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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.

Angels Add Reid Detmers To 60-Player Pool

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The Angels are adding left-hander Reid Detmers, the tenth overall pick in last month’s draft, to their 60-man player pool, general manager Billy Eppler told reporters today (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger). That brings their player pool up to a total of 56.

Detmers, 20, was regarded as one of the most polished arms in this year’s draft class and is considered by many to be a potentially fast mover. He boasted a ridiculous 215-to-39 K/BB ratio in 135 1/3 innings with Louisville from 2019-20 and is lauded for plus command that’s well ahead of most of his draft peers. Detmers doesn’t have the power fastball and arsenal of plus secondary pitches to be considered a future ace, but most scouting reports tab him as a strong bet to be a mid-rotation arm. Detmers’ curveball, in particular, is a formidable offering that FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen called “arguably the best pitch in the entire draft.”

Obviously, Detmers being added to the Angels’ pool doesn’t mean that he’ll jump right into the big leagues. Most teams are including their most promising prospects on their 60-player pools in order to afford them some developmental opportunities at alternate camp sites. Players not on the active Major League roster will continue to train together and participate in simulated games with instruction from club personnel and minor league coaches, so it’s understandable that the Angels want Detmers to have that benefit.

Still, given the polished nature of his arm and the seemingly perennial injuries that plague the Angels pitching staff, it’s hard not to wonder whether Detmers could skyrocket to the big leagues and debut just months after being drafted.

Ohtani Likely To Pitch Once Per Week; Angels Expect To Use Six-Man Rotation

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JUNE 30: Ohtani is “healthy” and ready to take on both pitching and hitting duties when camp re-opens, per GM Billy Eppler (via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com, on Twitter).

JUNE 25: Angels manager Joe Maddon gave some good news on right-hander/designated hitter Shohei Ohtani yesterday, telling reporters that the two-way star will be utilized similarly to how he would in a normal 162-game season (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger). That will line Ohtani up to pitch once per week as part of what Maddon expects to be a six-man Angels rotation.

The delayed start to the season looks to have given Ohtani ample time to fully recover from both his 2018 Tommy John procedure and last September’s left knee surgery. The Halos can now deploy him as their primary DH on days when he doesn’t pitch — and enjoy the benefit of a bat that has produced a career .286/.352/.531 slash — and consider him the highest-upside pitcher in their rotation.

We haven’t seen Ohtani on a big league mound since Sept. 2, 2018, but in that rookie year he worked to a 3.31 ERA with averages of 11 strikeouts, 3.8 walks and 1.05 home runs allowed per nine innings pitched. He’s still only totaled 51 2/3 frames as a pitcher in the Majors, but there’s plenty of reason to be bullish on the 25-year-old’s future in the rotation.

Maddon also said he’s “very” hopeful that fellow right-handers Griffin Canning and Felix Pena will be ready for the new Opening Day (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya). Canning has been progressing through a throwing program after receiving an ominous elbow diagnosis back in Spring Training (“chronic changes” to the UCL and acute joint irritation). He was cleared of any tearing in his problematic ligament, though, and has had no setbacks since receiving an injection.

Pena, meanwhile, tore his ACL while covering first base last August. He underwent surgery that came with a recovery timetable of up to nine months, and it seems he’s progressed through that rehabilitation process without much issue. While he was questionable for the original opener, the 30-year-old swingman should be a solid multi-inning piece for the Angels now that he’s healthy and could even start some games. He’s made 24 starts in the past two seasons and pitched seven hitless innings of relief against the Mariners in last year’s memorable and emotional combined no-hitter.

Ohtani and Canning will be joined southpaw Andrew Heaney and newcomers Julio Teheran and Dylan Bundy in a revamped Halos rotation. Pena could be in the mix for the sixth spot to which Maddon alluded, although there will likely be several names in that competition. Matt Andriese, Patrick Sandoval, Jaime Barria, Jose Suarez, Dillon Peters and old friend/non-roster invitee JC Ramirez could all be considered. And regardless of who is tabbed to round out the unit come July 23-24, the Angels’ overwhelming rash of injuries in recent years serves as a reminder that depth is key and a rotation outlook can change in a hurry as health troubles arise.

