The Angels are promoting Victor Mederos to the majors, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (on Twitter). The right-hander is not on the 40-man roster, so the Halos will have to officially select his contract and make corresponding active and 40-man roster transactions.
It’s another bold promotion for the Angels. The Halos haven’t been afraid to aggressively call on prospects they feel are ready for an MLB look. They made Chase Silseth the first player from the 2021 draft to reach the big leagues last May. Infielder Zach Neto earned the 2022 honors when the Angels called him up this April; reliever Ben Joyce followed a month thereafter. Mederos joins his now-teammates as the only players from last year’s draft to yet get to the bigs.
Mederos was a sixth-round pick out of Oklahoma State. He’d been a high-profile high school pitcher who began his college days at Miami. He never found consistent success at the amateur level, dropping him into the middle rounds on draft day. Baseball America nevertheless ranked him 29th among Anaheim prospects over the offseason, praising his mid-90s fastball and potential plus slider.
The 22-year-old has spent this season at Double-A Rocket City. He’s made 12 starts, allowing a 5.98 ERA across 55 2/3 innings. While he has allowed over two homers per nine innings and is walking 10% of opponents, he’s striking hitters out at a strong 28.3% clip. The front office evidently feels his arsenal will play against MLB hitters in spite of the middling minor league numbers.
Mederos has started all 18 of his professional appearances. Prospect evaluators have pointed to a likely bullpen future because of spotty command. It seems likely he’ll break in at the MLB level as a multi-inning reliever. The Angels’ bullpen ranks eighth in the majors with a 3.69 ERA.
Doesn’t the team have someone better to promote?
That 6 ERA in 2 minor league seasons isn’t doing it for you? And no, their minor league system is a train wreck. This organization hasn’t lifted a finger on minor league development in over a decade. And yes, there were a few better options but they were traded away for Moustakis and the other scrub utility guy they got from the Mets.The organization, as run, is the laughing stock of MLB.
“There were a few better options but they were traded away”
Crow is hurt, Van Scoyoc is in high-A, and Marceaux’s fastball tops out at 92 and he doesn’t miss bats with any of his pitches. At the very least, Mederos has stuff that will play well out of the bullpen. And keep in mind, Sam Bachman had similar numbers and worse peripherals than Mederos, yet he’s running a 1.88 ERA/3.28 FIP in the bigs
I’m not saying this isn’t a weird promotion, but your argument was crap and it’s clear you’re just complaining just to complain about the team’s last two series and not this particular roster move
What qualifies you as an MLB talent expert? Escobar and Moustakas are proven long term MLB players! They said the same BS about Webb and he has been solid. I trust my front office to make the right moves to get us to the playoffs this year! Most of the promotions so far have held their own so far! Another starter and reliever and we are in good shape to contend all the way to October! Offense is in the top 4 and pitching is more than a respectable 12th.
Point made! I won’t even discuss! I’ll just agree!
My eyes qualify me.
What matters when it comes to bullpen pitchers is not allowing inherited runners to score. the Angels bullpen overall is terrible on this.
You attend a lot of games in Madison, Alabama?
So far most of Minassian’s early call ups are working out well, so going to trust the guy that gets paid for his eyes and not the keyboard warrior who has probably not seen a single game Mederos has started and it’s almost certain had not heard of him before seeing this post. .
Sure are alot of keyboard warriors here who have seen years of Minasians failures and who can simply read box scores of this kid and the organizations results over the last several years. And all of us warriors see alot of failure… But thanks for playing. The Angels appreciate your bootlicking optimism.
This is his third season as GM and he inherited a mess! Give the guy a break! He is doing deals with nothing to use as trade bait! His selections are already in the majors! Neto, Joyce, Backman, Detmers! U R a disgruntled fan who always looks for negatives! If U don’t want to support your players and management go root for some other team!
Im going to agree with leftfield on this one.
The team is winning in his 3rd season at the helm. Last season they were winning before injuries hit, but they didn’t have quality depth to cover those losses. This season they started the year with more depth because he got players to fill those holes and more players to back them up. He even told the owner NOT to sign a big dollar shortstop so they could afford to have quality depth around the field and keep quality depth in the minors. When injuries were even worse he went out and got more quality backups.
He is batting better than .500 on these kids he has brought up quickly so he is not failing there either.
As GMs go, he is one of the better ones.
If you haven’t seen this kid in particular actually playing, then you have no idea what he can do. The Angels most effective middle reliever the last month had a similar ERA as a starter for the Trash Pandas earlier this season, so just looking at that for Mederos means absolutely nothing.
