Angels Release Luiz Gohara
The Angels released 39 minor leaguers last week, Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic relays (click here for the full list). Left-hander Luiz Gohara may be the most notable player the Angels subtracted.
Now 23 years old, the Brazil-born Gohara was once a premium prospect as a member of the Braves, who acquired him from the Mariners in a January 2017 trade that saw outfielder Mallex Smith go to Seattle (though the M’s quickly flipped Smith to Tampa Bay). Gohara mowed down minor league hitters that year, combining for a 2.62 ERA with 10.7 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 123 2/3 innings, and ended up making his major league debut. That was the first of two straight seasons in which Gohara appeared in the majors, and though has only amassed 49 frames of 5.33 ERA pitching at the game’s highest level so far, he has managed nine strikeouts per nine against 2.94 walks.
It’s now anyone’s guess whether Gohara will make it back to the bigs. Shoulder problems prevented Gohara from pitching professionally last season, when the Braves released him in early August. Gohara caught on with the Angels a few weeks later, but his Halos tenure is now over before he ever threw a meaningful pitch as part of their organization.
Angels Notes: Ohtani, Canning, Ballpark
Angels right-handers Shohei Ohtani and Griffin Canning have been steadily progressing in their rehab from elbow injuries: 2018 Tommy John surgery for Ohtani and “chronic changes” to the UCL as well as acute joint irritation for Canning. Updates on both players throughout MLB’s shutdown have been generally positive, and Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic continues that trend, tweeting that both righties have thrown a trio of live batting practice sessions at this point. Each has built up his arm to a workload of roughly 55 pitches. They’ll remain at that level for the time being, although if the 30 owners and the Players Association can come to an agreement on a deal to resume play in 2020, it stands to reason that each would further build up over the course of a rebooted “spring” training session in mid-to-late June. Spring Training 2.0 will reportedly be about three weeks in length. The Angels figure to be cautious with both right-handers, so it seems unlikely they’ll come out of the gate firing 100-plus pitches with regularity anyhow.
A bit more on the Halos…
- The Angels are allowing workouts at Angel Stadium and at Tempe Diablo Stadium, their Arizona-based Spring Training facility, Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times reports. Players are permitted to work out in group of four, although they’re limited two players, plus an instructor, per area (e.g. batting cage, weight room). David Fletcher, Tommy La Stella, Albert Pujols, Ohtani and Canning are among the names who’ve been working out at Angel Stadium to date. GM Billy Eppler explains to DiGiovanna that the team is providing staggered 90-minute blocks for workouts with 30 minutes between them to allow sanitizing and cleaning of the equipment.
- Angels owner Arte Moreno has asked the city of Anaheim for an additional 30 days to sufficiently detail his plans for the development project at the site surrounding Angel Stadium, per the L.A. Times’ Bill Shaikin. A plan was expected to be delivered by May 30, but the process has been slowed as consulting firms that play key roles have transitioned to work-from-home settings and virtual correspondence amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreno still has until Sept. 30 to make a final decision on the development plan. Back in December, Moreno and the city of Anaheim reached an agreement that would keep the Halos in Anaheim for another 30 years — a deal that included the $325MM purchase of the land surrounding Angel Stadium.
Quick Hits: Bowling Green, Maddon, Roberts, Gardner, Cards
Current Diamondbacks special assistant, ex-major league right-hander and former MLBTR contributor Burke Badenhop is among those leading a spirited effort to save baseball at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. BGSU dropped its baseball program in a cost-cutting measure May 15, which sparked some of its ex-players – Badenhop and Indians Triple-A manager Andy Tracy, to name a couple – to begin raising funds to revive it, as Jack Carle of the Sentinel-Tribune and Jordan Strack of WTOL have covered. In the past few days alone, 120-plus people have contributed a total of $1.2MM over a five-year commitment, Badenhop informed MLBTR. The goal is to come up with at least $3.5MM, Strack reports. “There’s a lot of people that played Bowling Green baseball,” Badenhop told Strack. “While we’re not LSU, and we’re not a top program in the country, there’s a lot of people that have gone through and played at Stellar Field that Bowling Green baseball means a lot to them.” We at MLBTR wish Badenhop, Tracy & Co. the best in what’s certainly a worthwhile endeavor.
