The Angels have acquired right-hander Dominic Leone from the Mets, per Will Sammon of The Athletic. Mike Puma of the New York Post first reported that the Mets were engaged in discussions on a Leone deal. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Mets received infield prospect Jeremiah Jackson in return.
Leone, 31, first broke into the big leagues with the Mariners back in 2014 with an impressive 2.17 ERA (168 ERA+) and 3.07 FIP in 66 1/3 innings of work. Since then, he’s bounced around the league, playing for Arizona, Toronto, Cleveland, St. Louis, and San Francisco in addition to Seattle and New York. The Angels will be the eighth team of his ten-year career in the majors. The veteran hurler sports a career 3.75 ERA and 4.01 FIP in 386 1/3 innings of work.
He’ll join the Angels following a rather difficult stint in New York. While he’s posted a 4.40 ERA that’s roughly league average by measure of ERA+ in 31 appearances, his 5.26 FIP is more concerning. While Leone’s 26% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate rate among the best marks of his career, he’s seen his groundball rate plummet to just 35.4%, far lower than his career 42.5% rate. While that isn’t entirely a problem by itself, Leone has also allowed a whopping 13.4% barrel rate this season, resulting in 18.4% of his fly balls leaving the year for home runs.
While Leone’s tendency to allow the long ball has severely limited his effectiveness this season, he should nonetheless be a useful arm for an Angels bullpen that ranks bottom four in the majors with just 1.3 fWAR as a collective unit. While Carlos Estevez and Matt Moore form a quality duo with which the club can close out games, Leone can help the likes of Aaron Loup and fellow deadline acquisition Reynaldo Lopez cover the middle innings for the Angels.
As for the Mets, they’ll receive a quality prospect in return for a veteran rental arm in the midst of a difficult season. Headed to Queens in exchange for Leone is Jackson, the Angels’ #9 prospect per MLB Pipeline. The 23-year-old infielder has shortstop, second base, third base, center field, and left field during his minor league career and has swiped 56 bags in 73 professional attempts. His been a league average hitter with Double-A Rocket City this year, slashing .248/.321/.447 in 349 plate appearances.
Another infielder?
Jackson is a good return for a so-so relief pitcher.
I love spaghetti westerns, You feel lucky punk?
Extreme pedantry here but that line is from Dirty Harry, which isn’t a western. Still great, though, Curly. Eastwood is the best.
Jackson was available for rule 5 draft steak and nobody took him off the angels… says it all
That doesn’t mean anything.
Actually, it means that no team thought he was ready to play in the Majors.
Halo’s goin’ Italian.
He isn’t
Solid pickup. Another arm for the pen. He’s been throwing well the last month. More depth. Like it.
Stop it with all these SS prospects for crying out loud
Exactly. Jackson has power, but he hasn’t improved the last two years and he’s blocked with the Angels and he’ll be blocked going to the Mets. he’s on the older side now as well– have no idea why Eppler would accept this deal other than he drafted him?
Jackson will be moved to the Outfield. He had been playing CF at time’s this season. He had pulled calf, that caused him to miss a lot of games last season.
You take the best possible talent available. I doubt many teams were knocking on Mets’ door. Angels may have been the only one.
@jvent: The Mets are just acquiring the best young players they can regardless of position.
The best athletes are usually shortstops who sometimes move to other positions later.
But their doing what they need to do to build a strong organization for the future.
*they’re doing
How did the mets get an organizations top 10 prospect for leone -_-
That’s how bad the Angels farm system is. After the trade for Giloto they have maybe 2 decent prospects.
I mean the kids having a decent season in AA where he is about a year younger then the average player
5 years in the minors isn’t a good look for an Angels minor leaguer. He probably wouldn’t ever get a call up with the Angels.
He was a high school drafted 2nd round player. With rare exception most high school picks spend 5 years in the minors
Top 10 in name only. The Angels have traded eight other prospects recently and graduated a lot of young players and their new picks have not been listed or integrated.Jackson is not in their top 10.
The Angel farm system might be the worst in baseball. And Other than Quero, they didn’t trade a quality prospect.
I think Bush and Albright have MLB potential. Bush as a good bullpen guy and Albright as a mid rotation arm.
We’ll see.
Sure, if that’s the bar. Helpful major league players are replaceable. Sure these guys can be helpful major league players.
Considering the endless list of retreads we e brought in to hopefully be a mid rotation arm or bullpen piece, I value those types of players.
Probably more than favs of teams who hit on free agents.
Just so we know the bar.
