The Angels have designated left-hander Tucker Davidson for assignment, per Sam Blum of The Athletic, between games of today’s double-header. His roster spot will go Reynaldo López, who has joined the team after being acquired alongside Lucas Giolito last night.
Davidson, 27, was a prospect of note when with Atlanta, with Baseball America considering him one of their top 30 prospects in five straight years starting in 2018. He got some brief stints with their big league club before coming over to the Angels in last year’s Raisel Iglesias trade. He made eight starts for the Halos after that deal last year but posted an ERA of 6.87 in those.
The southpaw was a candidate for the club’s rotation coming into this year but was nudged out by Griffin Canning. That pushed the out-of-options Davidson into the bullpen, where he’s thrown 31 2/3 innings over 18 appearances with a 6.54 ERA. It’s possible he has deserved better, as he’s struck out 20.9% of opponents, walked just 7.4% and kept the ball on the ground at a 47.1% clip. His 3.38 FIP and 3.95 SIERA are much nicer, with his .412 batting average on balls in play and 59% strand rate likely pushing some more runs across the board.
Deserved or not, the results haven’t been great and the Angels can’t option him to the minors, leading to Davidson’s designation for assignment. They will now have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers. His results at the big league level haven’t been great but he’s not too far removed from being a notable starting pitching prospect and is still young and controllable through 2027. That could lead to some interest, perhaps from a rebuilding club with the ability to give him some rope to try to get back on track.
Looking back to the Iglesias trade, it now seems even more likely to go down as a mere salary dump for the Halos, who moved the three-plus years remaining on his deal. They got back Davidson and Jesse Chavez, with the Angels releasing the latter after less than a month.
That was never a good trade. They should have gotten a minor league arm.
Don’t remind me of that deal. It was a pure contract dump that left the Angels without a bonafide closer (something they needed).
Jesse Chavez and Tucker Davidson were both awful. Davidson did show better numbers earlier in the season in a mop-up role. But once he was used in high leverage situations, he’d fall apart.
Over the past two or three seasons, Chavez has pretty much proven he’s now only good in a Braves uniform…lol
I still cannot believe, before he was injured, he honestly could have even been an All-Star this year with how good he’s done..
They didn’t need a bonafide closer last year at that point as Angels were already out of it. Now we have Esty and Moore for less than Inglesias’ contract combined.
Iglesias was having a bad year so that’s what you get. A good year brings a better return. Of course, if Iglesias was having a good year, then we wouldn’t have seen those meltdowns, and the Angels are in a better position. But then that likely means no Logan O’ Hope and no Mickey Moniak.
His peripherals were fine. His stuff was fine. I don’t object to the trade, what I objected to was locking up a spot on the 26 man roster for a nothing pitcher.
Looks like Davidson has been screwed by Angels porous defense
Yeah, with Davidson being a pitcher that relies on getting ground balls using his heavy sinker, he needs a good defense around him in order to maximize his effectiveness…
I would say I’d want the Braves to bring him back, but, honestly, their infield defense isn’t nearly what it once was previously.
By losing Dansby, the Braves lost one of the best fielding SS in baseball. Dansby not only has some of the best instincts in baseball, but he also has excellent range going to his left and going to his right.
I never realized how rare of a trait that was for a SS. I mean, it isn’t a knock against Arcia, he has pretty good range going towards 2B, but the difference between him and Dansby has been very noticeable, especially when it comes to ground balls being hit in the hole.
Although, like I said, you could put most ML shortstops in Arcia’s spot, and I think there would be a noticeable difference. Arcia is seemingly holding his own, and has probably played average to slightly below average defense for the Braves this season.
Still though, honestly, I never realized just how good Dansby was defensively, and I never truly appreciated his abilities while he was here.
Dansby’s reaction time, his first step, and his baseball IQ helps him tremendously at SS. Idk, it’s just crazy how those little things can make such a difference between getting an out, or giving up a hit.
Over the course of a game, how those plays turn out can be a huge difference for a pitcher, and that goes especially for a pitcher that relies on forcing ground outs like a Tucker Davidson..
I know there are at least almost two or three balls hit each game where I’d expect to see Dansby flash into the screen making the play, only to end up seeing a diving Arcia come up short as the ball skips into the outfield..Depending on the situation, that can be a huge difference!!
This Angels team is spinning on its tail, going for a hail mary in a desperate attempt to wine and dine their incumbent superstar. They fail to realize they should have been doing this the entire time they have had him, and not just in his final year.
They lucked into landing him, and their incompetence is what will make him leave.
Have you ever had an original thought or do you always just repeat whatever talking points ESPN spews out
Sit this one if your username includes the name of a player on the team you’re rooting for.
