The Astros have claimed corner outfielder Dillon Thomas off waivers from the Angels, according to announcements from both teams. Fellow outfielder Jake Meyers has been transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Los Angeles also announced that reliever Ty Buttrey has passed through waivers unclaimed and been sent outright to Triple-A Salt Lake.
Thomas remains in the AL West, where he’ll look to reach the majors with a third separate team. The 29-year-old has gotten cups of coffee with the Mariners and Angels over the past couple seasons, but he’s appeared in just five total games. His stint in Anaheim was particularly brief. Thomas was selected to the majors last Wednesday while the club dealt with a brief absence for Mike Trout. He was on the active roster for three days, suiting up once, before being designated for assignment.
Signed by the Halos to a minor league contract over the winter, Thomas earned a 40-man spot with quality work in the upper levels of the system. The left-handed hitter posted a .295/.398/.489 mark with eight home runs across 211 plate appearances in Salt Lake. Thomas walked at a strong 10.9% clip against a roughly average 23.7% strikeout rate, apparently catching the attention of the Astros front office in the process.
While Thomas will start his organizational tenure in Sugar Land, the opportunity to earn a big league call with the Astros figures to be particularly sweet. Thomas is a Houston native who’d been committed to Texas A&M before signing with the Rockies out of Westbury Christian School a decade ago. He still has a pair of minor league option years, so he can bounce between Houston and Sugar Land for the next couple seasons if he holds a 40-man roster spot.
Meyers’ transfer makes room for Thomas, but it’s strictly a procedural move. The 25-year-old has been on the injured list all season while recovering from shoulder surgery. He’s already spent more than 60 days on the IL, so he’s still eligible to return whenever he’s ready from a health perspective. That figures to be in the coming days, as he’s spent the past couple weeks on a rehab assignment with the Space Cowboys.
Buttrey, meanwhile, sticks in the Angels organization but will no longer hold a spot on the 40-man roster. Initially designated for assignment when Thomas was called up, the righty will try to work his way back to the majors as a member of the Bees. Buttrey sat out the 2021 season after stepping away from the game, and he’s shown some signs of rust upon returning. Through 12 1/3 innings, he’s allowed nine runs while striking out just five.
Perry shipped Thomas into the good night of DFA land and Adell to AAA which left Tyler “should be DFA’d” Wade in Center field on Sunday night.
His roster construction leaves a lot to be desired.
He has set the Angels up to be loaded with young pitching talent for the next 6 seasons. He wont be throwing tens of millions at aging injury prone pitchers. The Angels have been crippled by injuries, bad contracts and injuries to a guy with a bad contract. The fact that the Angels are still in the WC race is good news.
True and I applaud all those things, But that doesn’t erase his roster management this year.
It started when he cut Upton despite expanded rosters. We had Trout/Marsh/Adell and no fourth outfielder as Ward opened on the IL. Within a week Jose Rojas was getting starts on the grass.
Since then he’s been consistently short on legit outfielders and long on redundant utility infielder types. And really, neither Wade or Mayfield is an improvement over Rengifo who was already on the team, But we carry all three pretty much all the time.
So we have games like last weekend where Adell was in AAA, Thomas at home, and Wade was in CF. That’s just poor roster management and it hamstrings the manager.
You can’t be surprised you don’t score when you have automatic outs Wade and Velasquez following the obviously declining Suzuki and Juan Legares. Meahwhile, Wallach greatly outplayed the shell of Suzuki on both sides of the ball and Adell and Thomas are off the roster.
He cut upton so ward could have a ft job. A brilliant judgment in retrospect.
Being that Perry was a scout, it raises the question, how he’s evaluating the current players. The Angels lucked out when the offense was cooking while injuries were occurring. Now guys have regressed and they’re playing quality opponents, it’s a different story. Overall the offense strikes out too much and struggles with plate discipline and balls in play. Therefore you don’t move the runners or work counts.
The plan was actually for Ward to be the 4th outfielder and Adell and Marsh to start
It is the timing that that was faulty.
Upton didn’t need to be cut when he was. Spring Training was still going and rosters were still expanded. Upton was cut while the team was still in Tempe.
That meant OF depth was Adell, Marsh, Trout, Ward, then nobody as the team wrapped up camp.
Ward then got hurt and opened the year on the IL. That meant the OF depth was Marsh, Trout, Adell and nobody. This in a year win which we didn’t know what to expect from Adell, who struggled considerably early.
I’m not saying Upton is a lifesaver, but a manager with 4 outfielders is a lot better off than one with 3 outfielders and a full collection of Tyler Wade, Matt Duffy, Jack Mayfield, and Jose Rojas.
Within a week Rojas is starting in the OF.
And OF depth has been an issue since then. Finally Adell starts playing decently and Dillon Thomas is brought up. They are both jettisoned before Ward is activated so for a few games we have Marsh, Ward, Legares, and nobody as the outfielders. Meanwhile 5 utility guys.
So what we got was Wade in center field while real OF’ers we could have used are in AAA or now getting claimed by the Astros.
Choosing 20 pitchers in the draft doesn’t mean all 20 will contribute anything at the ML level. Draft picks are a total crap shoot and even after all that they still have the 28th ranked farm system in Baseball. The Angels also rarely throw “ten’s of millions” at pitchers.
They would but they have been rejected in their overtures in recent seasons.
If you look at the results the pitchers are getting, it is pretty promising outside of Bachman. And the only notable money Perry spent this off season was on pitching: Thor, Iglesias, Lornezen, Loup, Tepera, Bradley.
So far the results for the bullpen guys haven’t been there, but the signings all looked good at the time.
He just loves utility guys too much.
So how may more losses until someone else gets fired?
I thought he died drunk in St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Astros intend to start him in each and every night game
BECAUSE
He will not go gentle into that good night……
He will not go gentle into that good night.
“Rage, rage against the dying of light.”
Every time I hear this poem, Back to School pops into my mind. RIP Rodney Dangerfield (and Dylan Thomas for that matter).
“I’m Kurt Vonnegut. I’m looking for Thornton Mellon.”
Because nothing rhymes with waivers?
Pavers
Now he’ll improve his trash can drumming skills!
The Astros must need a new guy to bang trash cans together.
The Astros are trying to see if anyone can hear them. They’re all alone in the standings.
If the Astros picked this guy up then there could be something there. They the best talent evaluators in the league
Yeah the Astros keep winning and all you got is trash cans