Whoever has him top 10 shouldn’t be ranking prospects.
Thank god, the only move that i liked. Leone is one of the worst pitchers in the game. Good job Billy, you finally made a move that I liked. He could of gotten a bag of chips for Leone and I would of been happy either way
Then you should be thrilled– you got your bag of cow chips.
You haven’t liked any of the other moves? That the only one you do like is for a SS repeating AA says a lot.
@dlwo906 we got taken to the cleaners on every single deal. We are paying around 80mil for 2 pitchers that arent even playing for us and got back 3 prospects of positions that we didnt need. If the Mets were able to get Hunter Brown and either Jack Lieter or Kumar Rocker along with the prospects they got (Acuna, Gilbert), then I would of liked the moves. They got back nothing for Pham and Robertson. What am I supposed to like?
eppler drafted him, I don’t think Cohen cares about the money now he’s paying for prospects or guys that will be career triple a guys, and he will reset next year.
Acuña and Gilbert make Nimmo and McNeil disposable to trade for pitching
robertson trade was the best of the mets’ deadline, and getting verlander and scherzer out of their rotation will be a good move in the near future so they can reset their pitching staff, hopefully learning from their high profile mistakes. in a game about always getting younger, the mets had a pretty solid trade deadline
@Socalbrave who is going to want Nimmo’s 180 mil contract? There is a reason why no one offered him that contract in the first place
One less member of the Mets arson squad.
Perry has (and shouldn’t have) no issues trading players he did not draft.
He has now set them up to compete, and it’s up to the players to make it happen. After years of not being able to even make it to the trade deadline as contenders, it’s nice to see them actually be close enough to go for it. Maybe it doesn’t work out, but this is better than selling yet again, and there’s no reason they can’t make it to the playoffs, especially as they get healthy.
Perry has done a good job despite the restraints Moreno has put on him. Atlanta is still enjoying the effect Perry had on helping build their team. Our BP looks better than it did 30 days ago. Time will tell if it was enough to compete.
What restraints? There is no evidence he’s putting on restraints. It sound like you are making up stuff to justify your position.
The Braves are doing just fine without Perry.
Financial restraints, Halo, and pitcher acquisition restraints. Until this year, and maybe last, Moreno has had his own personal salary cap and has not allowed any GM to sign a pitcher for longer than three years. The money he has spent over his ownership tenure, he has spent foolishly…for team success anyway. (Pujols, Hamilton, Rendon, et al…you know the list as well as I do.)
You know I don’t “make stuff up” so stop with your personal attacks. Unless you have a personal source for inside information, your comments are opinions just like everyone else’s and no more insightful.
Agree this is the first year, that Arte has went over the Arte tax, can’t remember the year he went over probably the year he bought the team he always hovers around 4-5 million under the first tax threshold. It’s not insider information it’s his track record
The spend a ton of money. Moreno paid for a Rendon. But that still leaves a lot of money on the table. Perry signed Anderson, Stassi and Fletcher for about 25 million bucks.
He had/has money to spend
Look how much Anderson, Fletcher, Stassi, Loup, Tepera, Renfro, and Urshella are getting paid. He’s has/had money to spend
He didn’t get much for his dollar.
Not saying he doesn’t spend money, he doesn’t like going over the first tax threshold, so that was the restraints that was talked about for pitching. It could be avoided it they drafted well, I’m looking at this Atlanta team, and drooling
Rex, Arte does not go over the threshold, but there is money for Perry to spend and like almost all GMs, he doesn’t spend it well.
A lot of people make excuses for Minasian. If he was actually producing, you wouldn’t have to make excuses.
If the Angels survive until the help arrives, Perry is responsible for building the current lifeboat which has given us a chance, but this lifeboat is not sea worthy, and can’t stay afloat for long.
Probably has a certain amount of money he’s spends, and accounts his many lawsuits he has to worry about
I agree on both points. But as far as drafting he got Neto, Joyce, silseth, Bachman, getting moniak, and o hoppe in trades all seem like solid moves. We definitely need to have a solid week before the troops come back
Good bye Jackson. The door for him has been open to walk through for years and he fails. Good AAA fodder.
I don’t know how the Mets managed to get a team’s #9 prospect for Leone. But I’m loving it
#9 prospect on a bottom tier farm system. Trust me, dude Jackson has very little value. He’s been in the minors for five years and as the updated article says he’s been “league average.”
Not even 9 on any teams list. Even Angels. Even after all the trades.