Angels Announce Initial 60-Man Player Pool

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Today marks the deadline for teams to submit to Major League Baseball their initial spring training player pools, which can comprise up to 60 players. Players are not eligible to participate in either a spring training or regular season game until they are included in the pool. Teams are free to change the makeup of the pools as they see fit. However, players removed from a team’s 60-man (for reasons unrelated to injury, suspension, etc.) must be exposed to other organizations via trade or waivers.

Not all players within a team’s pool are ticketed for MLB playing time, of course. Most teams will include well-regarded but still far-off prospects as a means of getting them training reps with no intention of running them onto a major league diamond this season. A comprehensive review of 2020’s unique set of rules can be found here.

The Angels’ initial player pool consists of the following 55 players…

Right-handed pitchers

Left-handed pitchers

Two-way player

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Angels Sign First-Rounder Reid Detmers

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The Angels have reached an agreement with tenth overall pick Reid Detmers, MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis reports (Twitter link).  The left-hander signed for $4.67MM, which is slightly below the $4,739,900 slot price attached to the tenth pick.  Callis adds that Detmers will be added to Los Angeles’ 60-man player pool.

After Asa Lacy, Detmers was the consensus choice as the best southpaw in this year’s draft class, with Baseball America, Keith Law, and MLB Pipeline all ranking Detmers as eighth-best player overall in their pre-draft rankings.  (Fangraphs wasn’t far behind in putting Detmers tenth, in his eventual landing spot.)  “Polished” is the common word in many of these scouting reports, as Detmers has displayed both excellent command and a knack for pounding the strike zone during his time at Louisville.  The lefty has been able to rack up the strikeouts thanks to both a fastball in the 90-94 mph range and a curveball that Fangraphs describes as “arguably the best pitch in the entire draft.”

With Detmers now in the fold, the Angels have signed all four players from their 2020 draft class while remaining under their $6,397,100 spending pool limit.  The Halos only had four picks in the five-round draft since they had to give up a pick as compensation for signing Anthony Rendon (a qualifying offer-rejecting free agent) this offseason.

Julio Teheran Changes Agencies

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Angels right-hander Julio Teheran has hired a new agent and will now be represented by Mato Sports Management moving forward, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets. He’d previously been represented by Wasserman.

The 2020 season will be the first that Teheran, 29, plays with an organization other than the Braves. Atlanta paid him a $1MM buyout rather than exercising his $12MM club option for the upcoming season, making Teheran a free agent for the first time. He’d previously signed a six-year, $32.4MM contract extension back before he’d even accrued two full years of MLB service. Now, he’ll play the shortened 2020 season on a prorated $9MM salary after signing with the Angels back in December.

A consensus Top 5 prospect in all of MLB from 2011-12, Teheran has at times flashed brilliance but settled in as more of a mid-rotation arm. He posted a terrific 3.03 ERA and a strong 3.58 FIP in 406 2/3 frames from 2012-13 but has since logged a 3.90 ERA and 4.50 FIP in 927 1/3 innings since. Highly durable, Teheran has made 222 starts in seven seasons since cementing himself as a big league regular — an average of 31.7 starts per year with only 27 total days on the injured list in that time. He’s made at least 30 starts in each of his seven full MLB seasons.

In changing representation, Teheran will move to a smaller firm — albeit one with several still-notable clients. Avisail Garcia, Anibal Sanchez, Asdrubal Cabrera, Danny Santana and Cameron Maybin are among his new company’s clients. All of that can be seen in MLBTR’s Agency Database of more than 2,000 players, which has been updated to reflect Teheran’s switch. If you see any omissions or errors in need of corrections in the database, please let us know via email: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.

Two Angels Players Have Contracted Coronavirus

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At least two players in the Angels system have tested positive for coronavirus, GM Billy Eppler tells Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). This becomes the latest instance of infection in MLB ballplayers.

Eppler did not divulge any further details regarding the identities of the players in question, including whether or not they are on the team’s 40-man roster. But he did make clear that they had not been at the team’s facilities during the pandemic shutdown, so it seems there’s no reason to worry about further spread within the organization.

We have now seen multiple teams now acknowledge actual or potential COVID-19 diagnoses within their organizations. The information has hit the news wire even as labor negotiations seemingly reached a new impasse.

