The Angels announced they have selected right-hander César Valdez and placed left-hander José Suarez on the 15-day injured list with a left shoulder strain. To open a spot for Valdez on the 40-man roster, lefty José Quijada was transferred to the 60-day IL. Sam Blum of The Athletic had previously reported that Valdez was on the lineup card and that Suarez was bound for the IL.
Valdez, 38, has had one of the more unique careers in baseball. A soft tosser who’s never averaged more than 89 mph on his fastball, he made his major league debut with the Diamondbacks in 2010 but posted an ERA of 7.65 in nine appearances. He then didn’t make it back to the big leagues for many years, spending time in the minors with the Pirates, Marlins, Blue Jays and Astros in addition to playing in the Mexican League and the Chinese Professional Baseball League.
He returned to the majors in 2017 with the A’s and Jays, tossing 30 2/3 innings with increased use of his changeup. He had thrown it 28.2% of the time in his debut season but ramped that up to 48.2% in 2017, though he finished the year with a 7.63 ERA. He then missed a couple more MLB seasons, pitching in the Mexican League in 2018 and 2019. He returned to the majors in 2020 with the Orioles and cranked his changeup usage all the way to 83.2%, resulting in an ERA of just 1.26 over 14 1/3 innings that year.
Improbably, he became the O’s closer to start the 2021 season, racking up eight saves by the middle of May with a 1.23 ERA. Unfortunately, things took a turn from there as he posted an 8.04 ERA the rest of the way, losing his roster spot as the season was winding down. He signed a minor league deal with the Angels last year and was selected to the roster for a one-game showing in May before getting designated for assignment promptly after. He returned to the Halos on another minor league deal this winter but has a 7.27 ERA through 26 innings for Triple-A Salt Lake.
Yesterday, Suarez departed his start due to shoulder discomfort after pitching just 2 2/3 innings. Chase Silseth came on in relief and ultimately chewed up 3 1/3, tossing 72 pitches in the process. He likely won’t be available for a few days so Valdez has likely been brought up to be on-call if the Halos have some more mop-up innings on the menu.
As for Suarez, it’s still unclear how much time the club is expecting him to miss with this shoulder injury. He’s having a terrible year so far with a 9.62 ERA through six starts, an unfortunate development after he seemed to break out last year. In 109 innings for the Angels in 2022, he registered a 3.96 ERA and seemed to establish himself as a viable starter going forward. He hasn’t carried that into 2023 but it’s difficult to tell right now if the shoulder injury is the culprit. His 92.6 mph average fastball velocity is just a hair down from last year’s 92.7 mph. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently explored how the poor start to the season from Suarez was putting the club in an awkward spot since the lefty is out of options, though he’ll now head to the injured list for a while.
The Angels have often had a six-man rotation in recent years as a way of reducing the strain on Shohei Ohtani and the heavy workload that comes from him also hitting on the days when he doesn’t pitch. That has been the case this year, with Ohtani and Suarez joined by Reid Detmers, Patrick Sandoval, Tyler Anderson and Griffin Canning. If they want to continue with the six-man operation going forward, they’ll need someone to replace Suarez. Silseth could potentially move from the bullpen to the rotation, as could Tucker Davidson, as both worked as starters last year. Non-roster options include Jake Kalish, Kenny Rosenberg and Jake Lee.
As for Quijada, it was reported last week that he would require Tommy John surgery, ruling him out for the remainder of the season and part of next year as well. That made this transfer to the 60-day IL an inevitable formality.
Anything but Saurez. Mercy Snakes Alive!!! What’s your 20 Bandit ?
This… (points index finger for emphatic emphasis), THIS is the transaction you’ve been waiting for!
I normally don’t appreciate these hyperbolic comments, but in this case, I think you are spot on…
WHAT???!!!???
I’ll pass your concerns onto Perry Whashisname…
):^)
We all appreciate your hyperbull-ic comments, Halo.
Keep ’em coming.
It took you for hours to think of that? I’m going to take away my
Ike.
Wouldn’t you consider that plunking me? If so… what does that make you?
Get help.
And if you’d like, I’ll tell you where to stick your ‘thumbs up…’
You one ‘ostile dude, bronx… Halo was agreeing with you, and you come at him that. Shame
He took away his Ike.
Are you his squeeze, squeeze?
We have never met, sir. But I see your vibe.