He’s was a high draft pick that eppler drafted, most of his draft picks haven’t panned out besides marsh, and adell, and he was in the minors for five years. The fact that they called up guys hitting 220 or below over him doesn’t look good
Eppler drafted a lot of athletes he hoped to turn into baseball players.
Arte skimped on player development.
Not a good combination.
Perry has gotten Arte to put more resources towards the farm but the fact he always drafts the most MLB ready college player possible is a good sign he realizes our development sucks.
That’s an interesting take. Food for thought.
Leon has good stuff, misses bats, throws strikes but makes a lot of mistakes. He’s a fly ball pitcher, and allows hard contact.
Bring him in games where a long ball or two won’t kill the team and he’ll be OK. He’s not a high leverage RP.
Don’t bring him in with men on base. Nevin has to use him correctly. I’m not confident he will.
That’s what I can agree with you on. I’ve been complaining to a friend all year about how badly Nevin has mismanaged the bullpen. This guy is no better than Loup in high leverage situations.. so who can he choose? Can’t always lean on Moore.
Lopez, Moore, and Estevez.
Had the Angels had roles defined for these RPs in April, they’d be in first place.
That’s the problem with so many unknowns in April, it’s easy to throw away a dozen games figuring out who is who.
We never learn.
The urgency taken towards improving the pen took way too look. It was obvious the pen would be am issue during the off-season and Perry took longer than he should’ve to fix it. Halos have one of the better W-L records for 1 run games in the AL. Go figure
I was referring more to middle relief high leverage situations. So basically, Lopez and Moore. I was looking at the active roster and I noticed Mederos is still on it, and I’m wondering why.
And to answer Rex, it should be Mederos over Webb. Weiss is already in the minors.
Didn’t know Weiss was sent down, in a perfect world I would say loup, but he hasn’t been as bad lately. I didn’t even know mederos was still on the rosters
Not saying your wrong, but half the problem is the guys they have called up, I’m guessing Webb or Weiss is getting sent down, I like Soriano.
Soriano gives us no confidence. He has not been bad but only reade to explode sooner than later. Hope not, though.
Soriano has to start throwing strikes. The arm is the there, the command isn’t close.
If he does throw strikes, he can be good.
Ugh. Canning is on the 15 day IL. I was wondering why they called up Jordyn Adams..
Whatever was on the stove is burnt to a crisp
The house might have burned down, because the stove was too hot
There AAA team is week but there AA team is good
The minor leagues is more about talent than winning.
Our system stinks,
Perry had to do something. But he is not too bright to find a setup man for cheap.
Back in 2013, the St. Louis Cardinals traded David Freese and Fernado Salas to the Angels to acquire Randal Grichuk and Peter Bourjos. Then, in 2018, the Cardinals traded Grichuk to the Blue Jays to get Dominic Leone and Connor Greene.
With Randal Grichuk being acquired by the Angels a few days by the Rockies, he and Dominic Leone will now play on the same team after being part of a trade 5 years ago.
Apparently The Mets don’t need/want pitching.
They can buy everyone next season. They can buy half of the league.
@aragon
The trades they just made were because trying to “buy” a team didn’t work out. Are you suggesting they repeat that mistake? Can Cohen really afford to have a higher payroll of players not playing for him, than players actually on the Mets?
Nick started off 4 consecutive sentences (across 2 paragraphs) with the word “While.” While that isn’t a cause for concern, it is not exactly Writing 101.
Perry took over an Angels team with a shallow 40-man roster and minor league system bereft of talent. In 3+ seasons, he has gained Arte’s confidence (1st and only GM to do so) and improved the Angels use of analytics. He has also brought in coaches and front office personnel to improve scouting, drafting and development.
Perry has successfully acquired and promoted young players like Detmers, Neto, O’hoppe, Moniak, Bachman, Joyce, Silseth, etc out of desperation given he had virtually no major league ready talent upon his arrival.
In time, once Perry’s people and systems have been in place for a few years, and the 40-man is deep, he will have the luxury of drafting and developing players on a more normal 2-5 year schedule. At that point, the Angels minor league system will be more highly rated. For example, the Angels system would be impressive if Neto, O’hoppe, Bachman, Joyce and Silseth were still at AA or AAA.
Imo, Perry has done an outstanding job building an operations department, and 40-man roster, from scratch and has the makings of a very talented GM.
Perry took over a team that had a foundational starting staff. He’s done nothing to help it.
Perry added two additional foundational pieces in Detmers and Silseth. And Bachman is tbd. Before you comment that Bachman short arms the ball, I encourage you to watch Giolitto throw.
