The Angels announced this evening that they’ve designated right-hander Hector Neris for assignment. Right-hander Jose Fermin was recalled to the big league roster in a corresponding move.
Neris, 36, departs his second organization of the 2025 campaign. He signed in Atlanta on a minor league deal in mid-March and made the Opening Day roster despite making just three appearances in Spring Training. That abbreviated ramp-up period may have contributed to his deep struggles out of the gate with the Braves, as he surrendered five runs on five hits and a walk in one inning of work across two appearances. He found himself designated for assignment before the end of March, and elected free agency after clearing outright waivers in early April.
He signed with the Angels on a minor league pact in mid-April but didn’t find his way to Anaheim until May 6. Since then, the veteran has made 21 appearances for the Angels despite pitching only 14 innings. He’s surrendered nine runs (eight earned) in that time, leaving him with a lackluster 5.14 ERA, but his 31.7% strikeout rate and 3.30 FIP with Anaheim are both potentially encouraging signs in the underlying numbers. Enticing as that high strikeout rate is, however, the fact that Neris never found himself into a high leverage role with the Angels suggests that the club had little confidence in the veteran to continue putting up those impressive numbers.
Given that, it’s not exactly a surprise to see him cut loose. The Angels will have one week to either trade Neris or pass him through waivers. If he clears waivers, he’ll have the opportunity to elect free agency but could also choose to remain in the organization on an outright assignment. Should he elect free agency, it’s not hard to see him continuing to garner interest on a minor league deal. After all, the veteran of 12 big league seasons was a dominant set-up man as recently as 2023. From 2019 to ’23, Neris posted a 3.12 ERA and a 3.47 FIP across 307 appearances for the Phillies and Astros and even picked up 50 saves along the way. That sort of late inning experience could be an asset for clubs in need of bullpen depth, though Neris’s 4.84 ERA since the start of the 2024 season seems to suggest his high-leverage days are behind him.
Replacing Neris on the active roster is Fermin, who made his big league debut with the Angels earlier this year. The righty has ten big league appearances under his belt during which he’s posted a 4.82 ERA across 9 1/3 innings of work, but his 33.3% strikeout rate is impressive enough that it’s not hard to imagine the 23-year-old finding some success in the majors if he can maintain a role in the Anaheim bullpen over a longer period of time. He’s posted a 3.00 ERA in 15 innings of work across three levels of the minors this year.
Bye bye neris. Time to retire
He has one more stop to make.
Queens NY.
Please oh please Mets, grab him before the Phillies decide to bring him back for their hurting bullpen.
Fermín is a pitcher, the infielder is on St. Louis 🙂
The Jose Fermin on the Angels is a pitcher; Jose Fermin the infielder is on the Cardinals.
I hope Hector catches on somewhere, at least briefly. He appears to be dangerously close to 10 years service time – like within a month so so.
I always root for players getting that magic ten years.
Yeah, because those players barely make it on their pathetic millions of dollars contracts.
Ten years is a milestone. Ten years is an achievement. Ten years is status among other players.
What have you achieved? My guess is absolutely nothing, given the statement you made.
And the first six years, the owners made a huge profit on their services, and most of the players that hit free agency don’t sign those huge contracts. SO YES!!!! Absolutely, I want players like this to get their full pension.
If a Neris falls in the forrest, would anyone notice? If this wasn’t reported, I’m not sure any Angel fan would have noticed him not pitching in games.
Well something similar is how I feel about the Angels. I only say this because something felt unfair to say it about Neris when the whole team is a perennial joke. They are sort of like the Marlins (with a payroll).
A joke that is currently better than 8 other AL teams. So what team are you a fan of that we should bow down to?
It’s not a matter of that. It’s a matter of not being good since, what, 2014? With a payroll that is usually quite high. I feel for the fans and players there. I’m not being high horse here. I have always liked the Angels franchise. I just wish they would get it together. I know they are having a decent enough year. That’s good. But they hover around 500 much of the year many years and never make the jump into contention. Hopefully they can. As it is, off the top of my head, the Marlins and Angels are the worst organizations of the last decade or so (more for Miami). But I feel like the Angels shouldn’t be there. They have a bigger fan base and payroll. They just have the wrong guy controlling things (and probably several people).
It’s really just frustrating because I don’t think of the Angels anything like I do the Marlins-they have had the best players in the game-they play in the LA area-there is just something holding the franchise back and everyone knows what it is (the biggest thing). There’s something about that much more frustrating than your typical struggling franchise. They are not usually awful. They just never get over the hump.
Zach Neto
Logan O’Hoppe
Jose Soriano
5 starters making all their starts so far in 2025.
There’s something to work with in Anaheim.
It is an interesting team this year. The lineup mostly. Need some additions certainly but they have a shot
Plus why wouldn’t people notice when a pitcher has been doing poorly on your team? It stands out. Tho I’m sure he’s pitching innings that aren’t very important.
Rishi, Typically, You notice pitchers who blow games. You notice pitchers that win games, but you don’t notice pitchers who don’t pitch crucial innings.
He really didn’t enter the circle of trust.
My opinion.
Yea. I get your perspective. I pay pretty close attention. I like to see who maybe is gonna work their way into some higher leverage eventually.
You are overthinking this. You are wasting way too much time with your narrative. These posts say so.
Nobody needs a 3rd wheel. You may think posts are pointless (I don’t really overthink it. It’s a largely meaningless sports message board. It takes no time to post a comment so we wasted a combined 3 minutes max lol). But my point is your post is absolutely meaningless. So who is wasting time and space?
In a world where less and less people are actually capable of thought, I want people over-thinking things.
Too many people think based on emotions not thought.
I thought Neris didn’t look so bad and had a high strikeout rate, but he was seldom used. Connor Brogdon on the other is overused and instills little confidence.
Hopefully they can resign Neris to a MiLB deal for depth. Rather have him at triple-A than Shaun Anderson who has been atrocious.
To be honest, I barely noticed him. When that happens, it typically means he neither won games or lost them.
I notice Kevin Newman for example. That’s a bad thing.
I’m with you, I forget (at times) that Neris is an option in the pen. But I cringe every time Brogdon is brought in with inherited runners on base as I know they will end up scoring. Neris was brought in a couple of times with inherited runners and got a bunch of strikeouts – would’ve liked to see him used a little more in high leverage situations.
Turn off the Siren.
He was a big reason the 2021 Phillies missed the playoffs and a big reason why the 2022 Astros won the World Series. In Philly his sinker never sunk against the Braves. He made guys like Pederson, and Duvall legends in Atlanta. Oh well time for him to retire like I wished he did in 2018.
Whichever team is projected to face the Yankees in the playoffs should add this guy. Judge is like 1-15 & 8ks all time against him. The Judge neutralizer.
From what I’ve understood and read over and over is that the playoffs have this affect on Judge already
I know the team was already losing, but I’m surprised they didn’t cut Strickland after his bad inning last night. Maybe previous history let him keep his job?
That’s a heck of a small sample size to cut a reliable reliever over.
I thought hector did pretty good. He can get guys out, when he wants to. He looks a little burnt out to me.
Who is ray mobtgomery lol
Montgomery
I really want the Angels to win and turn the mlb faithful on their heads. Back to reality, they have an extremely limited number of prospects for trade given how poorly the farm system has been for years and years on end. How can they possibly get to the next level of success?
Patience and development of those prospects, and better scouting of players on the waiver wire, and MiL FA, and PTBNL.