The Angels announced Wednesday that they’ve acquired right-hander Guillermo Zuñiga from the Cardinals, who’d previously designated him for assignment. Anaheim sent cash to St. Louis in the deal. To clear a spot on their own 40-man roster, the Halos designated righty Austin Warren for assignment.
Zuñiga, 25, made his big league debut with the Cards in 2023, tossing two innings and allowing a run on two hits and no walks with four strikeouts. That’s the only MLB experience of his career to date. After becoming a minor league free agent following the ’22 season, he inked a surprising Major League deal with the Cards but ultimately spent the bulk of his season in Triple-A Memphis, where he posted an unsightly 7.63 ERA in 30 2/3 innings.
The results might not be pretty, but Zuñiga features a triple-digit heater and misses bats at a high level. Like so many pitchers who can approximate the eye-popping 99.4 mph average on Zuñiga’s fastball, however, he’s battled his share of command issues throughout his minor league tenure. Zuñiga walked 13.7% of his opponents in Triple-A last year and has issued a free pass to 10.6% of his minor league opponents.
Zuñiga still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so the Angels will be able to move him freely between Anaheim and their Triple-A affiliate in Salt Lake this season and next — if he sticks on the team’s 40-man roster. Barring another DFA, he’ll head to big league camp with the Angels and vie for a spot in a massively overhauled bullpen that has added veterans Robert Stephenson, Matt Moore, Luis Garcia, Adam Cimber and Jose Cisnero on free agent deals this offseason.
As for the 28-year-old Warren, he’s spent time in the Angels’ bullpen in each of the past three seasons, compiling a total of 38 innings with a solid 3.55 earned run average. Most of his success came as a rookie in 2021, however, when he tossed 20 1/3 innings of 1.77 ERA ball. Since then, Warren has been tagged for 11 runs in 17 2/3 innings with just a 14.5% strikeout rate against a strong 6.6% walk rate.
Warren’s struggles began in 2022 and culminated with a stint on the injured list in 2023. By early May, the team revealed that he’d been diagnosed with a torn ligament in his pitching elbow and would require Tommy John surgery. As such, Warren is slated to miss the early portion of the 2024 campaign and may well have been ticketed for the 60-day injured list, were it not for today’s DFA.
The Angels will have a week to trade Warren or attempt to pass him through waivers. Any team looking to acquire him would have to do so knowing that Warren will likely be shelved into the summer at the earliest.
really just going for gas throwers, also why does jimmy herget still hold a roster spot?
I think Herget is in the on deck circle hoping that the last out is made.
Updating RHP from A to Z
This will haunt the Cardinals for generations to come.
Perry dumpster diving in DFAs.
Angel fans have been told the Halos are “all in” and not rebuilding, then rumors of the team is for sale again and thats why no big signings to absorb the loss of Ohtani……but now I’m getting very concerned that all of this is BS and we’re stuck with hoping Ron can taser Tony 2-Bags every morning to keep him out there.
The rumor is weak. Hardly any media running with it. Same report speculates they aren’t spending on big free agents but some of the top are still out there. That’s market conditions. And Arte didn’t hold back spending before when they were up for sale. Hard to believe Washington and all those coaches came over for this.
Guys, the Angels are not spending because the TV money goes dry in 2025. They received a payment of $125 million for this year, then no more from Bally at least
You’re getting concerned? I’ve been drinking for a month over this team. Pecota estimating a whopping 74.5 wins. If we can increase our win total by 1.5 every year we should be at .500 in only five or six years.
I am fine with how this off-season has been going as an Angels fan. This team needs a rebuild, badly. Signing Snell, Bellinger, or both still wouldn’t be enough to make this team a contender as several pieces are missing.
This would be the best off-season if Arte announced the he was selling the team.
Angels have been one of the most active teams this year I know it’s not really saying much looks like Zuniga will be In the minors. Perry is trying to get minor league depth can’t knock that hopefully we won’t be playing them.
This trade will hurt hinder Luken Baker and Luken Baker’s plate appearances.
How does sending a relief pitcher to the Angels for cash affect a minor league 1st baseman?
It doesn’t weirdo. It’s just funny to see how triggered one sarcastic comment made you. Lol.
Triggered? That is funny.
That’s some really weak sarcasm
I like the effort to fix the bullpen, but the last couple moves are hard to get excited about. I do like that they are finally getting guys who can top 93.
A 25 yr old flame thrower? How is that a bad thing?
Make him sit between Moore and Stephenson all spring training, and soak it all in.
Mark Grace is a moron.