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Angels Non-Tender Kevan Smith

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The Angels will not tender a contract to backstop Kevan Smith, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). MLBTR and contributor Matt Swartz projected him to earn $1.3MM through the arbitration process.

Smith is said to be the only remaining arb-eligible Halos player who won’t receive a contract tender tonight. That suggests the club will retain backstop Max Stassi, who’ll presumably serve as the backup to an as-yet-unknown primary catcher once he has recovered from hip surgery.

Last year, after coming over from the White Sox in a waiver claim, Smith turned in a .251/.318/.393 batting line in 211 plate appearances. He has a history of decent offensive production, but hasn’t graded well as a framer and evidently didn’t impress enough overall with the glove to keep his spot in Anaheim.

Kevan Smith Changes Agencies

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Angels’ catcher Kevan Smith has changed agencies and will now be represented by Bryan Hamper of Fusion Sports Agency, MLBTR has learned. Smith, 31, entered the affiliated ranks as a seventh-round pick of the White Sox, with whom he spent the first eight seasons of his pro career. He made his way to the Angels via waivers after the 2018 season and totaled 211 plate appearances last year. Smith’s .251/.318/.393 line was strong for a catcher, although he hasn’t rated well as a pitch framer in his career.

Smith currently sits atop an uncertain catching mix in Anaheim. He’s eligible for arbitration for the first time this offseason. MLBTR’s Matt Swartz projects Smith to take home a $1.3MM salary. He’ll be eligible for arbitration twice more and is on track to reach free agency after 2022.

Smith’s change in representation will be reflected in MLBTR’s Agency Database, which contains agent info on thousands of Major League and Minor League players. If you see any errors or omissions within, please let us know: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.

Agency Changes: Jeffress, Rengifo

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The latest agency changes from around the majors…

  • Free-agent right-hander Jeremy Jeffress has joined Roc Nation Sports and agent Kyle Thousand, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Jeffress, who was one of the majors’ most effective relievers not long ago, has been seeking a new team since the Brewers released him at the beginning of September. The 32-year-old put up an ugly 5.02 ERA in 52 innings this past season, though he did record more encouraging strikeout and walk rates (7.96 K/9, 2.94 BB/9) with a 3.96 FIP and a 48.4 percent groundball mark. However, there was a marked drop in average fastball velocity for Jeffress, whose typical four-seamer fell from 95.3 mph in 2018 to 93.8 this year.
  • Angels middle infielder Luis Rengifo has switched agencies and joined the MVP Sports Group, Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports tweets. Rengifo is with his third organization in the Angels. He signed with the Mariners out of Venezuela in 2014, but they traded him to the Rays late in the 2017 season. Less than a year later, the Angels acquired him from Tampa Bay as part of a trade centering on C.J. Cron. Now 22 years old, Rengifo is coming off a respectable first taste of the major leagues. The switch-hitter wasn’t great at the Triple-A level, where he slashed .273/.338/.464 across 122 plate appearances, though he wasn’t much worse in his debut at the game’s highest level. Rengifo took 406 trips to the plate as an Angel this past season and batted .238/.321/.364 with seven home runs and 1.2 fWAR. He held his own in the field, combining for four Defensive Runs Saved and a 2.5 Ultimate Zone Rating between the two middle infield spots.

Angels Had Interest In Yasmani Grandal

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  • The Brewers and Blue Jays were previously known to have interest in Grandal this offseason, and The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (subscription required) adds that the Reds, Angels, and Braves were also among the top suitors, though Atlanta may have just “checked in” on Grandal’s status.  Cincinnati was MLBTR’s predicted landing spot for Grandal, as the Reds as known to be willing to spend in pursuit of a postseason berth in 2020 and Grandal represented a clear upgrade over Tucker Barnhart.  Catcher was also a glaring area of need for the Angels, while the Braves have one capable regular in Tyler Flowers but are in need of a complement after Brian McCann’s retirement.

Latest On Zack Wheeler

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The White Sox made the biggest splash of the young free agency season on Thursday, signing the best catcher available, Yasmani Grandal, to a long-term contract. The four-year, $73MM guarantee the White Sox handed Grandal stands as the largest deal in franchise history, but it might not be long before the team doles out an even richer pact. The White Sox remain among those after free-agent right-hander Zack Wheeler, per reports from Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Jon Morosi of MLB.com (video link) and Andy Martino of SNY. They first showed interest in Wheeler well before signing Grandal.