Minasian took over a mess. A team that had come in 4th in the West 3 straight seasons. He inherited a farm system that lacked both star prospects and depth and ranked dead last in baseball. Adell was the ONLY top 100 prospect. The team had not been to the playoffs since 2014 and had a payroll that included the bloated contracts of Pujols, Upton, and Rendon.
In 3 years he has put the team on a path to playoff contention possibly as soon as this season (88 in pace this year) and started refilling an empty cupboard down on the farm. The Angels are not a powerhouse on the farm or the majors, but they have come a long way from the team that he was left with after the 2020 season.
His real test will be this offseason when he has Renfroe, Urshela, Loup, Tepera, recent acquisitions Escobar and Moustakas, and possibly Ohtani coming off the books. He will be facing an offseason with $118 million in guaranteed money on the books, $45-$50 million due to arb eligible players,.and holes to fill in RF, DH, Backup corner IF, and most importantly at the top of the rotation. He will have about $70 million to spend if the team is going to stay under the CBT threshold as Arte has consistently made his GM’s do.
As to Mederos, you are admitting you have never seen a player on the field either on video or in person and you think you can make a determination of how he will perform in the majors better than a GM that has seen 3 out of the 6 players he has called up within 2 years of being drafted play at a league average or better clip. Minasian’s track record is good. Your eye test of the stats has failed.
I have plenty of disdain for Arte, who has forced his GM’s in the past into taking on monster contracts for star but fading players. Minasian on the other hand has done a good job.
That you don’t realize that tells me you are either not paying attention, are just a troll, or you are not an Angels fan at all despite your nom de plume.
As an aside, I would like to see Minasian given carte blanche to go over the first level of CBT threshold next season so he can resign Ohtani and fill those holes left by departing players with quality, above average major league player. I think with O’Hoppe coming back at full strength, Neto having a good portion of a season under his belt, and 7 guys that are currently on the 60 man IL returning, that the Angels could have a playoff caliber team from the get go in 2024.
Left field. The Angels are the team you are a season ticket holder for, right? You seem to have a better grasp than most about what is going on with that team.
Sorry, how awesome is Mederos, again?
Actually their minor league pitchers are pretty good but the stats at double A are misleading. The southern league is testing the pre-tacked balls, so the pitchers stats aren’t reflecting their true abilities. Also the Angels are bringing up prospects from double A who have been starting, but they are being used in the bullpen up here. Sam Bachmann didn’t have the AA stats, but that’s because he’d get shelled after 3 innings. All the AA pitchers are using MLB balls between starts to practice as well.
I’m surprised for how great Ohtani is he doesn’t pitch out of the bullpen too
A few months back he came out for the 9th with a one run lead. Walked Jeff McNeil, induced a double play from Mookie Betts and struck out Mike Trout swinging. Biggest relief appearance of the year,
Who did this? 5.98 ERA in AA???
The pace of MLB debuts is dizzying the last couple years.
Mederos’ minor league numbers aren’t very encouraging. Not sure why the need for this move unless someone is heading to the DL (e.g., Barria, Wantz, et al.). And even then, someone like Silseth, Herget or Reyes, who are already on the 40-man roster, would have made more sense…
Move makes absolutely no sense. Angels doing the young man a disservice bringing him up now. He’s not ready by any stretch of the imagination.
Uh, why are they throwing a 22 year old kid with a ~6.00 ERA at AA to the wolves like this? I’m pretty sure you can always snag a random fringey AAAA guy off waivers for cash considerations if your need for a warm body to soak up some innings is THAT desperate. This seems extremely short-sighted unless I am missing some key detail here…
Not a lot of support here…I say, good luck and go get em kid! Show everyone what you can do!
why ? he’s getting rocked in the minor leagues
AA has a different ball than the rest of baseball this year. Its a pre-tacked ball that is giving pitchers fits. The Trash Pandas have a team 5.15 ERA this season after a 4.41 ERA last season. Overall AA has a 0.86 higher ERA in 2023 than 2022.
Not AA overall. Just the Southern League.
He was brought up to be used in a game like tonight’s where the starter is getting shelled early. He can be an innings eater. All of a sudden Shohei is the only reliable starter.
Can Ohtani start every game on the mound as well ? You don’t know unless you push him a little bit; could be holding back.
Canning only had one bad inning… really one bad pitch (the grand slam). He was actually pretty good, except for that rocky inning.