Now to check in on a few MLB teams…
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people over the age of 65 and cancer survivors are among those who are at the highest risk of contracting the coronavirus. With that in mind, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times wonders if it will be safe for the Angels’ Joe Maddon (66) or the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts (Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor) to manage during a pandemic-shortened season. Maddon, who has lost 15 pounds via diet and exercise, explained to DiGiovanna he’s “on a mission” to get healthier. Roberts, meanwhile, received the go-ahead from one of the Dodgers’ team physicians, Dr. John Plosay, to continue in his current position. “I asked [the doctor] if I were to go back, does that put me in any different [risk] category, and he said absolutely not,” Roberts told DiGiovanna. “He didn’t really give me any details, and I didn’t really ask.”
- Yankees mainstay Brett Gardner could become a free agent next winter, at which point he’ll be 37, so could this be the outfielder’s last season (if there is one)? Not likely, especially if the season’s canceled, George A. King III of the New York Post writes. For his part, Gardner doesn’t sound like someone who’s nearing the finish line. “In a perfect world for me, I stay healthy and have a good season, and they pick that option up and I come back and do it all over again,” Gardner said of his $10MM option for 2021 during spring training. New York can either exercise that option or buy Gardner out for $2.5MM, but the $10MM price tag doesn’t look unreasonable when considering what he brings to the table. The longest-tenured Yankee put up 3.6 fWAR last season and hit .251/.325/.503 (115 wRC+) with a personal-high 28 home runs in 550 plate appearances.
- With catcher Yadier Molina potentially months from free agency, the Cardinals may soon have to find a long-term replacement for the franchise icon. That could one day be prospect Ivan Herrera, whom Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch profiles. Set to turn 20 on June 1, Herrera – the Cardinals’ fourth-ranked prospect at MLB.com – spent the majority of last season in High-A and batted .286/.361/.423 with eight home runs in 291 plate appearances. Although he’s not as advanced as a defender, there’s optimism he’ll keep improving that aspect of his game, as Goold writes. “We hear he has the aptitude to go along with the game plan behind the plate,” manager Mike Shildt told Goold.
Coronavirus Notes: Upcoming Negotiations, Furloughs, Angels, Brewers, KBO
It’s make-or-break time for MLB and the MLBPA on forging a path to baseball in 2020. With some significant negotiations looming this week, ESPN’s Jeff Passan runs through some of the biggest questions facing the league. The battle between players and owners is rife with potential roadblocks, and it’s not just the conditions of 2020 that are at stake. With the CBA renegotiation still in the (what-now-feels-like distant) future, both sides are aware of the impact any concession can make to the bigger picture. The way this week’s negotiations are handled could reveal the potential the two sides have of forging an effective working relationship moving forward. One would think now would be an ideal time for opposing sides to come together, and yet it’s just not as simple as that when billions of dollars are at stake. There are countless people and opinions to take into account on both sides of the aisle. While we await a loaded week of negotiations, let’s check in on how teams are handling their non-player-and-coach employees…
- Teams are taking a variety of approaches when it comes to their employees in the wake of COVID-19, but the Angels have come under fire for taking a more drastic approach than most, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The Angels will be furloughing employees from nearly every department, including, in the words of Rosenthal, “weakening its amateur scouting department heading into the draft.” The optics aren’t great here for the large-market Angels, especially when clubs like the Brewers, Giants, and Phillies have made commitments to retaining their staff at least through October. The Blue Jays also recently made the decision to keep employees’ on their full-time salaries through October 1, tweets John Lott, a frequent contributor to The Athletic. The Brewers have been the most aggressively pro-employee, per Rosenthal, committing to keeping their staff on through the entirety of the baseball season. The pro-employee approach is laudable, though not necessarily all that shocking coming out of Milwaukee. The Brewers have increasingly stepped into the spotlight in recent years as a progressive organization, from the supportive atmosphere provided players to making special efforts to get Milwaukee residents in to see games to their very team-building approach. The Angels, meanwhile, might find tough sledding ahead when it comes to signing undrafted amateur players. Without their typical scouting infrastructure in place, those relationships will be harder to build in an open market, and it’s possible the decisions being made by ownership today will have far-reaching consequences for the organization’s future.
