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Jo Adell

Angels Option Jo Adell To Minors

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The Angels announced a series of Spring Training cuts tonight, as outfielder Jo Adell, infielder Matt Thaiss, southpaw Jose Suarez, and right-hander Kyle Keller were all optioned.

None of the cuts were unexpected, though it is noteworthy that Adell put in a very strong showing at the plate, posting an 1.072 OPS over 25 Cactus League plate appearances.  It would’ve likely taken an even bigger spring to convince the Angels to include Adell (who turns 22 in April) on the Opening Day roster, given how he missed an entire year of minor league development in 2020.

Adell didn’t hit well (.264/.321/.355) over 131 Triple-A plate appearances in 2019, his only taste of action at the highest minor league level.  In a normal 2020, Adell would have gotten some more Triple-A experience under his belt and then received a promotion to the big league club, though the cancellation of the minor league season meant that Adell’s development was shifted to the Angels’ alternate training site.  Adell did end up making his MLB debut, but with lackluster results — he hit just .161/.212/.266 with a whopping 55 strikeouts in 132 PA, and also didn’t look good in the outfield.

While some contractual considerations were undoubtedly at play considering Adell already had 153 days of Major League service time, an argument can certainly be made that Adell needs a bit more seasoning before his next appearance in an Angels uniform.  Los Angeles has a pair of veterans (Justin Upton and Dexter Fowler) looking for bounce-back years in the corner outfield, with Taylor Ward, Jared Walsh, and minor league signings Jon Jay, Scott Schebler, and Juan Lagares all providing further depth and platoon opportunities on the grass.  Adell and fellow top prospect Brandon Marsh are both expected to be called up at some point in 2021.

AL West Notes: Mariners, Fiers, Adell, Whitley, Astros

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The December 2018 trade that sent Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to the Mets was a transformational moment in Mariners history, as it allowed Seattle to both escape a major salary commitment to Cano and also re-stock its farm system with some prime minor league talent in Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn.  Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto recently discussed the trade with The Athletic’s Corey Brock, looking back at how talks with the Mets developed, and how concurrent discussions with the Phillies about a Diaz trade helped make the Mets even more aggressive about swinging a deal to one-up their NL East rival.

More from around the AL West…

  • An MRI revealed hip inflammation for Athletics righty Mike Fiers, and manager Bob Melvin told Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter links) that Fiers will receive an injection and be rested for a couple of days.  Fiers making the Opening Day roster is “a little bit of a long shot” for now, Melvin said.  The manager said yesterday that A.J. Puk or Daulton Jefferies are candidates to fill in for Fiers if an IL trip is required, with Puk the favorite if he is able to get enough innings under his belt during Spring Training.
  • Jo Adell is day-to-day with a knee contusion and will work out today, according to Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group (via Twitter).  Adell had to leave Saturday’s game after a collision with the outfield wall, but the star Angels prospect doesn’t appear to have suffered any major injury setback.
  • Top Astros pitching prospect Forrest Whitley will miss the 2021 season due to Tommy John surgery, but he won’t be moved from the 40-man roster to the 60-day injured list due to a roster rule, as The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan explains.  Because Whitley doesn’t have any MLB service time and because he was optioned to the minors before March 16, the Astros can simply place him on the minor league IL.  This means Houston will have to use a 40-man roster spot on Whitley all season, but the Astros are unlikely to burn a season of Whitley’s service time by moving him from the 40-man to the 60-day Major League injured list.

AL West Notes: Adell, Marsh, Flexen, Kozma

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Jo Adell was removed during the second inning today’s game after the Angels outfielder collided with the wall in search of a fly ball.  The move was made for precautionary reasons, as Adell said he “felt something” after the crash, manager Joe Maddon told the Los Angeles Times’ Jack Harris and other reporters.  Team trainers didn’t find anything in the way of a hyper-extension after examining Adell, so the youngster may have escaped any real harm.

Considered one of the game’s top prospects prior to his MLB debut last season, Adell is a big part of the Halos’ future outfield plans, along with fellow up-and-comer Brandon Marsh.  A lingering shoulder injury from last season has kept Marsh from any outfield action this spring, though he is expected to be back on the grass next week and Marsh tells MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger that he believes he’ll be ready for the start of the season.  Adell and Marsh will both likely begin the season at the Angels’ alternate training site and then with their Triple-A team, before factoring into the Major League roster at some point during the year.

