The Athletics released reliever Angel Felipe, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. He’d been designated for assignment over the weekend.
Once the A’s took Felipe off the 40-man roster, a release was all but inevitable. The 26-year-old righty underwent Tommy John surgery last week. Injured players cannot go on outright waivers. After the DFA, the only options were to trade Felipe or release him. They weren’t going to find a trade partner due to the injury.
Felipe lost his roster spot when Oakland announced the J.D. Davis signing. The A’s could have placed him on the 60-day injured list, but that would’ve required paying him a $740K salary for the upcoming season. They’d very likely have run him through waivers at the start of next winter anyhow — players can’t stay on the injured list during the offseason — so releasing him instead made sense.
Of course, that’s a tough blow for Felipe. Assuming he clears release waivers, he’ll become a free agent. The A’s could try to bring him back on a two-year minor league deal at that point, but he’d have the freedom to evaluate other opportunities. Oakland grabbed him off waivers from the Padres last June. Felipe debuted with 14 big league outings late last season, allowing seven runs with 19 strikeouts and 13 walks over 15 frames. He has a mid-90s fastball but hasn’t consistently thrown strikes in the minors. Felipe has a walk rate north of 15% over parts of eight minor league seasons, in which he owns a 4.65 ERA.
What happens to him now? He’s injured and recovering from TJ but no longer with the team? What happens to his recovery? His doctor’s following his treatment ? Insurance?
Probably re-signs on a minor league deal to not jeopardize his recovery.
Always wondering about that as well. Remember thinking the same with Brandon Woodruff
Things could have changed alot since, but my memory of this was that the team that last released an injured player was responsible for treatment of that injury. However, the commitment to that is questionable, so you would really want to sign with a team on a new league contract for proper care unless you planned on retiring. At least, that’s my memory of it.
Team is responsible for worker’s comp, but best treatment will always be with a team. Player typically will re-sign on a multi-year minor league deal.
Just a friendly reminder to all that baseballs a business not a pastime
Baseball IS a pastime. The business is MLB. Don’t denigrate the sport just because the industry surrounding it is a bit broken.
JD gets screwed over by Giants after they sign Chapman; to take on a discounted Davis, A’s screw over Felipe. This is Manfred’s MLB!
No one cares about what the A’s did tho, giants have carried multiple guys on the IL allowing them to recover in recent years like Luis Gonzalez.
Wait how can Oakland release an Angel? No wonder Anaheim is so messed up, other team mussing up in their lineup
If that could be done the A’s would have long ago released trout and then signed him in Oakland to the league minimum.
Didn’t realize Felipe was an Angel, hope Matty and Jesus are safe
Hey man I get it $740K is a lot of money for a team worth $741K
Wouldn’t mind the Cleveland pitching factory taking a flier.
11K, 6BB/9 in the high minors, 11K, 8BB/9 in MLB?
He’ll be a Met in hours. Stearns has a… thing for guys like Felipe.