Well, if someone took away their Ike, what would you do?
That’s beyond my paygrade, bruh. I guess I’d get a lawyer? I dunno, but I’m just bored enough to answer. Can I ask why you be hatin on the Angels so much? Just bored too?
Read my comments below.
Celebratin’ ALL over the place.
And ‘hatin’ is an overused, over-abused, misused word I don’t use.
Boss, it took me about four seconds.
But it’s taken me 2 hours, and I still don’t know what you’re talking about.
What’s an Ike? What’s ‘plunking?’ What are you talking about?
Mmkay. If I had one word to describe you, it’d be “genuine”. Well dang, gotta cure my boredom elsewhere
I’ll take that as a compliment.
Try bot to be bored, boss.
You would do that. What was I sayin? Oh yeah, dude was right. You take forevah to respond because you need your little reddit bros to give you up-votes so you can feel nice an good bout yourself. Boredom comes an goes. I had a good night.
I take ‘forever to respond’ because I’m not bored, staring at a computer screen. I have a life. You and Halo should go down to 7-Eleven and get one.
I didn’t take away my like.
I don’t care about ‘likes’, Halo.
I kid around a lot, but I’m a baseball fan. As I’ve said across the threads, I listen to (among others) Angels radio, Mark Langston and Terry Smith. Used to live in SoCal. If I lived there now, I’d go to Angels Stadium just to watch Trout and Shohei.
Woof. Dude has a 7+ ERA in the minors. This is the best the Angels could do?
Seizure Valdez?
OH MY GOD!!!!!????
Silseth in the pen makes sense, he is better than Waren… Obviously.
Devenski vs Quijada, depends which Quijada and Devenski we are going to see.
Suarez vs Valdez vs your average Trade Rumor Poster… Too close to call.
Well, we won’t be seeing Quijada for a while, so that makes that contest kind of irrelevant.
Kellin. You sure? I might pick Quijada second.
But my point was when Quijada was healthy. Replacing a healthy Devenski with the injured Quijada was not a big deal to me. I don’t think the Angels lost a lot.
But what the “F” is Valdez doing in the major leagues? Have these people lost their minds?
Oh, healthy? Yeah, I think I’d rather go with Devenski. And I totally agree, there *has* to be a better option in the minors, somewhere.
After looking at the rest of the pitching staff in Salt Lake, there aren’t -any- good options. I haven’t looked at the Pandas’ roster.
“Suarez…. having a terrible year so far with a 9.62 ERA…”
“Valdez, 38…..7.27 ERA through 26 innings for Triple-A Salt Lake.”
He’s an improvement.
MLB > Triple-A
Whatever his Triple-A stats are, they will only be worse in the big leagues.
Heh heh heh…
Can’t wait.
HEH HEH HEH! BOOM!
Ah… but how MUCH worse, orange?
That is the question!
Orange you wondering?
Rosenberg deserves a real look
The dead fish returns!
I think he should start tonight.
And the Angels should contemplate a seven man rotation.
Hard to believe a guy who debuted all the way back in 2010 only has only appeared in parts of 5 (soon to be 6) seasons in the majors
ITZA HOMAH!
Sandoval’s getting cuffed around.
Get Valdez loose.
Wow, the Angels are out of ideas. It’s like they have no clue what to do so they are doing whatever anyone throws at the wall in the meetings.
But they’re WINNING!
Fist bump!
They have yet to win a series against a team with an above 500.
As I have said a number of times, and for a number of months, this team will go as far as the pen will take them.
You can only play (and beat) the teams on your schedule. Look at the AL Standings from the Wild Card perspective. The Angels are near the top.
As far as beating sub .500 teams, well, good! That’s taking care of business. Far better than succumbing to ‘trap games’.
True, but they have yet to win a series against the Yankees, Red Sox, Brewers, Toronto or Rangers. Am I forgetting anyone?
If not, they are 0 for 5. And much of that had to do with the pen,
They will get a chance against Baltimore next week.
And taking care of business is good. But if you want to playI October, you need more.
It’s OVAH! Angels WIN!
High five!
Fist bump!
There are 33 SP listed on
https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/2023/starting-pitcher/available/
May be time to sign someone.
Valdez has a 4.84 ERA in 61.1 IP as a reliever. Not inspiring, but I’m willing to give him a chance before freaking out. He’ll probably be on mop up duty anyway