More from the AL West…

  • Chris Flexen was one of a relative few free agent pitchers to sign a multi-year deal this winter, inking a two-year contract (plus 2023 club option) with the Mariners that will pay the right-hander at least $4.75MM in guaranteed money.  Tom O’Connell, Flexen’s agent, tells The Athletic’s Corey Brock that Seattle was one of “four or five teams very interested in Chris,” and the Mariners sealed the deal after Flexen was impressed by GM Jerry Dipoto’s pitch of the organization’s merits during a Zoom call.  The M’s had done their homework on Flexen in the KBO, as assistant GM Justin Hollander said that during the league shutdown, the Mariners had extra scouts breaking down film of games from Korea and Japan — both to give the scouting staff some work, and also to hunt for any potential hidden-gem offseason targets.  Clearly Seattle liked what it saw in Flexen, who had only an 8.07 ERA over 68 career MLB innings with the Mets from 2017-19 but excelled with a 3.01 ERA and 28K% over 116 2/3 innings as a starter with the KBO’s Doosan Bears in 2020.
  • The Athletics are giving Pete Kozma a long look in Spring Training, as the veteran infielder has thus far played in all of Oakland’s spring games, MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos writes.  Kozma is trying to make his way back to the majors for the first time since 2018, and while Kozma has long been known as a glove-first player, he has been on fire at the plate in the Cactus League.  The A’s already have Chad Pinder and Tony Kemp slated for both second-base duty and as utilitymen, though Kozma is making a case for himself for a bench job.  It probably doesn’t hurt Kozma’s chances that Jed Lowrie (also in camp on a minors deal, and a veteran with a much longer MLB track record) has only just returned to game action as Lowrie tries to return from the leg injuries that have plagued his last two seasons.

Joe Maddon Discusses Adell, Ohtani

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Jo Adell made his Major League debut to mixed results in 2020. The toolsy outfielder still has a bright future in Los Angeles despite an opening salvo of .220/.294/.266 across 132 plate appearances. His output last season can be taken with a grain of salt, however. If not for the bizarre circumstances of 2020, the 21-year-old likely would have spent the season in Triple-A.

Apparently, that’s where he’ll return at least for the beginning of 2021, per Maria Torres of the Los Angels Times. Manager Joe Maddon didn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation: “He needs more time in the minor leagues, no question.” Adell turns 22 years old in April, so more time in the minors hardly counts as a setback for the former first-rounder.

Still, the news might challenge some assumptions about the makeup of the Angels roster heading into 2021. With Adell ticketed for the minors, new GM Perry Minasian will no doubt explore free agent outfielders as a short-term stopgap.

Mike Trout and Justin Upton have hammerlocks on center and left. Taylor Ward and Jared Walsh are the only other outfielders on the roster. Both Ward and Walsh are 27 years old, and while they aren’t exactly top prospects, both raked with the Salt Lake Bees in 2019. Walsh stayed hot into the 2020 season, slashing .293/.324/.646 in 108 plate appearances. They both boast some power potential, but if the Angels anticipate Adell spending a healthy chunk of 2021 in Triple-A, they may want insurance beyond that pair.

David Fletcher has spent a fair amount of time in the outfield grass, but he’s presently slated for every-down reps at second base. Still, Fletcher’s presence gives the club some flexibility when looking to build out the roster for 2021. Prospects Jahmai Jones and Brandon Marsh could also theoretically enter the outfield picture while Adell gets more seasoning time in Triple-A.

As ever, don’t expect Shohei Ohtani to roam the grass. Maddon fully expects Ohtani to return to the rotation, and any other playing time is likely to come at designated hitter. Though Ohtani no doubt has the capability of playing the outfield, the Angels have long tabled that possibility.

Angels Don’t Expect Shohei Ohtani To Pitch Again In 2020

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Angels right-hander Shohei Ohtani went down Monday with a Grade 1-2 flexor pronator mass strain. It looked then as if Ohtani wouldn’t make a return to the mound this year because of his four- to six-week timeline to begin throwing again. Manager Joe Maddon confirmed Tuesday that Ohtani is likely done as a pitcher for 2020, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports (Twitter links). The team will reevaluate his forearm Wednesday, according to Maddon (via Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times).

Fortunately, as an ultra-rare two-way talent, Ohtani’s not finished contributing for the year. Even though he probably won’t pitch again in 2020, Ohtani’s healthy enough that he’ll continue factoring in as a designated hitter. He has been quite successful in that role (not so much in the early going this year), though it’s nevertheless a loss for the Angels and the sport itself that the 26-year-old hasn’t been able to complete a season as a pitcher. The former Tommy John surgery patient has just 53 1/3 innings under his belt since he emigrated from Japan before the 2017 campaign.