If MLBTR’s five-year, $100MM prediction proves accurate, Wheeler could become the first nine-figure player in White Sox history. The longtime Met and former Tommy John surgery patient made a case for that type of payday during the previous two seasons with 8.9 fWAR over 377 2/3 innings, thereby putting three straight injury-ruined years behind him. Along the way, Wheeler recorded a terrific 3.65 ERA/3.37 FIP with 8.91 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 and averaged a blazing 96.8 mph on his four-seam fastball.

Now, should Wheeler end up on the South Side of Chicago, he’d give the club at least two frontline-caliber starters from the get-go. Although 2019 was yet another dismal season in the standings for the White Sox, they did see Lucas Giolito emerge as a star atop their rotation. And Giolito’s hardly the lone promising starter on hand, as Chicago also boasts Reynaldo Lopez and Dylan Cease. Meanwhile, Michael Kopech could factor into the club’s rotation from the outset of next season after missing 2018 because of a Tommy John procedure, and fellow TJ patient Carlos Rodon figures to return at some point in 2020.

Considering the 29-year-old Wheeler is the third-best starter on the open market, trailing only Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg, there’s predictably substantial interest in him so far. The Angels, Padres and Twins are also among those who have been connected to him thus far. Anybody that signs Wheeler will have to surrender draft compensation, as he rejected a $17.8MM qualifying offer from the Mets a week ago. The White Sox and Angels would each give up their second-highest pick in 2020 and $500K of their international signing bonus pool, while the Padres and Twins would lose their third-highest selection.

Players Added To 40-Man Roster: American League

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We’re going to see a whole lot of players added to 40-man rosters in advance of tonight’s deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 draft. We will use this post to track those contract selections from American League teams that are not otherwise covered on the site.

AL West:

  • The Athletics made just one addition to the 40-man roster, righty Daulton Jefferies, which resulted in the DFA of righty Jharel Cotton (more on that move here).
  • The Rangers will add at least four players to their 40-man, per MLB.com’s TR Sullivan (via Twitter). Infielder Sherten Apostel, outfielder Leody Taveras, and hurlers Demarcus Evans and Tyler Phillips are all reportedly set to get a slot. Taveras is the most exciting name of this bunch; by the reckoning of some observers, he’s one of the club’s best prospects. Apostel came over in the Keone Kela trade. The two pitchers are upper-minors arms who could contribute in 2020.
  • There’s 40-man movement elsewhere in Texas as well. Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle tweets that the Astros have tacked on four players: Taylor Jones, Cristian Javier, Enoli Paredes, and Nivaldo Rodriguez. The last of those is the one that came from the farthest reaches of the prospect map (half a season of High-A ball); clearly, the ’Stros see him as an up-and-comer and were worried other teams would as well. Jones had a strong season at Triple-A and could fight for a bench spot. Javier and Paredes could be in the MLB bullpen mix after running up the farm ladder with high strikeout rates in 2019.
  • The Angels have selected second baseman/outfielder Jahmai Jones and lefty Hector Yan, according to the club. Both players (Jones – No. 6; Yan – No. 17) rank among the Angels’ top 20 prospects at MLB.com. The 22-year-old Jones is a 2015 second-rounder who spent the past two seasons at the Double-A level, where he hit .234/.308/.324 in 544 plate appearances in 2019. Yan, a 20-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, rose to Single-A ball this past season and notched a 3.39 ERA/3.17 FIP with a whopping 12.22 K/9 against 4.29 BB/9 over 109 innings.

AL Central:

AL East:

  • Infielder Santiago Espinal and righty Thomas Hatch were the Blue Jays’ pair of roster additions on Wednesday. Toronto jettisoned Tim Mayza and Justin Shafer from the 40-man roster in a pair of corresponding moves, as explored at greater length here.
  • The Orioles announced that they’ve selected the contracts of left-hander Keegan Akin, right-hander Dean Kremer, infielder/outfielder Ryan Mountcastle and outfielder Ryan McKenna. Mountcastle, a former first-rounder, has long been considered among the organization’s most promising minor leaguers. Akin posted a down year in Triple-A in 2019 but has generally been successful and is viewed as a near-MLB ready arm.
  • The Red Sox have added infielders C.J. Chatham and Bobby Dalbec, outfielder Marcus Wilson, and lefties Kyle Hart and Yoan Aybar to their 40-man, the team announced.The most hyped farmhand there is Dalbec, whom MLB.com ranks as the Red Sox’s second-best prospect. The 24-year-old reached the Triple-A level for the first time in 2019 after obliterating Double-A pitching, and he posted a .257/.301/.478 line with seven home runs and 29 strikeouts against just five walks over 123 trips to the plate.