- The Rays, meanwhile, are readying to return to the field. Camp will re-open on Monday for a small collection of 15 to 20 players, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Those players involved will still be keeping a separation of six feet from other players, and workouts will be limited. Still, it’s a positive sign to see players start to congregate again around a playing field. It’s also, no doubt, a risky proposition, but so long as safety precautions are followed and we don’t see a breakout of cases among these players, these workouts could be a harbinger of more baseball to come.
- Baseball is back already in some places of the world, of course. The KBO is about 17 games into their 2020 season, and they’re about to get a lot more popular. A new deal was announced for ESPN to become the English-language home of KBO games set to broadcast around the world, per ESPN’s Santa Brito. Play-by-play announcers will continue to provide commentary while social distancing. ESPN will soon be broadcasting KBO games “throughout Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean (including the Dominican Republic), Europe, Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia.”
Which 15 Players Should The Angels Protect In An Expansion Draft?
In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR. Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams. You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.
So far, we’ve done the Astros, Twins, Royals, Tigers, Indians, White Sox, Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Orioles. The Angels are next.
We’ll start by removing free agents Jason Castro, Andrelton Simmons, Julio Teheran, and Tommy La Stella from consideration. We’ll lock down Albert Pujols, Justin Upton, Mike Trout, and Anthony Rendon due to their no-trade clauses. We’ll also protect Jo Adell, Shohei Ohtani, and Griffin Canning out of the gate, giving us this group of seven:
Mike Trout
Anthony Rendon
Justin Upton
Albert Pujols
Shohei Ohtani
Jo Adell
Griffin Canning
That leaves eight spots for the following 28 players:
Justin Anderson
Matt Andriese
Luke Bard
Jaime Barria
Cam Bedrosian
Anthony Bemboom
Ryan Buchter
Dylan Bundy
Ty Buttrey
David Fletcher
Brian Goodwin
Andrew Heaney
Michael Hermosillo
Kyle Keller
Mike Mayers
Keynan Middleton
Felix Pena
Dillon Peters
Jose Quijada
Noe Ramirez
Luis Rengifo
Hansel Robles
Patrick Sandoval
Max Stassi
Jose Suarez
Matt Thaiss
Jared Walsh
Taylor Ward
With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below (direct link here), select exactly eight players you think the Angels should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.
Zack Greinke’s Great Hot Stove Adventure
Every player that reaches the majors has a hot-stove tale to tell. They’re drafted or signed into the pro ranks to start out. Quite a few are traded or move via free agency even before reaching the bigs. You have to be selected or signed onto a 40-man roster before you can put on a uniform in a MLB contest. And then there’s the inevitable moment when it all goes away … whether through retirement at the end of a lengthy career or, in many cases, a trip into DFA limbo.
All of these stories are etched on the pages of MLBTR. Some are more interesting than others. A few of these transactional career arcs touch upon many major elements of the hot stove league — the front office game that shapes the underlying sport that we watch on TV.
The transactional saga of Zack Greinke, the venerable right-hander whose latest stop is the Houston Astros, is certainly among the most notable in recent memory …
Professional Entry
- The Royals took Greinke, an unusually polished high-school hurler, with the sixth overall pick of 2002 draft.
Prospect Status
- Greinke quickly emerged as one of the game’s top prospects.