Hes right. You have no clue what youre talking about. Everyone was so loud about the mariners or dodgers landing him and then he chose the Angels. The ONLY smoke that he is leaving is that from the press. He has said nothing to indicate anything.
Sit this one out if you have no idea what you’re talking about
What? I thought we were talking about the Angels, not the Salt Lake City Bees
The Dodgers were never really in it because at that time the was no DH in the National League.
Fletcher might be coming back, he just buried his father, and got called up, and wasn’t hitting maybe he was thinking about other things.
Three games back of a wild card. People are nuts.
If they sweep the jays, they will most likely be in. Also won 11 out of the last 13. Ward has the most RBI’s since the all star break, and ohtani had a complete game one hitter and two home runs in the same game. Yet people say they need to dismantle the team, and sell.
Meant day because of the double header
Don’t get it twisted, he’ll stay for the money if it’s right. The Angels tried but missed on so many free agents. Anthony Rendon signing obviously scared their owner away from other big ticket acquisitions. This season isn’t over for them – you can’t go for it every year. Their farm system has been depleted for a decade, but there is serious window for them to make a Phillies-like run this year.
Ohtani already makes insane money. $30 million in salary and more than that in endorsements. It’s not going to be just about money for him.
Don’t get me wrong, he is going to make an insane amount of MLB salary regardless of where he signs, but that money will not be the sole determining factor in where he signs.
Minasian has shown Ohtani that even while being limited by Arte in multiple fronts, he can put a winning team on the field
If you’ve watched an Angels home game you would’ve noticed that all the digital signs at field level are almost always advertising something in Japanese. Now, I have no idea how much they make off of those but I do know when he pitches half the country watches. The guy is going to be worth twice whatever he signs for and I highly doubt he leaves Anaheim.
Every game is televised in Japan, I’m sure they get something from that. He could get 600 million and shoot the bed in five years , and still be worth the contract
I think Ohtani will stay and Moreno will outbid everybody. Nobody is privy to Moreno’s Financials, but the revenue from the Japanese market has to be beyond insanity. Ohtani is a cash cow for Moreno. Ohtani’s inevitable new free agent contact cost will be depfrayed by the ad revenue he gets from Japanese advertising. His fan base is worldwide. Japanese field level advertising is targeted to 126 million Japanese and 14 million in Tokyo and we aren’t talking about his international and United States audience and the Southern California market. If you count licensing, merchandising and the free promotion he gets from MLB, you will easily see the Angels will do whatever it takes to keep baseball’s unicorn at his current baseball address in Anaheim.
Troutahni – I agree, but I think winning is more important to Ohtani than the paycheck. He will make a record amount from any team who makes an offer. But I think he will go to the team that has a chance of post season play. If the Angels are one of them this year, he may stay. I hope that’s the case because I think he really wants to.
Saw something on flipping bats, in a interview that Ben verlander was reading from a source, and ohtani was saying he’s relieved that the angels were adding players to improve the team, and that he’s off the trade market, and his job is to welcome the new players, and to make the playoffs. He also went straight beast mode today. So it’s looking good
When teams are close, they go for it.
Definitions from Oxford Languages;
Here are some signs that you may be jealous of someone:
You don’t celebrate their success. …
You act passive-aggressively toward them. …
You become overly critical of them.
Except that they always traded for players, signed free agents and done just about anything to keep putting competitive teams around Trout and Ohtani. It’s just that their moves haven’t worked out for the most part.
So saying that “they should have been doing this the entire time they have had him, and not just in his final year” is a pretty bad take.
They have only recently had a staff that was not off the scrap heap and capable of giving the Angels a foundation. It’s hard to build a staff out of sand, but Eppler did a good job adding good young pieces, But Perry has done nothing in three years to add to this staff.
And no one seems capable of doing anything to address the bullpen issues which have been a problem for close to a decade.
Perry has been an epic fail, I’m not sure why so many Angel fans think he’s doing a good job.
“…I’m not sure why so many Angel fans think he’s doing a good job.”
Because it’s Moreno, not Minasian.
What’s nevin problem? Is it him or perry
Nevin tries to get too cute. He’s blown several games on bullpen choices. His game strategy is also lacking.
I’m not an Angels fan, but I live in Southern Cali. I think Perry has been okay. Sure some of his trades haven’t worked, but he got O’Hoppe, Moniak, and drafted Neto. So I wouldn’t call it an epic failure.
I’d say he’s been mediocre. He’s done nothing to help the rotation. The bullpen still stinks. And the minor leagues don’t have any prospects.
