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Angels Announce Coaching Staff

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The Angels have announced the coaching staff that will serve alongside new skipper Brad Ausmus. We had previously covered the hiring of Ausmus as well as pitching coach Doug White, hitting coach Jeremy Reed, and assistant hitting coach Shawn Wooten.

A variety of notable names will be rounding out the unit — in a manner that lines up nicely with the coaches’ prior experience. Long-time MLB infielder Mike Gallego will, unsurprisingly, work with the infielders. He’ll also coach third base. Similarly, long-time backstop Jose Molina will work with the Halos’ catchers.

Gallego had been director of baseball development for the Halos, while Molina was working as the minor-league catching coordinator with the organization. Obviously, both impressed the organization, as they’ll now step back into a uniform at the MLB level.

Jesus Feliciano, who only briefly cracked the bigs as a player, will make his way back to the majors as well. He’s set to work with the outfielders, a position he long played in the minors, while serving opposite Gallego as the team’s first base coach. Feliciano had worked previously in the Cubs system.

In other staff moves, former MLB slugger Paul Sorrento will form a trio with Reed and Wooten to work with the organization’s hitters. He had been assistant hitting coach but will now work as “hitting instructor.” Recently retired reliever Andrew Bailey had been replay coordinator but is moving into a role as bullpen coach.

Angels Non-Tender Blake Parker, Matt Shoemaker

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6:57pm: Matt Shoemaker has also been non-tendered, per a club announcement, which will keep an estimated $4.3MM off the Halos’ books.

6:21pm: The Angels are set to non-tender righty Blake Parker, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). He was projected to earn $3.1MM by MLBTR & contributor Matt Swartz.

It’s surprising to see Parker kicked to the open market, given that he has worked to a 2.90 ERA in 133 2/3 frames over the past two years with the Halos. On the other hand, the 33-year-old did not sustain his 2017 bump in swinging-strike rate, coughed up quite a few long balls (1.63 per nine), and lost a tick of average fastball velocity in 2018.

Angels Acquire Tommy La Stella, Release Jabari Blash

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The Angels announced today that they’ve acquired infielder Tommy La Stella from the Cubs in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. To clear a spot for La Stella on the 40-man roster, the Halos requested unconditional release waivers on outfielder Jabari Blash.

The trade of La Stella to the Angels comes one day after the Cubs acquired infielder Ronald Torreyes in a trade with the Yankees. The pair of moves seems to indicate that Chicago is content to move forward with Torreyes as their primary backup infielder headed into the 2019 season. The swap will also likely save the Cubs a slight bit of money; La Stella is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $1.2MM next season, while Torreyes was projected at $900K. The latter is more of a true utility option anyhow, given his ability to play shortstop — a position that La Stella has never played in the Major Leagues.

From the Angels’ perspective, adding La Stella is a sensible move. His composite .274/.360/.396 batting line through 512 plate appearances over the past three seasons fits general manager Billy Eppler’s preferred mold of an OBP-driven offensive profile, and La Stella provides the Angels with a much-needed left-handed bat. La Stella, 30 in January, can give the Angels some cover at both second base and at third base next season, and the Angels have enough right-handed bats to comfortably platoon him if they desire. Then again, while La Stella was always shielded from left-handed pitching in Chicago, he does have a solid .278/.366/.383 batting line against lefties in his career — albeit in a tiny sample of 133 plate appearances.

Blash, also 29, has displayed light-tower power in the minor leagues but managed just a .186/.306/.307 slash in 324 plate appearances between the Padres and Angels to this point in his MLB career. He’s a lifetime .274/.394/.606 hitter in nearly 1300 Triple-A plate appearances, however, so he could draw interest elsewhere on a minor league contract or, speculatively speaking, from a club overseas.

Angels Release Alex Meyer, Jose Miguel Fernandez

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NOVEMBER 26: Meyer has been placed on unconditional release waivers, the club announced, while Fernandez has become a free agent after clearing waivers himself.

NOVEMBER 21: The Angels announced that they’ve designated right-hander Alex Meyer for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for newly acquired left-hander Dillon Peters. The Halos have also requested unconditional release waivers on infielder Jose Miguel Fernandez, who was designated for assignment yesterday.

Meyer, 29 in January, was once a first-round pick of the Nationals (2011) and, for years, was regarded as one of the game’s elite pitching prospects. However, a series of shoulder injuries throughout his time with the Nationals, Twins and Angels has derailed that promising career. The former Kentucky standout underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in that problematic right shoulder last September and was said by the team to have suffered a setback in his recovery earlier this month.

Meyer, acquired by the Angels along with Ricky Nolasco in a trade that sent Hector Santiago and Alan Busenitz to Minnesota, has thrown just 95 1/3 big league innings. He’s posted a 4.63 ERA with 10.1 K/9 against 5.9 BB/9. He’s also notched a 3.52 ERA in parts of nine minor league seasons while averaging better than 10 strikeouts per nine innings pitched.