- Baseball America rated Greinke 54th overall ahead of the 2003 season and 14th overall in advance of 2004.
Early Career
- At just 20 years of age, Greinke turned in in 24 starts of 3.97 ERA ball in his debut season of 2004. But he struggled badly in his sophomore season.
- Greinke battled mental health issues and was ultimately diagnosed with depression and social anxiety disorder. At the time, his outlook as a professional baseball player was of secondary concern. SI.com’s John Donovan wrote: “Greinke’s tortured story is, on the one end, a sad one, but on this side there is hope that it may yet turn out well.”
Extension
- Greinke reemerged in 2007, then turned in a breakout 2008 season.
- The Royals signed Greinke to a four-year, $38MM extension in advance of the 2009 season, adding two years of team control. He won the American League Cy Young Award in the ensuing campaign.
2010 Blockbuster
- The Royals decided to entertain trade offers on Greinke, by then regarded as one of the game’s best pitchers, in the 2010-11 offseason. Greinke later indicated his desire to be traded.
- A monumental set of Winter Meetings trade talks ensued. Royals Review has exhaustively documented the contemporaneous rumor mill. Greinke reportedly indicated he would exercise his no-trade rights to block a deal to the Nationals.
- The Brewers eventually acquired Greinke and Yuniesky Betancourt, and $2MM from the Royals for Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar, Jeremy Jeffress, and Jake Odorizzi.
- Greinke ended his tenure with the Royals with a 3.82 ERA in 1,108 innings over seven seasons.
2012 Trade Deadline Swap
- Greinke continued to perform well in Milwaukee, but the Brewers stumbled.
- In July of 2012, the Angeles acquired Greinke for Jean Segura, Ariel Pena and John Hellweg.
- Greinke ended his tenure with the Brewers with a 3.67 ERA in 294 2/3 innings over two seasons.
2012-13 Free Agency
- Greinke entered the market as the top player available and drew interest from numerous big-market teams.
- During the Winter Meetings, the Dodgers signed Greinke to a six-year, $147MM contract.
- Greinke ended his tenure with the Angels with a 3.53 ERA in 89 1/3 innings over one season.
2015-16 Free Agency
- Greinke opted out of his contract after a 2015 season in which he led the National League with a 1.66 ERA.
- Expectations were that he would re-sign with the Dodgers, but the Diamondbacks suddenly entered the market with a massive offer.
- The Diamondbacks signed Greinke to a six-year, $206.5MM contract, setting a new record for average annual value ($34.42MM).
- Greinke ended his tenure with the Dodgers with a 2.30 ERA in 602 2/3 innings over three seasons.
2019 Trade Deadline Swap
- After a rough initial season in Arizona, Greinke continued to produce excellent results even as he entered his mid-thirties.
- In a last-minute agreement consummated just before the trade deadline, the Astros acquired Greinke for Corbin Martin, J.B. Bukauskas, Seth Beer, and Joshua Rojas.
- Greinke ended his tenure with the Diamondbacks with a 3.40 ERA in 714 2/3 innings over four seasons.
Future
- Greinke’s contract runs through 2021. The Astros took on $53MM of the remaining salary obligations.
- With the Astros, Greinke has a 3.02 ERA in 62 2/3 innings over one season.
The Fall Of The Freak
Wednesday marks the four-year anniversary of the Angels bringing in one of the most accomplished starting pitchers of the previous decade. On May 20, 2016, they signed right-hander Tim Lincecum to a guaranteed contract worth a prorated $2.5MM. Considering Lincecum’s past achievements, it was worth a shot for the pitcher-needy Angels, but the experiment didn’t work out for either side. Lincecum didn’t even finish the season with the Angels, who only won 74 games that year and who designated him for assignment in the first week of August.
