The Angels reached agreement with lefty reliever Andrew Vasquez on a minor league deal, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. The Gaeta Sports Management client would be paid at a prorated $800K rate for whatever time he spends in the majors. According to Alexander, the deal includes an upward mobility clause on July 1 and an August 1 opt-out if the Angels haven’t selected Vasquez onto the major league roster.
Vasquez had begun the season in the Mexican League. The 31-year-old pitched well in a small sample. He only surrendered three unearned runs over 7 2/3 innings in an extremely hitter-friendly league. He fanned six with one walk while picking up a trio of saves. It was enough to get Vasquez back to the affiliated ranks, where he spent last season in Triple-A with the Tigers.
It wasn’t a great season. Vasquez allowed 5.11 earned runs per nine over 68 2/3 frames for Detroit’s top affiliate last year. His 19.4% strikeout percentage and 9.6% walk rate were each a little worse than average. That’s a departure from the norm, as Vasquez usually posts big strikeout numbers in the minor leagues. He carried a career 35.2% Triple-A strikeout rate into last season.
Vasquez’s fastball only sits in the upper 80s. He throws his low-80s breaking ball more than 80% of the time. It’s translated to roughly average results over parts of five seasons in the big leagues. Vasquez carries 4.24 ERA with a 21.5% strikeout rate over 63 2/3 innings between 2018-23.
enjoy that awfulness, Angel fans
I wish the Angels would go for Kenta Maeda.
He still has it, just needs to make a few adjustments.
@troutfishing. I wouldn’t mind maeda in the bullpen how the dodgers started him out. Bullpen/long guy
I’m sorry, but Kenta needs a lot more than a few adjustments. Chris Fetter and the Tiger pitching coach staff is one of the best in MLB and they couldn’t fix him.
He doesn’t know where it’s going half the time.
I respectfully diagree. Chris Fetter is awesome, but I think Maeda ran into a mixture of confidence and bad luck. With a larger 2025 sample size, fewer split fingers, more confidence in his fastball (if he can keep it high in the zone) and a better mix of sliders / split on both sides of the plate (instead of the right side which he is favoring heavily and hitters obviously see it)… he can be a solid 3.2 through 3.5 ERA bullpen pitcher. It seems like he wants more of the S/O pitches, but honestly I dont know why. Hitters aren’t taking the bait. He should lean into bad contact like he used to.
I really think he still has more in him.
Also, I have nothing credible behind my suggestions above other than specifically watching his outings and looking at his baseball savant page a bunch haha.
I am just a big fan of his since the Hiroshima days and sad to see that his time pitching is likely coming to an end.
But hey, maybe! Let’s go Maeda!
As a lifelong fan of MLB, I hate to see any player lose his skillset. It would be a great story if Kenta found a new home and he relocated the strike zone. He pitched half way decent his 1st 1/2 of his 1st season in Detroit. Since then, he’s been awful. He reminds me of Dontrelle Willis when he was with the Tigers….then afterwards. The stress on Kenta’s face when he throws another one “just a little bit outside” is very much like Dontrelle’s. Actually, grief. Unbelievable strain/
Its a completely valid point warnbeeb. Dontrelle hit his end pretty early (around age 25 while Maeda is 37) but it’s pretty clear on his face that there is embarrassment in the results. That’s part of the reason I think a new location and confidence boost (maybe from another old japanese vet like Kikuchi) might help.
But yeah, he did nothing for the Tigers and you have a really exciting team full of young talent. You have a fun season ahead of you! Skubal, Mize, Jobe, Carp, Keith, Greene, a revived Baez, Tork and Torres? It’s a fun team to watch.
At the very least I think Maeda will go back and end his career with the Hiroshima Carp like Kuroda did which will be a worthwhile and positive sendoff to retirement.
This is how bad the Angels are. Is there really nobody in the minors better than this? Sad state.
Minor league deal here + see you in the show next week.
So glad that $33 million to Stephenson is panning out so well.
Angels should be ridding themselves of rendon … IMMEDIATELY.