy and in contention at that point, they can look to upgrade. In the meantime, lets stay on task and focus our comments to the subject matter covered in the MLBTR article. Poor Suero gets barely a mention in all these comments.
Didi is not going to be the shortstop for the Phillies. And I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Fletcher has the lowest WAR of any opening day SS who doesn’t get hurt. Of course, no one can predict that, but it’s going to be very low.
BUT WHAT IS JUST AS BAD, OUR SECOND BASE SPOT SUCKS. WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP MISSING THAT???
Fletcher that last 8 weeks of the year. 163/209/191.
His value is his defense, and he’s going to be a mediocre at best defensive shortstop.
This is just a repeat of the bullpen talk last year. You were all wrong, I was right. How you people miss the obvious is beyond me.
If the Angels are healthy and in contention in advance of the trade deadline, Perry will shore up an area or two in need of upgrades. Middle infield may, or may not, be one of those areas.
The Angels roster will evolve. Look to the Braves last year and how they upgraded their OF. The Angels can do the same, if needed. Give Perry a couple of months to assess his roster.
No one thought Claudio was going to be good. Everyone knows a good bullpen piece that had a good year prior cost $7-9M a year. You can get a reliever coming off a mediocre season like Bradly for about $3M. No one was excited about Claudio. You get a guy like that because he is cheap. Not because you are looking to build a strong bullpen.
I know it has been explained many times. The Angels needed several positions, 2 starters, a closer, 2 RPs, SS, RF and a catcher. Perry had about $20M to work with. You are not going to get quality guys to fill all those positions with only $20M to work with. Even if you allocate all 20M for 3 good RP and forego all the other glaring weaknesses, you still won’t make the team better. It didn’t help that Fowler went down on the first week of the season and the inherited rotation was a disaster. If I was wrong about anything last year it was Bundy. I thought he could repeat some of his success in 2020, but that didn’t happen.
I don;t know how much money Fletcher owes you, but he has been a pretty solid WAR guy up until the 2nd half of last season. He had a 3.7 WAR in 2019, a 2.0 WAR in 2020 in 50 games in the COVID shortened season. If you extrapolate that out over 150 games, you get a 6 WAR 2nd baseman, which you rarely see. The 2nd half of last year was the worst slump he has went through. He went through an 0 for 32 slump. He was over 300 BA in the first half. This preseason, he appears to be back to the old Fletch. He gets hits, doesn’t hit the ball hard, he swings at balls over his head, doesn’t strike out, plays great defense. A unique skill set to say the least. The Angels are lucky to have him.
Exactly.
This guy is 100% on the Opening Day roster the last several years. Now he’s in the minors. Perry has added a nice collection to the bullpen.
The Angels look like they’re in a bit of a conundrum. Looking at what’s left on the FA market it seems like you are at least as well off with going with Fletcher and pray to God he can strengthen his ability to go to his left. Trade options don’t look great either
Chris Taylor give me a second of hope but then I saw the butcher’s glove he uses.
Miguel Rojas just might be the best realistic trade option though I think I’m straining the word realistic a little. The Marlins are quite fond of Rojas so acquiring him might be more expensive than it ought to.
Maybe the Angels can approach Freddy Galvis new team..in Japan though really I am entirely clueless as to whether that could be worked out.
I thought maybe the Angels could approach Pittsburg about Kevin Newman and you guys can hope Newman finds his bat from 2019 but if that doesn’t happen you might as well stick with Fletcher.
I wonder how many Angel fans would have liked the FO to make Correa happen. Given the contract he signed it seems like something the Angels might have beaten to see if Minnesota would have chosen to increase their offer. I don’t know if any of you guys are “never Correa” types.
The Angels FO obviously didn’t get it done but right now, it seems like Fletcher is the best option out of a list of bad options.
Who knows if everything goes right and the Angels can be blessed by the health gods, Ohtani and Syndergaard can be the best one, two punch since the Frank Tanana and Nolan Ryan, back to the days of “Tanana and Ryan and two days of crying”
Halo, I’m just glad the Angels didn’t acquire IKF from Texas. Your head would have exploded. His OAA was -14 coming in last year.
The roster will evolve if the Angels are in contention. Perry doesn’t have to address every perceived weakness before opening day.
Welcome to the play offs, this is the missing piece It’s a wander they didn’t sign him sooner We all need that 6.33 era behind us.