Of course, Lincecum brought a superb resume to the Angels. As a member of the Giants from 2007-15, “The Freak” made four All-Star teams, won three World Series championships and took home two National League Cy Young Awards. The San Francisco version of Lincecum also piled up 1,643 2/3 regular-season innings (269 appearances, 261 starts) and posted a 3.61 ERA with 9.33 K/9 and 3.54 BB/9. For the most part, Lincecum’s career started going off the rails in 2012, in which his 2.74 ERA from the prior season skyrocketed to 5.18, but there was still some magic left. Lincecum threw a 148-pitch no-hitter against the Padres in 2013, and he no-hit the Friars yet again the next season.
It was incredible that Lincecum recorded a no-hitter in back-to-back seasons, but shining moments have been few and far between since he underwent hip surgery in his last month as a Giant in September 2015. The Giants didn’t re-sign Lincecum after that, leading him to join the Angels several months later. That gamble couldn’t have gone much worse for the Angels, with whom Lincecum debuted June 18, 2016. It looked like a great move at first, as Lincecum threw six innings of one-run ball in a win over the Athletics in his Halos debut, but that proved to be his sole quality start with the team. Lincecum ultimately amassed 38 1/3 frames of 9.16 ERA pitching as an Angel. His last appearance came Aug. 5, when he yielded six earned runs over 3 1/3 innings in a loss to Seattle, before the Angels put an end to his run in their uniform.
Lincecum did get another shot, this time with the Rangers, on a guaranteed deal in 2018. That didn’t work out, though. The Rangers released Lincecum on June 5, 2018, when MLBTR’s Steve Adams wrote: “He’s been ramping up after missing much of the early portion of the season, but things haven’t gone especially well in Triple-A Round Rock. Lincecum has totaled 12 2/3 innings out of the bullpen, yielding eight earned runs on 14 hits and nine walks with 10 strikeouts in that time.”
There hasn’t been any Lincecum news on MLBTR’s pages since then, and even though he hasn’t officially retired, it’s hard to believe the soon-to-be 36-year-old will return to the majors. Lincecum was definitely a treat to watch during his peak from 2008-11, though. He totaled 200-plus innings in each of those seasons, combined for a matching 2.81 ERA/FIP with 9.97 K/9 and 3.21 BB/9, and cemented himself as a Giants icon. Unfortunately, odds are that his time in MLB is done.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Angels Notes: Ballpark, Furloughs
We missed this when it came out a week ago, but Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times recently provided an update on the club’s ballpark and related business development efforts. The global pandemic has obviously introduced some new variables.
The Anaheim City Council agreed to bump back the deadline for owner Arte Moreno to commit fully to a previously agreed-upon deal involving the development of the land surrounding Angel Stadium. The team now has until the end of September to decide; the final call had been due by the end of June.
Under the deal, the Halos will also get to delay a $20MM deposit until the fall, though they’ll have to throw in another $10MM in deposit cash that hadn’t been due until 2023. It certainly seems as if the organization is hoping it’ll be drawing some revenue from the 2020 campaign before it has to act irrevocably.
At the moment, the broad stadium-related business effort is still moving forward. But the Angels are obviously cash-conscious. The club has, as anticipated, decided to institute furloughs. As Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reports (subscription link), the Angels will begin sidelining certain employees beginning at the start of June.
Impacted employees will receive benefits through the end of the year and can receive grants from a $1MM fund set up by the team. It’s a bit of a curious arrangement at first glance, but perhaps the reasoning here is to allow those impacted to receive unemployment benefits while still also gathering some support from the organization. There’ll be an impact across the board on the team’s baseball operations, but Ardaya says the minor-league and player development staff will be hit hardest.
Other teams — and, especially, their employees — are no doubt evaluating this move with interest. The Halos obviously aren’t alone here, but it’s particularly notable to see a big-market club making cuts of this kind. The expectation remains that other organizations will make similar moves in the coming days, even as the league attempts to ramp back up towards a 2020 season.