He hasn’t been all bad. I would hope the Angels could do better.
The other angels gms were just as bad eppler got ohtani(signing), and Sandoval in a trade, not sure if any actually hit on the draft, besides perry with Neto.
Eppler built a pretty good foundational staff. And he signed Ohtani.
But if your point is that it’s hard to win with mediocre GMs, I agree
Except for being handed a foundation of a pitching staff, I don’t think Perry is much worse than the GMs you’ve talked about.
He drafted nothing but pitchers a couple years ago, it might have been dipoto, and eppler that got cheap reclamation projects, and drafted catchers that were converted to other positions or outfielders.
Not saying perry is bad, he’s probably doing better than the rest reagins, dipoto, eppler didnt address pitching, but it went down when they fired bane, he went to the Red Sox, and they won a World Series. Arte needs to hire good scouts
The Angels a horrible job scouting. We all agree on that.
If we got a GM that could build a bullpen, I’d be satisfied. I’ve talked to death about Perry’s bullpen mistakes. I don’t think a competent GM makes those moves.
No matter the who the GM is or was, the Angels have always seemed averse to adding preminm pitching via free agency. Moreno is the common denominator.
Big Sexy, CJ Wilson….um…blanking on more
Moreno is not the one that suggested he sign Claudio.
Moreno has written a lot of bullpen checks, you can’t blame Moreno for this bullpen
Colon. Dan Haren. Traded Segura for Greinke.
The Angels lost six or seven good starters in about a year and a half to what turned out to be carrier ending injuries.
I don’t blame any GM on what became of this staff, but it looks like Eppler built a pretty good foundation and he should get the credit.
Agree I don’t think Arte is cheap, but he has been burnt from the big deals. let’s start Hamilton, upton, Rendon. I’ll leave out pujols ( because he probably made money from the tv deal he signed afterwards).
I guess eppler got us o hoppe
Cj Wilson wasn’t that bad, pretty sure he was making the same as Tyler Anderson, and had a couple good years.
Traded Skaggs to get him back, Vinny pestrano for cleavinger (prime). Patrick Corbin they made some mistakes that was reagins I believe Adenhart passed away, and it spiraled quick, those were Eddie bane’s guys reagins fired him he also drafted trout, and grichuk
I know for a fact that Dipoto told Moreno not to sign Hamilton, warned Moreno about what would happen, and was flabbergasted when it happened.
Blaming Moreno is appropriate, but not for this pen.
A GM can make all the difference in the world by building a lights out pen. It doesn’t take a check book, but it takes baseball brains.
That’s why I talk about it so much. I saw why the Angels have won and why they have lost. And it’s amazing how often good pens follow good teams. Had we had a lights out pen in 79, 82 and 86…for example, 2002 would not have been our only championship.
I’m a broken record, but this song needs to be heard.
OHoppe isn’t playing.
We’ll see how that turns out, but to date, that trade isn’t helping, and Eppler drafted Marsh.
Also, Eppler didn’t sign Fletcher or Stassi to extensions.
I’m talking exclusively free agency Halo
Thanks for Raisel Iglesias! (Even though he hasn’t shown the same level of production as last year.)
I mean, ATL took on a sizable contract (read: risk) in Iglesias.
Of course they did, but so far it’s worked out decently well for the Bravos, if I’m remembering correctly this was the last or one of the last moves of last year’s trade deadline so im guessing not many teams were willing to acquire a 3 and a half year long contract for a guy who was essentially league average at the time. The Angels and other MLB teams had no way of knowing he would turn his season around.(hence the small return they received.) Luckily Atlanta looked at his track record and believed in him. This was by no means an attempt to make fun of the angels or anything. I’m just happy they dealt him.
The Angels were terrible. When you’re terrible there’s no reason to have a $16m a year closer. It’s the same reason the Braves punted on Kimbrell. They knew they weren’t going to contend and found an idiot GM in San Diego who took him and the BJ Upton contract off of Atlanta’s hand. Atlanta also go t San Diego’s compensation lick and used it to select Austin Riley
It would have been better to trade him for a 30 year old AA player not on the 40 man roster.
Not a pitcher who stinks with no options and a guaranteed 26 man roster. Why people don’t value these roster spots is beyond me. That spot can be used to shuttle players up and down and help keep the bullpen fresh.
A valuable spot was taken by a slug. The same people who don’t understand that are also the same people who think Perry is doing a great job
Perry came from that organization, should know Davidson the slug. It wouldn’t surprise me if they change the regime at least get a new pitching coach since he got it because they fired Mickey
Davidson, for me, will always be remembered for totally unexpectedly (and unwisely) getting a start in the 2021 World Series.