Elsewhere on the roster, Maddon revealed that just-promoted outfield prospect Jo Adell will play every day. The elite farmhand, 21, will make his much-anticipated debut against the Mariners on Tuesday. The hope is that Adell and the return of all-world center fielder Mike Trout, who has been on paternity leave, will give the 3-7 Halos a desperately needed shot in the arm.

With Adell now in the mix, the Angels will platoon fellow corner outfielders Justin Upton (a right-handed hitter) and Brian Goodwin (a lefty) through year’s end. That isn’t the outcome the Angels envisioned when they signed Upton to a five-year, $106MM contract before 2018, but his production has been lacking since last season. Goodwin has been a bright spot dating back to 2019, on the other hand, and he’s off to a dazzling .333/.412/.667 start over 34 plate appearances this year.

Angels To Promote Jo Adell

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The Angels will promote top prospect Jo Adell, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). The club is off tonight, so he’ll have his first shot at playing in the majors tomorrow evening.

Adell entered each of the past two seasons as a consensus top-ten prospect leaguewide. Selected out of high school in the first round of the 2017 draft, he has certainly hit his ceiling as a prospect. Now we’ll see whether he can do so as a major leaguer.

Given the timing of the promotion, Adell will not be able to accrue a full season of MLB service this year. He’s now on track to reach free agency after the 2026 season. If he holds down a roster spot from this point forward, Adell will surely qualify for arbitration in advance of the 2023 season as a Super Two player.

The 21-year-old Adell has generally thrived on his way up the ladder. He didn’t impress at Triple-A last year after a late-season promotion, but he showed well in the Arizona Fall League and doesn’t really have anything left to prove. All told, Adell owns a .298/.361/.518 batting line in the minors.

Most prospect watchers expect Adell to grow into added power. He’s already driving the ball all over the field and has the wheels to take extra bases. That speed also serves Adell well in the outfield, where he also possesses a big arm.

There’s really not much not to like. Adell does have some swing and miss but not so much that it’s considered a likely hindrance. As with any prospect, there’s a wide variance of potential outcomes. But Halos fans have every reason to be excited to welcome another premium talent to the roster.

Eppler On Possibility Of 2020 Debut For Jo Adell

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Top Angels prospect Jo Adell won’t have a chance to force his way into the big leagues this year through his play at Triple-A, but that may not be altogether necessary. GM Billy Eppler says that he anticipates Adell will have the opportunities he needs to show the team he’s ready, as Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times was among those to report.

That’s certainly far from a guarantee that Adell is going to debut in 2020. But Eppler says the Halos intend to structure their second preparatory camp in such a way that the talented 21-year-old will see plenty of competitive action.

“There’s some upside to the intrasquad format,” says Eppler, who explained that the organization anticipates staging contests between its major and minor-league participants. “We’ll just have to keep getting [Adell] at-bats. There’s going to be talented pitchers over there for him to face and we’ll go from there.”

Adell is by most accounts one of the five best overall prospects in baseball. On the whole, he has done nothing but impress since the Angels took him out of high school with the tenth overall pick of the 2017 draft. But having only just turned 21, Adell does probably have a few more boxes to check before he’s handed the keys to an outfield spot alongside Mike Trout.

Last year, after working through some early-season injuries, Adell laid wasted to High-A and Double-A pitching but showed his age a bit after moving to the highest level of the minors. All told, he finished with 340 plate appearances of .289/.359/.475 hitting. Adell was productive, but not overwhelmingly so, in a 24-game Arizona Fall League stint (.273/.351/.444).

It was never likely that Adell would force his way onto the Opening Day roster, with legitimate remaining developmental goals alongside service-time consideration. Any faint hope dissipated as he struck out 13 times in his 26 Cactus League plate appearances.

With an odd and uncertain 2020 season now on the docket, the Angels will surely take a flexible approach to handling Adell. The plan, clearly, is to get him as many reps as possible. If there’s a need and opportunity at the MLB level, and Adell seems ready, there’s not much reason for the Halos to hold back on a promotion. (Service time will be pro-rated. So long as Adell spends a few days off of the active roster, he won’t qualify for a full year of MLB service.) Making a surprise run at the division in a short-season format may well hinge upon the ability to call upon such a special talent.