Quick Hits: Latest On The Impact Of Coronavirus Around The Game
As players and owners work on negotiating a financial accord to allow for the start of play, opinions have trickled in from all reaches of the baseball-sphere with personal stances about how best to reboot gameplay. After Blake Snell set off a bit of a firestorm with his concerns about returning to the field, many players have chimed in to support the lefty hurler. Obviously, many players are justifiably concerned about what gameplay would mean for their safety and the safety of their families. No one understands this as much as Yoan Moncada, whose 1-year-old daughter was recently hospitalized. She’s doing better now, and Moncada, despite the scare, is ready to return to play should that become a possibility, per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Van Schouwen provides a quote from Moncada, who said, “[My family is] concerned, as everybody is. But if the conditions are safe, they’re going to be good with it. But it is a concern no matter what.” Obviously, everyone has been affected in some form or fashion by this pandemic, and players face difficult personal decisions ahead before returning to play. Of course, COVID-19 has hurt not just the players and owners…
- While most of the focus has remained on the league’s attempts to return to the playing field, the consequences of the shutdown are hitting home for many professionals in the field. The Reds, Rays, and Marlins have announced furloughs that are to begin in June, and the latest from MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter) has the Angels among the teams considering the same. Officially, the Angels are still on the fence. It is nonetheless an unfortunate and troubling development for those involved. Hopefully, some of the larger market franchises will be better equipped to weather the storm for their employees.
- Beyond the question of will-they-or-won’t-they play a 2020 season, there are ancillary questions that need answering in the event of a shortened 2020 season. Joel Sherman of the New York Post runs through a whole host of those issues that will require answers at some point. Among Sherman’s inquiries are topics ranging from a potential trade deadline to drug testing to the practical concerns of the games themselves. Baseball is in a better position than heavy-contact sports like basketball and football, but the game still cannot be played with players keeping a 6-foot distance from one another. It helps that the primary action takes place between a batter and pitcher standing 60 feet and 6 inches apart, but there is plenty of potential for in-game contact, as well as the mere fact of shuffling 26-man rosters from stadium to stadium together.
- The Red Sox will be able to resume play at Fenway Park this season according to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. There are, of course, a number of conditions to meet before play resumes at Fenway. For instance, fans will not be allowed in attendance, per Michael Silverman of the Boston Globe. There will also be safety measures that the city of Boston must sign off on before play resumes. Still, it may give players a welcome sense of familiarity to be able to play in their home ballparks, even without fans in the seats. The number of teams that will be able to resume play in their home parks remains up in the air for now, though that does seem to be the goal for most teams.
Griffin Canning Resumes Bullpen Sessions
Angels righty Griffin Canning has taken another step forward in his recovery from this spring’s right elbow troubles. He posted video of himself pitching off a bullpen mound at Angel Stadium on Instagram earlier today (hat tip: Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, on Twitter).
The 23-year-old Canning underwent an MRI early in Spring Training after experiencing discomfort and was diagnosed with “chronic changes” to the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow and “acute irritation” in the joint. Ominous as the “UCL” portion of that diagnosis was, further testing revealed that there was no tear. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection, went through a period of rest and was cleared to begin throwing early last month.
A return to mound work not only shows that Canning is still setback-free but also lends increased optimism that he can be ready for game action when or shortly after the league resumes play. There are no set dates for a resumption of play just yet, but the league is reported to be prepping a proposal for the Players Association and expects to present that plan in the next few days.
Canning made his big league debut in 2019, tossing 90 1/3 innings over 18 appearances (17 starts) while compiling a 4.58 ERA with averages of 9.6 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and 1.4 HR/9. A second-round pick in 2017 and top 100 prospect heading into the 2019 season, he’s viewed as a critical piece of the team’s rotation moving forward. He’s controlled all the way through the 2025 season, joining Shohei Ohtani as a potential building block in a rotation that is otherwise comprised of hurlers who are set to reach free agency this coming winter (Julio Teheran) or after 2021 (Andrew Heaney, Dylan Bundy).