The Angels have signed right-hander Bryan Shaw and shortstop Elliot Soto to minor league deals, per each player’s transaction tracker at MLB.com. Both have been assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake. Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register relays that Shaw will make a prorated salary of $1.1MM if he makes the major league club.
Shaw, 36, is a veteran with 796 major league appearances to this point in his career. That puts him in the top 60 on the all-time list among pitchers and third among active hurlers, behind only Kenley Jansen and David Robertson. He has a 3.96 earned run average in that time over 764 1/3 innings.
He spent last year with the White Sox, logging 45 2/3 frames with a 4.14. He struck out 21.1% of batters faced while giving out walks at an 8.9% rate. He returned to the Sox on a minor league deal this offseason and cracked the Opening Day roster. He struggled in his first five appearances this year, allowing four earned runs in four innings while issuing four walks. The Sox designated him for assignment last week and he elected free agency after clearing waivers.
The Angels have a few relievers on the injured list, including Guillo Zuñiga and José Quijada, but the most notable is Robert Stephenson. Signed to a three-year, $33MM deal in the offseason, he started the season on the injured list due to some shoulder soreness and is now being evaluated for some elbow soreness which occurred during his rehab. Shaw will give the club a bit of veteran non-roster depth while trying to work his way back to the big leagues.
The Halos used six relievers in last night’s 13-inning loss to the Rays, leaving their bullpen fairly taxed. They have other relievers on their 40-man roster they could recall, such as Ben Joyce or Jimmy Herget, but no one in their current bullpen mixed can be optioned down. Since someone currently on the active roster will have to be placed on the injured list or designated for assignment to get a fresh arm in the mix, Shaw might have just as good a chance as someone already on the 40-man.
Soto, 34, has three games of major league experience, which came with the Angels back in 2020. He hit .333/.429/.500 in his seven big league plate appearances but is generally considered to be a glove-first player. Since the start of 2021, he’s hit .224/.310/.318 in the minors, which includes a line of .213/.282/.299 for the Twins’ Triple-A club last year.
He has mostly played shortstop in his career but has also spent time at third base, second base and the outfield, so he can provide the Halos with depth at multiple spots. The club’s regular infielders are all out to slow starts, with each of Zach Neto, Anthony Rendon, Brandon Drury, Luis Rengifo and Nolan Schanuel provided subpar offense to this point in the season. Depth infielder Michael Stefanic is on the injured list while youngster Kyren Paris is on optional assignment in Double-A.
Soto will provide them with some non-roster depth who has been around a while, despite his limited major league track record. If he cracks the roster at any point, he has a full slate of options and just a few days of service time.
Its not Salt Lake without a Soto in the middle of the infield.
livan is available, angels should do the right thing and dfa fulmer (60 pitches saturday, an inning and change, as well as the loss, yesterday) to make space for a second livan return
Why is Livan Soto available? Was he DFA’d by Baltimore?
Bryan Shaw still plays? Good for him for being able to sign somewhere.
I would point out that he made an opening day roster, but seeing as it was the White Sox, that doesn’t mean much.
That little kid on the Bears made a great first catch the other day. Maybe he can pitch.
They better call Joyce up soon, that 104 something fastball is already enough to be a closer
He has walked 3 in three innings with 4 Ks. That’s AA.
He’s not ready.
This is the angels, once June comes around they will be out of the race
After their schedule, they should have been out of the race by tax day.
They are somehow holding their own with almost all of the young players, Moniac, Schanuel, Rengifo, Neto and Adell not hitting.
Can he play second base?
Trade Mike trout for 3 tigers prospects
And so it begins; dumpster diving the relief corps castaways….
I thought the dumpster diving in the off season is how we built our bullpen and our reserve position players?
Dumpster diving
Shaw is always a nice punching bag in the comments section.. He certainly isn’t a back-end guy anymore and the results aren’t always pretty. But getting a pitching staff through 162 games is a grind. Shaw is a veteran arm that is as durable as they come. He’ll go out for multiple innings and multiple days in a row – whatever the manager asks of him.
This certainly isn’t a flashy deal but it’s a solid move.