Prospect Faceoff: Robert v. Adell

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There isn’t much doubt that the White Sox’s Luis Robert and the Angels’ Jo Adell are the two best outfield prospects in baseball. The prospect gurus at Baseball America, MLB.com and FanGraphs all rank the two that way, and they also place them among the top farmhands in baseball no matter the position. Robert (No. 2 overall at BA, No. 3 at MLB.com and No. 7 at FanGraphs) holds a small edge over Adell (No. 3 at BA, No. 6 at MLB.com and No. 4 at FanGraphs) at two of the three outlets, but they’re lumped so close together that the difference is negligible.

The Cuba-born Robert has already landed a pair of lucrative contracts during his time in professional baseball. Now 22 years old, Robert joined the White Sox in 2017 for a $26MM signing bonus. Robert has since destroyed minor league pitching, including during a 2019 campaign in which he earned his first promotion to Triple-A ball. He batted .297/.341/.634 (136 wRC+) with 16 home runs in 223 plate appearances at that level, though his strikeout and walk rates were below average (24.7% K, 4.9% BB). Robert’s production was enough to convince the White Sox to make yet another sizable investment in him. This past January, they inked Robert to a six-year, $50MM guarantee – a record for a player with no major league service time (the move has gone over quite well). The deal paved the way for Robert to begin as the White Sox’s center fielder in 2020, if a season actually happens.

Adell, meanwhile, probably won’t open 2020 on the Angels’ roster, but it might not be long before he forces his way up and takes the reins in right field. He may be able to play all three outfield spots, but the team already has Justin Upton in left and pretty good player named Mike Trout in center. Before Adell gets to Anaheim, the soon-to-be 21-year-old – who became an Angel when they chose him 10th overall in 2017 – will likely have to improve his production in Triple-A. Adell had little to no success there last season, hitting .264/.321/.355 (67 wRC+) with no homers, a 32.6 percent strikeout rate and a 7.6 walk rate over 132 PA, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he has been extraordinarily productive in the minors. It was only a year ago, for instance, that Adell returned from early season hamstring and ankle injuries to bat .308/.390/.553 (173 wRC+) across 182 PA in Double-A, thereby earning a promotion.

Baseball America regards both Robert and Adell as potential franchise players in the making. Robert obviously has the Triple-A track record on his side, but that doesn’t mean he’ll end up as the more valuable major leaguer. If we’re to believe prospect experts, you really can’t lose between the two of them, but which one would you rather bet on going forward?

(Poll link for app users)

Angels Interested In Mike Clevinger

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The Angels and Indians have discussed a trade involving right-hander Mike Clevinger, MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi reports.  Talks between the two clubs have seemingly stalled, however, or at least “there has not been active dialogue in recent days,” as Morosi described the situation.  It’s possible to imagine that negotiations may have not have gotten far at all, given how Morosi reports that the Indians’ first ask was top Angels prospect Jo Adell as well as another player.

Adell is a consensus top-five prospect in baseball, ranked #2 in the sport by both Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America, #3 by Fangraphs, and #5 by MLB Pipeline.  This impressive set of ratings comes despite an abbreviated 2019 season for Adell, who was waylaid by ankle and hamstring injuries and limited to just 341 PA over 76 total games at three different minor league levels.  Only 27 of those games came with the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees, and since Adell had only a .676 OPS over 132 PA for the Bees, the Angels could opt to give him a bit more seasoning time at Triple-A before summoning him to the big leagues (and of course, the team would gain an extra year of control over Adell by keeping him in the minors for at least a few weeks).

Still, Adell is expected to make his MLB debut in 2020 and could be counted on as an everyday player by season’s end.  It has been widely speculated that the Halos will use 2019 breakout star Brian Goodwin in right field until Adell is ready for a promotion, and then Adell and Goodwin will, at worst, split duties for the remainder of the year.  Should Adell make an immediate impact (or even if Goodwin matches his strong production from last season), the Angels promise to boast one of the league’s stronger outfields, assuming Justin Upton returns to good health and Mike Trout continues his Cooperstown-level domination of the sport.

With so much expected of Adell so soon, it isn’t surprising that the Angels balked at moving him in any trade demand, even for a pitcher like Clevinger.  The 29-year-old righty has a 2.96 ERA, 3.13 K/BB rate, and 10.3 K/9 over 500 2/3 innings since the start of the 2017 season.  Clevinger is controlled through the 2022 season and is projected to earn $4.5MM in his first year of arbitration eligibility; his initial arb salary would surely have been much higher were it not for a teres major muscle injury that cost him around two months of action last year.