Keep in mind, Perry has only been with the Angels for 3+ seasons and many young pitchers toil for 3-5 years in the minors before their MLB debut.
backman is on 60 days il. not a big loss. and how many of his young call-ups have been to 60 day il? when kids are competing before their time they tend to get overextended.
As noted above, Perry does not want to call up the young guys. He is only doing so out of necessity. Barring injury, I do not believe Perry will do so once he has a solid 40-man roster. He will allow the younsters appropriate time to develope in the minors.
Isn’t it mostly his fault that he does not have valuable major leaguers by now? Rengifo batting in front of Ohtani? Travesty!
Neto has been out and Rengifo is hot. Look at his slash line the past 30 days.
As for valuable major leaguers, look at the Angels current IL – Trout, Rendon, Urshela, Drury, Ward, Stassi, Canning, etc.
He’s been good for windows of his career. That is pretty much true for all substandard baseball players.
Has he been good this year…No. is he likely to be good tomorrow…. No.
I really hope our baseball people understand this. They clearly don’t understand bullpen small sample size.
The reason Rengifo is leading off right now is because his OPS over his past 7, 15 and 30 games is between .950-.1000+.
And I’m sure Rengifo has learned how to have a BABIP 80 points over his norm.
I really hope our baseball people get this. I doubt all of them do.
I get it, you hate Rengifo and Perry.
I believe the Angels Operations staff understand the concept of BABIP.
Regarding Rengifo batting leadoff, he is doing so right now because he is red hot and Neto has been injured. The Angels change their lineup daily taking advantage of matchups and riding hot hands. When Rengifo cools off, he will move back to the 9-hole or sit the bench. This is baseball 101 and done by all teams.
I have data to back up what I claim. Do you think Rengifo is likely to have a higher BABIP than Carew? Do you think Moniak is going to have a higher BABIP than Cobb?
Smart people don’t.
As for Perry, if he had a pen in April, maybe he would not have had to gut the farm in July. Perry has been an ineffective GM. That’s also backed up by data.
So Rengifo and Moniak are the only two guys to ever have an elevated BABIP during a hot streak? Guys get hot. They square up some balls and they find some holes. That’s how it works. Over time, they regress to the mean and cool off. I don’t understand how people don’t get this.
Perry sold off some pieces primarily to replace injured players. He has the Angels in contention in August, and hopefully September, for the first time in awhile. That’s a good thing, isn’t it? I don’t understand how people don’t get this.
Bachman is horrible. One of the worst draft picks in memory. Silseth isn’t rated highly. I’d be happy if he is a dependable back end of the rotation starter and Detmers was not Perry.
I’m sorry your current leadoff hitter has a .950 OPS over the past 30+ games and your GM has your team in contention.
No. But it’s unsustainable. Ride the fluke, don’t depend on them. Rengifo is a utility player at best and I have an impossible time believing a player with a ten to 1 K to BB rate and a 30+ K rate can be an everyday player.
And Perry would not have been on the outside looking in if he had done any kind of job building a bullpen. Had he banked those wins, we’d be in great position to make the playoffs and we wouldn’t be in this mess.
It’s not like this wasn’t obvious. It was obvious in March, and cost us a bunch of early games. Those were games a good GM would not have thrown away.
What do Trout, Rendon, Drury, Urshela, Neto, O’hoppe, Stassi, Walsh, Ward, Adell, Canning, Moore, Devinski, Joyce, Bachman, Quijada, Rodriguez and Suarez all have in common? Is it possible that the Angels could have a better record if all the players listed above had not logged significant time on the IL or missed the entire season? Or did Perry singlehandedly bring down the Angels with his failings?
Rengifo, Nevin and Minasian all blew. So dumb and I cannot fathom how anyone can defend them!
What does that have to do with not adding to the rotation in three years, another bad bullpen, and a successful player acquisition percentage roughly the equivalent of Rengifo’s batting average.
When Ohtani leaves, Perry should be fired.
A for NY. To get any legit prospect would be a A. They did well to get a versatile utility. Maybe hits enough to find a home.
Will see if LA has answer to get this guy going.
Smells like a Vinnie Pestano situation to me. Ouch.
As an Angels fan, I certainly hope not
Agreed. I wouldn’t have pulled the trigger on this deal. Another mediocre reliever.
Jackson was exposed in the rule 5 draft this year and probably will be next year too.
Maybe they figured you get what they could for him but man…underwhelming