MLB decided earlier this evening that it will close off team facilities for a period of time. Players and other personnel will not be allowed access unless they have tested negative for coronavirus.

Pujols To Cover Salaries Of Angels’ Furloughed Employees In Dominican Republic

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The Angels have been panned for implementing some of the industry’s most aggressive cuts throughout their scouting and player development staffs, and first baseman/designated hitter Albert Pujols is offering a helping hand to some of his countrymen who’ve been impacted. According to Maria Torres of the L.A. Times, Pujols will pay the salaries of the Angels’ furloughed employees at their academy in the Dominican Republic for the next five months.

Pujols becomes the latest established veteran to make a gesture along these lines, joining Dodgers lefty David Price and Rangers outfielder/DH Shin-Soo Choo — each of whom donated $1,000 to every minor leaguer in his respective organization to help cover lost wages. Pujols’ gesture will cost him roughly $180K, per Torres. Cynics and critics will surely point out that it’s a relatively minimal sum for Pujols, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that he was under no obligation to step up in this manner. And, those on the receiving end of his generosity are undoubtedly moved by his unexpected decision.

Meanwhile, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports that the Halos have at least slightly scaled back some of their planned budgetary cuts. Nine of the team’s scouts will return to work in light of MLB recently lifting some of the restrictions it had placed on in-person amateur scouting. Some of those scouts are working this week’s Perfect Game Showcase in Alabama, which began on Wednesday.

Amateur Draft Signings: 6/14/20

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We’ll round up the latest draft signings around the league:

Latest Signings

  • The Dodgers have agreed to a deal with fifth-rounder Gavin Stone, as the right-hander announced himself on his Twitter feed.  Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link) reports that Stone will receive a $100K bonus, which is significantly below the $327.2K slot price attached to the 159th overall pick.  Stone was the second-last player chosen in this year’s abbreviated draft, and wasn’t prominently featured in any pre-draft rankings apart from a 303rd-place spot on Baseball America’s top 500 draft prospects list.  The Central Arkansas product pitched well in his first real season as a starting pitcher, including a no-hitter in his final start of the year.

Earlier Today

  • Angels fourth-rounder Werner Blakely is expected to sign with the club for $900K, as first reported by Mason McRae of Prospects 365 (via Twitter) and confirmed by Robert Murray (Twitter link). Blakely, a prep shortstop from Michigan, ranked as the #297 prospect in the class on Baseball America’s pre-draft top 500. BA lauds his projectable 6’3″ frame, athleticism and power potential, but cautions that he’s exceptionally raw on both sides of the ball, perhaps not unexpected for a cold weather high schooler. Blakely’s draft position, #111 overall, comes with a slot value of just over $522K, so the Angels will go well over slot to woo the 18-year-old away from his commitment to Auburn.
  • The Angels have also inked third-round choice David Calabrese, according to McRae. He’ll earn a signing bonus of $744K, the slot value of the #82 selection with which he was chosen. Calabrese is an outfielder from the Canadian high school ranks, and was regarded as the top Canadian prospect in this year’s draft class. An Arkansas commit, he’s just 17 and is therefore one of the youngest players in his class thanks to his reclassification for this year. He’s a small outfielder who provides high-class speed on the bases, though he doesn’t offer much in the way of power. Most scouts think his speed and instincts will allow him to play center field in the long-term.

Amateur Draft Signings: 6/12/20

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Let’s catch up on any draft signing news we didn’t cover already …

  • The Nationals have agreed to terms with fifth-rounder Mitchell Parker, per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (via Twitter). The bonus agreement isn’t known; his choice came with a slot value of $346,800. Parker was the last of four college hurlers plucked by the Nats in this summer’s truncated draft. This is the third time Parker has been drafted; it sounds as if he’s definitely planning on going the professional route this time around.
  • Angels fifth-rounder Adam Seminaris has agreed to terms, Robert Murray reports on Twitter. He was nabbed with the 141st overall pick, which featured a $390,400 bonus allocation, though Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com tweets he’ll fall well short of that with a sum of $140K. Seminaris, a Long Beach State product, produced big strikeout numbers in college without overwhelming arm speed.
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