Honestly the Angels were probably thinking “they must really think highly of this guy so we’ll take him.”
Who else were they going to start? He took the place of Morton who broke his leg. I mean, they started Dylan Lee in a World Series game. He’s pitched in all of 2 games and never started a game before. So yeah, saying starting Davidson was unwise is to ignore the state of their pitching situation.
Somebody will surely trade for Davidson. I’ll guarantee it. The Angels will get another reliever for him. The Red Sox will probably trade for him.
Not really sure why Davidson couldn’t be a real solid bullpen piece down the road, if he doesn’t catch on as a 5th starter or long man with some team out there.
Reds for a PTBNL and cash
This feels like it has Tampa Bay written all over it. Outstanding underlying numbers, good spin on his fastball and slider, they’d make him an all-star closer in no time.
Pen just got a whole heap better. Add Lopez. Move Silseth there for the rest of the season. Dump Davidson. That is a 3 ERA swing. Makes me very happy.
Maybe the Angels will get Duval for Davidson and Maybe a position player.
Rather have Tucker Carlson
Rather have Johnson Tucker
Rather have Carlton your doorman.
the name Tucker will always remind me of George Carlin’s list of names he hates. “Hi Tucker I’m Todd!”
That was a pure salary dump.
Perry got lucky that Moniak turned into something good in his other salary dump. A 50% success rate on lottery tickets last year is solid work.
I combine the Syndergaard and Marsh trades into one The signing of Syndergaard and the development of Marsh got them Moniak and O’Hoppe. Moniak is playing like a first round first pick stud who has a knack for hitting in the clutch and is improving when facing Lefthanders. Moniak for Marsh is a win for Minaasian and O’Hoppe for Syndergaard is another win for Minaasian.
That’s an interesting take.
My point was basically that we expected O’Hoppe to be good. Moniak and Davidson were lottery tickets.
I have no idea how Moniacbis good, but he sure is.
The proof is in the pudding and Moniac has been one of Perry’s best moves.
Neto and Estevez are right up there.
We would be sellers if he didn’t make those moves. Of course in the last three years he could have made other moves that would have really helped, he just hasn’t.
He’s noticeably changed the angle at which he faces the pitcher.
Much more open. I think he’s seeing pitches a lot better.
Wasn’t it marsh for o hoppe.Thor for moniak, but agree definitely looks like a rays trade. The reason why losing quero, and bush isn’t really a big deal
Wanted Davidson and Barnhart to be on same team/battery on the field. Then when they complain abount umpire’s call on a pitch, he can turn to them and say “No, you Mother Tuckers”.
Maybe he will end back at Atlanta like Jesse Chavez did and turn it around. Crazy how a pitcher like Chavez doesn’t do anything good outside of Atlanta
Angels DFAd Walsh and put Joyce on the 60-day IL clearing the way for Giolito and Lopez, right? Is this to make room for Weiss or is Perry about to trade someone not on the 40-man for another rental?
Angels are trying really hard for Ohtani to see post season and maybe resign with them. He is a huge fan drawn.
That’s what I was thinking, Angels & NLW. More to come… I guess?!
Braves might as well go get him… really put the final touches on that trade
Angels could care less, total salary dump trade. The Angels didn’t need Iggy last year, and his big salary was used this off-season for BP upgrades in Estevez and Moore. There both doing great and are a few million less than Iggy alone. Win/win
Missing the point. They locked up a spot on the 26 and 40 roster for a nothing pitcher.
Why people don’t realize these spots are valuable is beyond me. .
Missing the point? Who? Not here.
I don’t know how you don’t realize Davidson, is or was cuttable at any time…lol.. back at yah…
He was always expendable at any time, and a throw in lotto ticket. That trade was more of a salary dump than anything. I understand roster spots do have significant value, but u have to understand sometimes players are more expendable to the Angels than “you” think.
Then I guess Perry is a moron for keeping him. Is that your point?
I’ve been talking about this for years. When a team acquires someone like this the give them a very long leash.
He should have never been on this team, and a year later Perry figured it out.
It’s what made the Claudio\Guerra signing so horrible.
They were allowed to add Weiss because of the doubleheader. He will come off the active roster before tomorrow’s game in Toronto.
That makes sense. So the Angels 40-man roster must be at 39 with Davidson being DFAd. Looks like Perry is planning ahead.
My friend coached Weiss in high school. We talk almost every day. I’m really rooting for this guy. You have to love 31 year olds who have played just enough to qualify for a big league pension.
Weiss didn’t look bad I would send Webb down, and give him a extended look
When he hit the guy today, my friend said… ‘I taught him how to do that!’