Between Clevinger’s cost-controlled price tag and strong results on the mound, Cleveland has seemingly no immediate reason to move him for anything less than a huge return.  The payroll-conscious Tribe has already moved Corey Kluber to the Rangers this offseason and might yet still trade Francisco Lindor, though those players are much more expensive and offer less years of control than Clevinger.  In fact, despite Kluber’s salary and injury-plagued 2019, it’s fair to wonder whether the Indians would have moved the former Cy Young Award winner had it not been for the team’s comfort level in Clevinger as the new ace of their staff, not to mention the development of young arms Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac, and Aaron Civale.

The Padres and Dodgers have also had interest in Clevinger this offseason, and it’s probably safe to guess that any club in need of pitching has at least checked in with the Tribe to see if a deal could be found for Clevinger or perhaps any member of the impressive Cleveland rotation.  The Angels have added Dylan Bundy and Julio Teheran to their starting five this offseason and will be getting Shohei Ohtani back from Tommy John surgery, though Anaheim still lags behind many contending teams in terms of both depth and frontline arms.  Clevinger was actually picked by the Angels in the fourth round of the 2011 draft, but was sent to Cleveland in an August 2014 trade for reliever Vinnie Pestano.

AL Notes: Adell, Etch, Mookie

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A quick word of update on Angels outfielder Jo Adell, who has been turning heads in the Arizona Fall League–which isn’t to say that eyes weren’t already trained on him to begin with. After a 2019 season that saw Adell hit .289/.359/.475 with ten home runs across three levels and 341 plate appearances, the Kentucky native entered AFL play last month as MLB Pipeline’s 5th-ranked prospect in the game. As Kyle Glaser of Baseball America points out this morning, Adell is bolstering that pedigree with his most recent performance for the Mesa Solar Sox (link).

The 20-year-old Adell, who was selected 10th overall by Los Angeles in the 2017 draft, went 7-for-17 in AFL play last week with a home run and a balanced 5-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Adell reached as high as Triple-A in the Los Angeles system in 2019, although the team may want to see him improve upon the production he posted there in a small sample of 130+ plate appearances (to say nothing of the potential service time considerations involving a prospective star such as Adell). With outfielder Kole Calhoun a possibility to move on in free agency, there does figure, at least, to be some MLB opportunity for the youngster in 2020 when GM Billy Eppler deems him ready.

More from around the AL this Monday morning…

  • A sad note of remembrance in recognition of the passing of Orioles organizational fixture Andy Etchebarren, who died this weekend at age 76. Etchebarren, an All-Star in his rookie season of 1966, was an important part of Baltimore’s mid-century dynasty. Perhaps most notably, the backstop helped catch, along with Elrod Hendricks, the Orioles’ four 20-game winners of 1971; it’s probably not un-noteworthy that the man known as “Etch” was also the last man to ever record an at-bat against Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax. After his playing career, as noted in a post from MASN’s Roch Kubatko (link), Etchebarren carved out a nice career for himself as a coach in the Baltimore pipeline, including stints as manager of the club’s Triple-A and Double-A affiliates, and time spent as the bench coach for former manager Davey Johnson.
  • The site has already thoroughly explored the ongoing contract outlook for Red Sox superstar Mookie Betts. To recap, the club’s forthcoming CBT trapeze act, Betts’ impending arbitrational raise, and the player’s apparent ambivalence to signing an extension with the team have all coalesced to the point where the near-unthinkable–a trade involving the near-peerless Betts–may be a consideration this offseason. One factor that won’t figure into Betts status for 2020? Organizational tension. As noted in a piece from Chris Cotillo of Masslive.com, the four executives* in charge of Sox operations in the wake of the Dave Dombrowski firing–including assistant GM Eddie Romero–are not holding Betts’ businesslike approach to negotiation against him (link). “I think he’s doing what’s in the best interest of Mookie and I think that’s what athletes should do,” Romero told Cotillo. “Every situation of these is case-by-case. Mookie has been the one who has sacrificed his body and has put in the work. He has the right to decide what he wants to do.” In addition to Romero, team president Sam Kennedy and chairman Tom Werner both comment in Cotillo’s piece on their faith in Betts as both a person and a player, and Romero goes as far as to say that the player has “earned” the right to hit free agency. While this dialogue could just be seen as an encouraging bit of rationality in the front office realm, it is fair to wonder, for those reading tea leaves, whether such a congenial atmosphere could be foreshadowing to an amicable parting of ways between player and team.

*An earlier version of this post mistakenly referred to “four men” running the baseball operations department, when in fact the group of four executives is made up of one woman (Raquel Ferreira) and three men (Eddie Romero, Zack Scott, and Brian O’Halloran). We regret the error.

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