This is a big if, but if Trout, Rendon & Ohtani can stay healthy enough to play at least 130 games each, the Angels should have a good chance at a wild card berth this year. They will need production out of their other OF’s too but this is one of the better Angels teams they they’ve had in a while. The AL West should be a 3 team race between the Angels, Mariners and Astros. The Angels pitching needs to stay healthy as well of course.
On point, Dorothy. I’m not sure where this treating Rendon as just a “guy” comes from; healthy, he’s among the top 20 in the game, on both sides of the ball.
Red Sox fans know that a strong middle of the order hides a multitude of sins. The Sox have one; so do the Angels. And I don’t think you can match the AL West against the East.
I agree. After a injury plagued campaign last year, the biggest question will be health. Angels have looked great offensively and pitching in preseason. I know it is only preseason, but they are showing a lot of promise.
The 1-5 of Ohtani, Trout, Rendon, Walsh, Adell/Upton is capable of hitting 150 HR between them. The team is loaded with speed as well. The top 4 of the rotation, Ohtani, Syndergaard, Sandoval, and Suarez has the makings of the best rotation that the Angels have had in years. The bullpen is also the best the Angels have seen in years. It looks good on paper, but we just need to avoid the injury bug to our key players.
It feels like this is the same sentiment the Angels have every year now. The Angels just arent gonna contend until they start loading up that rotation with Ace worthy arms.
All sarcasm around the comments these days. Maybe the dreadful offseason?
Suero is a good pick up for the Angels at this point in the offseason, if they can develop him. Especially for a team desperate decent pitching.
This is harmless depth for us…
Depth isn’t necessarily harmless. It’s very dangerous on the ocean floor.
Yes, you got me on a technicality. I should have been more clear in my comment. What I meant, and should have said, was a major league baseball team, in this case the Angels, that acquires a pitcher on a minor league contract who has major league experience to varying degrees of success, in this case Suero, is generally a good, low risk acquisition, thus, it causes no harm to the baseball club’s finances or roster.
Thank you for shining a light on my irresponsible posting.:)
Wrong Wander
It feels odd to type this but I like the Angels pitching. We definitely need some starting depth, but the bullpen looks nice and Sandoval and Suarez are young and entering their primes. I don’t think repeating last year plus another 30 innings each is too unreasonable.
I look at the guys not making this bullpen and most would have made the MLB roster the last few years. And some will be needed. Better to see guys like Suero and Wantz as depth than waiver claims.
I feel you guys are still a couple Ace worthy lock downs away from being true contenders.
Besides Shohei and Thor? Hope you are enjoying Happy Hour.
Coming from an A’s fan, its really about time for the Angels to be playoff contenders again. Its a shame to see Trout and Ohtani’s potential getting wasted with mediocre team after mediocre team. Arte needs to pull his head out his behind and put all that focus towards position players to reliable Ace’s.
yeah, trade manea for cheap, then!
Nah
Kinda suspicious when the grip enhancers were banned – all of a sudden he’s not able to strand runners and is serving up gopher balls. Article mentions high spin rates. Probably not in the second half of last season.
mlb should supply their version of sticky stuff.
I think Fletcher will be fine at SS if that’s where he ends up. We have a ton of infield flexibility so there are several combinations to try out to see what works best.
Fletchers value is in his defense.
Because he has no arm, he’s a bad cutoff man and can’t in the hole and throw people out.
Also, he has not shown the ability to go to his left. Not at second, not at short.
There is no evidence to support that conclusion.
Halo – Is your analysis from watching Fletcher or are you getting it from something you read on the internet? I’m beginning to think it’s the latter.
All of us who have actually watched Fletcher see a scrappy player who loves the game and is versatile in the infield. And if he needs to work on something to be a great SS, he will work on it.
Your latest mantra about Fletcher not able to go to his left is something you read, not something you watched and analyzed for yourself.
Every season you find something negative to fixate on. Last year it was Claudio and Guerra, Now it’s Fletcher at SS. Just chill and enjoy the game. The team got better this offseason.
God Bless
one dud we got from the yankees was supposed to be a defense only ss. play him there and return fletcher to 2b! problem solved. i can guess the reason why they are trying to play fletch at ss. they gave him a nice extension but his offense was not great. so some of the dummies up there ‘we might get more value from him at ss!’ play him at his natural 2b and use the aforementioned dud at ss!!