The Angels are in agreement with Hunter Strickland on a minor league contract, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The veteran reliever, who’ll head to Triple-A Salt Lake, had been on a minor league deal with the Rangers. Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News reported this afternoon that Texas had granted Strickland his release.
It didn’t take long for the 36-year-old righty to find his next landing spot. Strickland is plenty familiar with the Angels organization. He spent all of last season with the Halos. An offseason minor league deal led to a call-up by the second week of April. Strickland managed a career-high 73 1/3 innings over 72 appearances in middle relief. He posted a 3.31 ERA, though free agent interest was muted by his pedestrian 19.4% strikeout rate.
Texas added Strickland on a non-roster deal midway through Spring Training. He only made two appearances in camp, was released, then returned to the organization on a new minor league contract. Strickland pitched 12 times with Triple-A Round Rock. He surrendered 14 runs in 15 1/3 innings, striking out 15 while issuing nine walks.
The Angel bullpen has been a disaster through the season’s first six weeks. They have an MLB-worst 7.02 ERA despite logging the league’s smallest workload (109 innings). Angel relievers have allowed an MLB-high 23 home runs while ranking in the bottom third of the league with a 20.7% strikeout rate. Strickland’s Triple-A performance isn’t going to get him an immediate call, but there’s a clear path back to the big leagues if he can find something more closely resembling last year’s numbers.
Please bring him up in time for their series in Philadelphia after the Allstar break so he can face Bryce Harper again!
Imagine still hating Bryce Harper in 2025…
I’m not Hunter Strickland, so I can’t.
It’s kind of refreshing to see someone rival Hoyer for Garbage Man of the Year. I thought Jed was going to win going away this year.
Come to Nats Park when the Phillies are in town and you’ll hear the sound of tens of thousands of people hating him.
@ben
Are you suggesting I hate Bryce Harper? Because I’m referring to their rivalry (if you can call it that) where Harper has ownage on him, so he threw at him which went as bad as you’d expect.
So he’ll be up for the Baltimore series this weekend.
@halosheavenjj. Yeah I’m guessing he’s taking fermin’s spot. They might give him a week or two to get ready. Atleast neris looked good so far. Hopefully the bullpen is finally fixed. MDH needs to stay in minors and I’m sick of the waiver wire guys coming in for a day and getting lit up.
He was decent for you guys last year, surprised he didn’t sign this offseason again with the Angels.
@acoss. Probably were optimistic on Stephenson returning. Most likely didn’t have a spot or he wanted a major league deal. I guess all is forgiven, because he has a real shot of playing right away.
Agreed. I thought it worked well.
@halosheavenjj. Angels need to get rid of the trash. detmers I’m looking at you.
Also I know halos11fan was called a racist, but crap rengifo is a blunder head.
Might be able to deal with neris and Strickland as the low leverage guys instead of the batting practice pitchers they been claiming off waivers.
11 has disliked Rengifo for a long time but pointing out bad footwork and a lack of defense is hardly racist. Unless I missed something else.
@halosheavenjj. He called him dumb as a box of rocks. Someone said he was racist so I was just joking about it. But he always makes poor decisions. He’s grades out ok defensively, but he’s alot worse than metrics say.
Crazy. Thought he was pretty decent for the Angels last season, yet he has been struggling in the minors this year? Would love to see him return to some form as part of the “B” team bullpen (low leverage guys).
Would also like to see Detmers cut. Don’t think he’ll ever live up to anything at this point.
@kellin yeah I’ll be fine with neris and Strickland if they are the low leverage guys with a 4 era. When Stephenson and Joyce come back it should be a solid pen again.
Not sure about detmers getting cut or sent down because we might need to replace Hendricks.
I’d rather move Hendricks to the bullpen and ditch Detmers. He cannot be trusted to do anything.
@kellin. Yeah i guess silseth could take his spot not sure how’s he doing or if he’s healthy. With moancada and neto back the hitting should pick up. The other problem is the bullpen imploding they need to remove those bombs if they want to win.
@rex Totally forgot about Silseth. He’s been so mediocre in my mind.
The Angel bullpen has been a disaster through the season’s first six weeks.
How long has ownership been a disaster?
At least Arte can draft immediate bullpen help at 2nd overall.
Should have signed him to an extension last year. He wouldn’t have been expensive and would have offered some continuity to the staff.
“Strickland pitched 12 times with Triple-A Round Rock. He surrendered 14 runs in 15 1/3 innings, striking out 15 while issuing nine walks.” – sounds like continuity
I’m not denying he could just stink but when you perform well (baseline results) and nobody seems to buy it because of your K rate mostly- and you end up in the minors- it is frustrating (especially at his age). I have seen this happen over and over and the confirmation bias comes in (he was lucky last year and now he’s showing his true colors). It’s discouraging and also leads guys to try to increase their K rates which can backfire badly. When they do get back they feel like they have no margin for error and end up getting in their own head. This is the confirmation bias in our sport which has led to this era of only a handful of pitchers that don’t strike a lot of guys out. Don’t get me wrong, his peripherals weren’t that inspiring on paper but not horrible either. He may have had batted ball luck.
I will continually, as a Braves fan, point to Bryce Elder and Jesse Chavez. Elder spent one season basically in the minors. He comes up and makes 10 starts. One complete game shutout and a one hit 10 K performance in there. Next year is leading the majors in era at all star break. Now I’m sure there is luck in there but calling ALL of it fluke is absurd. Even last year struck out 9 out of 11 hitters at one point. Struck out the dodgers top 3 hitters to start game. Last year didn’t make roster. Decides to try to K guys because it’s obvious team doesn’t believe in him. Has a terrible year. This year comes up and you can see it on his face…one bad inning and he thinks he’s gone. When he realizes he’s getting an actual long look he starts pitching better. Now that Smith Shawver is pitching well I wouldn’t be surprised if he feels the pressure again and declines. I do get why you want the higher ceiling guy in there. In the playoffs it’s key. Jesse Chavez was good all those years. Practically a coach. But braves never believed strongly in him. Kept letting him walk before giving him a shot. All because of K rates. Has to sign minor league deals after a sub-2 era. I saw it with Matt Wisler. Let go after a very good year in Tampa. Dominates for 2 months in minors and still no call. Then he starts getting shelled. It’s a helpless feeling I imagine.
Bullpen needs any help it can get. Embarrassing
The man who will turn the Angels season around and get them to 60 wins.
Tuki and now Strickalnd? Might as well bring back Suárez, Cimber & Silseth to solidify worst pen in the league.
The Gas Can is back, ready to burn any game to the ground
@spooky maybe less lighter fluid than Carl, or touki. I agree probably not saying much hopefully Washington doesn’t bring him in to close. He should be alright in low leverage situations if not see ya later after a inning of disaster.
Strickland’s velo was down last year, so I understand the Halos hesitancy to bring him back over the winter.
But the bullpen has been a gas can so far. At this point I think the Angels are taking chances on known mediocrity rather than upside potential.