Yankees Claim Parker Bridwell, Designate Ronald Torreyes For Assignment

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The Yankees announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-hander Parker Bridwell off waivers from the Angels and designated utility infielder Ronald Torreyes for assignment.

Bridwell, 27, could potentially give the Yanks some rotation depth. He’s only a season removed from 121 innings of 3.64 ERA ball with the 2017 Halos, though his secondary metrics never made that output appear sustainable. Bridwell averaged just 5.4 strikeouts per nine innings pitched that season and stranded nearly 80 percent of the runners allowed — neither of which are conducive to long-term success. Bridwell is also out of minor league options, so he’ll have to be carried on the 40-man roster all winter and break camp with the team in 2019 or else once again be exposed to waivers.

New York may well plan to try to sneak Bridwell through waivers themselves, as he’s already been passed up on by most of the teams in MLB. League-specific waiver priority applies in August but not the offseason, meaning that every team but the Astros and Red Sox passed on claiming Bridwell.

Obviously, the addition of Bridwell does nothing to limit the Yankees’ continued approach to add to the rotation this winter. New York has already added a pair of starters in trading for James Paxton and re-signing CC Sabathia, but there’s still an additional need in the rotation — especially once Sonny Gray is inevitably traded — and the Yanks will continue to be tied to several of the top names on both the trade and free-agent markets.

The versatile Torreyes has been a usable utility piece for the Yankees over the past three seasons, though his OBP dropped to an unpalatable .294 last season. He’s a .281/.308/.374 hitter in his three seasons in Yankee Pinstripes and has seen action at second base, third base, shortstop and in right field.

Angels Hire Shawn Wooten As Assistant Hitting Coach

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The Angels have promoted Shawn Wooten to assistant hitting coach, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports. Wooten, who served as the Angels’ minor league assistant hitting coordinator last season, will work under hitting coach Jeremy Reed in Anaheim.

The 46-year-old Wooten is a longtime member of the Angels organization, having spent the majority of his major league career on their roster before entering the coaching ranks. The former catcher and corner infielder was in Anaheim from 2000-03, during which he was part of the franchise’s only World Series-winning team (2002), before playing parts of the next two seasons with the Phillies and Red Sox. His career wrapped up in 2008 after a combined three years in the minors with the Twins, Mets and Padres.

Wooten’s hiring is the third that new manager Brad Ausmus has made since assuming the reins in October. The club previously added Reed and tabbed Doug White as its pitching coach.

AL Notes: Ohtani, Rays, Cron, White Sox, Narvaez

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Angels star Shohei Ohtani, fresh off a dazzling Rookie of the Year campaign in 2018, met with reporters from the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo this week to reflect on his transition to the Major Leagues.  Ohtani, who starred both on the mound and in the box, fielded a wide array of inquiries, including the inevitable comparison to two-way godfather Babe Ruth.  Regarding his decision to undergo Tommy John surgery, the 23-year-old acknowledged his initial reservations, but said his recovery has thus far gone well: “It hasn’t quite been two months, but I haven’t had any problems in my daily life,” he said. “For the first month or so, I felt like I couldn’t use my right arm the way I wanted, but I don’t feel like there are any problems now.” The Japanese star, who chose the Angels after a lengthy courting process a year ago that included over half of the league’s teams, originally seemed most lauded for his abilities on the mound, where his 96.7 MPH average fastball velocity in ’18 ranked among the league’s best, but perhaps welcomed even more acolytes with his work at the plate this season: after all, his .285/.361/.564 (152 wRC+) line ranked as the fifth-best park-adjusted mark in the American League among all performers with at least 350 PA, and the lefty swinger destroyed right-handed pitching at an 82 percent above-league-average mark.

In other news from around the league . . .