Quick Hits: MiLB Restructuring, Orlando, Angels, KBO

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As we wait for the day’s avalanche of transactions to be triggered, let’s take a look at a few stray notes from around the game …

  • The MLB plan to dramatically reshape the minor-league landscape has unsurprisingly created strong reactions in localities around the country. Now, there’s a growing push-back on the national level, as Claire Bessette of Connecticut outlet The Day reports. A large group of congressmen has already written a letter of concern, prompting a rejoinder from the league. It’s not clear at this point whether there’s any possibility of concerted federal action, let alone what that might look like, but there appears to be the makings of a coordinated effort by those impacted to pool resources. Those interested in learning more should also check out J.J. Cooper’s take at Baseball America.
  • Orlando Magic co-founder Pat Williams announced his intentions to spearhead an Orlando-area MLB franchise. Joe Kepner of WFTV is tracking the story on his Twitter feed. The initial name (Orlando Dreamers) and logo mock-ups are not especially encouraging, to be frank, but it’s only a starting point. There isn’t really much in the way of specifics at the moment and it’s not clear whether this effort will gain any traction. Williams says it’d be premature to consider a location for a ballpark, for instance, so clearly any sustained push is a ways off.
  • There are a few current MLB teams that can explain how sticky stadium situations can be (though others have made out just fine). The Angels have had quite a lot of stability for a long period of time but have also been engaged in a sometimes-tense negotiation with the city of Anaheim. Now, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reports, there’s an end-of-year deadline for a decision whether to opt out of the remaining decade on the Angel Stadium lease. While there isn’t much time left until that stopping point, however, Shaikin explains that nobody appears to be very concerned. If a mutually agreeable deal hasn’t been finalized, an extension can simply be sorted out. All indications remain that the Halos will stay home.
  • Feel like MLB free agency is moving slowly? You’re not alone. Korean fans are also feeling the freeze, as Kang Yoo-Rim wrote recently in the Joongang Daily. It seems there are some KBO-specific factors that are influencing the situation there, including a free agent class full of older players and the restrictive rules regarding signings of other teams’ players. But one also wonders whether the lack of movement from MLB teams is also a factor. Forget about the major free agents; this is about the players seeking the best possible opportunities to earn some money while they are still in their prime. Few such players have secured non-roster invitations or small MLB contracts to this point of the winter, so KBO teams are perhaps not yet sure how best to maximize their money and limited foreign-player roster spots.

Angels Exploring Stadium Options

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  • The Angels have until December 31 to opt out of their stadium lease or else remain there through 2029, and team officials met with city officials to discuss their potential options, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. Obviously, there’s not a ton of time to make a decision, but the possibility of extending the deadline is in play if the team and city make progress on a new plan before year’s end. Previous negotiations focused on the city leasing land to the team so they could develop ballpark’s surrounding area into revenue steams such as shops, restaurants, and hotels. That revenue could then funnel back into a ballpark fund. The cost of the land lease seems to be a sticking point for now, but both sides will continue working towards a deal. Either way, the Angels appear fixed on remaining in Anaheim.

Cody Bellinger, Mike Trout Named League MVPs

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Dodgers first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger and Angels outfielder Mike Trout were named the Most Valuable Players of their respective leagues, as announced by the Baseball Writers Association Of America.  Full breakdowns of both votes are available on the BBWAA website (National League, American League).

Bellinger received 19 of 30 first-place votes.  Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich made a spirited defense of his 2018 MVP Award by finishing second in the balloting, picking up 10 first-place votes and 18 seconds.  Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon received the final first-place vote, and his third-place spot in the balloting represents his highest finish in the MVP race following a fifth-place showing in 2014 and a sixth-place result in 2017.

The NL MVP Award adds to an already stuffed trophy case for Bellinger over his three MLB seasons, as the 24-year-old also won Rookie Of The Year honors in 2017, has two All-Star appearances to his name, and won his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards earlier this fall.  Bellinger hit .305/.406/.629 over 661 PA for the Dodgers, hitting 47 homers and leading all players in bWAR (9.0), while tying for third in fWAR (7.8) with Yelich.

It was expected to be a tight vote between Bellinger and Yelich, with Yelich having the slightly superior hitting numbers despite being limited to 580 PA and 130 games due to recurring back soreness throughout the year, and a fractured kneecap that ended his season on September 10.  That late injury could have swung the vote in Bellinger’s favor, and the Dodgers star was also aided by a superlative defensive performance.  Bellinger had a cumulative 22 Defensive Runs Saved, +13.7 UZR/150, and +7 Outs Above Average as an outfielder, mostly working in right field but also playing 170 2/3 above-average innings in center.  Bellinger also saw some time at first base, adding to his versatility and making him the most dangerous of the Dodgers’ several multi-position weapons.

Trout was himself hampered by a late-season injury, as he didn’t play after September 7 due to a foot injury that required minor surgery.  Still, that didn’t stop the Angels superstar from winning the third AL MVP Award of what is already one of the great careers in baseball history.  Trout hit a career-best 45 homers while also batting .291/.438/.645 over 600 PA — his on-base percentage led the majors, while his slugging percentage and OPS led the American League.  Trout also sat atop the fWAR leaderboard (8.6) while finishing third in bWAR (8.3).

It was a narrow victory for Trout over Astros infielder Alex Bregman, as the two players finished in the top two spots on all 30 ballots, with Trout holding the 17-13 edge in first-place votes.  Bregman supporters undoubtedly pointed to the fact that Bregman hit .296/.423/.592 with 41 homers and finished second in both fWAR (8.5) and bWAR (8.4), while also playing in 156 games for a first-place team while Trout’s Angels again missed the postseason.  The American League West had a clean sweep on the top three, as Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien finished third in the balloting (22 third-place votes).

The award continues Trout’s astonishing track record in AL MVP voting, as he now has three wins, four runners-up, and a fourth place (in an injury-shortened 2017) over his eight full seasons as a Major League player.  Trout becomes just the tenth player in MLB history to win at least three MVP Awards, and since he is showing no signs of slowing down at age 28, he has to be considered a threat to catch or surpass the only player with four or more MVP trophies — seven-time NL MVP Barry Bonds.

Angels Notes: Boras, Moreno, Trades, First Base

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The latest on the Angels, who could be one of baseball’s busiest teams this winter…

  • There have long been rumors of animosity between Angels owner Arte Moreno and agent Scott Boras, stemming from the Angels’ fruitless pursuit of Mark Teixeira (a Boras client) in the 2008-09 offseason.  Any hard feelings seem to have either been exaggerated or a thing of the past, however, as Boras told the Los Angeles Times’ Maria Torres and other reporters that he had recently had lunch with Moreno, and has kept up a good working relationship with the owner.  “I sit down with the guy every year. I see him all the time. We have a common restaurant that we run into one another. So I wouldn’t read much into it,” Boras said.  With the Halos in need of pitching, keeping up relations with the agent would seemingly be a necessary step this winter, as such top arms as Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, Hyun-Jin Ryu, and Dallas Keuchel (not to mention position players like Anthony Rendon, Nicholas Castellanos, and Mike Moustakas) are all Boras Corporation clients.
  • Rather than free agents, Angels GM Billy Eppler also indicated that his team could be active on the trade front, noting the several young and controllable players both on the big league roster and in the upper levels of the farm system.  “We have probably the most valuable type of players you can trade,” Eppler told reporters, including the Orange County Register’s Jeff Fletcher.  “They are 0-to-3 (service time) players that we’ve stripped out a lot of the risk because they are pretty much there.…I think we can match up in deals, just about any deal.  If clubs are willing to engage, we can engage.”  As Fletcher notes, the odds of the team trading top prospect Jo Adell seems very unlikely, though players like Griffin Canning, Patrick Sandoval, Jose Suarez, Jaime Barria, Dillon Peters and Felix Pena, David Fletcher, Luis Rengifo, Taylor Ward, Matt Thaiss, or Jared Walsh could all be potential trade chips.
  • Of course, several of those same names could play important roles for Los Angeles in 2020.  For instance, since Albert Pujols will see more DH time on days that Shohei Ohtani is pitching, Eppler said Walsh or Thaiss could help fill the void at first base.  The rookie duo “had some pretty good moments and showed that they were taking that first step and competing…I’d like to see how those guys respond to more at-bats and see how they go from there,” Eppler said.  Thaiss, the 16th overall pick of the 2016 draft, has the higher pedigree of the two and also has spent a lot of time at third base, while Walsh has crushed minor league pitching over his five pro seasons.  Both are left-handed hitters, making either solid fits to partner with the right-handed hitting Pujols.  Of course, it could certainly be argued that the Angels should seek out a more established first baseman given how Thaiss and Walsh both lack experience, and Pujols is no longer a consistent offensive threat.
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