  • The Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin takes care to note that the team’s designation for assignment of 1B/DH C.J. Cron was not financially motivated.  Rather, says Topkin, the team hopes to upgrade at the position, and may be poised to do so “on a higher shelf than usual.”  Cron, of course, was set to earn a projected $5.2MM in his second arbitration-eligible season in ’19, and hoped to build off a campaign that saw the righty slash .253/.323/.493, for a 122 wRC+.  Unsteady performance in past seasons, though, has tempered optimism for the soon-to-be 29-year-old: Steamer, it should be noted, projects the former Angel to be just two percent above the league-average next season, which, with his limited defensive ability and a punitive positional adjustment, would place Cron right around replacement-level in the upcoming campaign.  With their perennially limited monetary resources at hand, moving on from the 1B/DH seemed like a prudent move for the surging Rays.
  • In a fascinating look into the inner workings of a team’s low-level acquisition substructure, James Fegan of The Athletic details the process by which the White Sox went about acquiring breakout catcher Omar Narvaez.  A since-retired scout, it seems, saw just two Narvaez at-bats in the short-season New York-Penn League back in 2013, but his recommendation was enough to convince the ChiSox brass to nab the (at the time) 21-year-old in the minor league portion of the 2013 Rule V Draft.  Narvaez’s proceeding output in the upper levels of Chicago’s system was mostly uninspiring, to say the least, but the now 26-year-old has found MLB pitching much more to his liking, posting a career 108 wRC+ over 734 PA since his debut in 2016, a mark well above the offensive baseline for his position.  Steamer, likely citing the years of aforementioned ineptitude in the minors, remains unconvinced, pegging the backstop for a 93 wRC+ in ’19, though the lefty’s excellent plate discipline numbers (career 12.3% BB rate against just a 16.9% K rate) will certainly work in his favor moving forward.

Angels To Sign Dustin Garneau To Minors Deal

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The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with catcher Dustin Garneau, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo reports (Twitter link).  The White Sox outrighted Garneau off their 40-man roster after the season, following a year that saw the 31-year-old appear in just a single big league game.

Over the previous three seasons, Garneau saw substantially more action in part-time duty with the Rockies and Athletics, playing in 87 games total from 2015-17.  For his career, Garneau has posted a .194/.269/.321 slash line over 280 Major League plate appearances.  Originally a 19th-round pick for Colorado in 2011, Garneau has put up solid numbers (.253/.340/.455) over 2675 minor league PA, though he has yet to display that sort of hitting prowess at the MLB level.

Garneau, 31, will now toss his hat into an Angels’ catching mix that currently includes Jose Briceno and Kevan Smith as the only full-time catchers on the 40-man roster.  The Halos have been heavily rumored to be targeting catchers this offseason, so it seems likely that Garneau, Briceno, and Smith will be battling for backup duty in Spring Training.

Trade/Free Agent Rumors: Segura, Diaz, Greinke, Happ

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The Phillies are expected to be one of the offseason’s busiest teams, and thus it’s no surprise they’re heavily featured in this latest roundup of hot stove news from MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi.  Some highlights…

  • The Phillies have interest in Mariners shortstop Jean Segura and closer Edwin Diaz.  We’ve already heard Segura’s name linked to the Padres and Yankees in rumors, and Philadelphia could also make sense as a landing spot given their lack of production from the shortstop position (a sub-replacement -1.8 bWAR in 2018).  Trading for Segura also wouldn’t necessarily close the door on the possibility of signing Manny Machado, as the Phils could use Machado at third base.  Then again, the four years and $58MM remaining on Segura’s contract makes him a cheaper alternative to Machado, though Segura also has some control over his future in the form of a full no-trade clause.  It isn’t yet clear if the M’s would consider dealing Diaz since, with four years of control remaining over the star closer, the team would be theoretically reloaded and ready to contend while Diaz is still on the roster.  The Braves are another team with interest in Diaz, Morosi reports.
  • The Diamondbacks “are confident” they’ll be able to trade Zack Greinke without having to absorb any of the $95.5MM still owed on the right-hander’s contract over the next three seasons., a source tells Morosi.  It’s a very short list of teams with the available payroll space and willingness to make such a big move, which is why Morosi feels the Phillies “are the most logical suitors.”  While the Phillies are also checking into a plethora of other pitching options (including Patrick Corbin and J.A. Happ), Greinke would cost the team less than Corbin would in a long-term commitment.  Acquiring Greinke would also come at a player cost, of course, though it’s possible Arizona would take only a relatively middling prospect return just for the sake of getting Greinke entirely off the books.
  • Speaking of Happ, the veteran left-hander is generating a lot of buzz in free agency.  In addition to the Phillies, the Angels, Astros, and Brewers are new teams who Morosi adds to the already-lengthy list of clubs (the Blue Jays, Reds, Twins, White Sox, and Yankees) who have previously been rumored to have some level of interest in Happ’s services.  Of the newly-cited teams, Milwaukee and Houston offer Happ the best chance of competing for a World Series in 2019, while the Angels and Phillies are a few steps behind at this point of the offseason, though obviously L.A. and Philadelphia each have designs on significant roster upgrades this winter.

Angels Acquire Dillon Peters From Marlins

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3:30pm: The two teams have announced the swap of Peters and Stevens. Peter will go on the Halos’ 40-man roster, while Stevens will not be added to Miami’s 40-man roster.

2:15pm: The Angels are putting the finishing touches on a trade with the Marlins that will send lefty Dillon Peters to Los Angeles, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (via Twitter). Righty Tyler Stevens is set to move to Miami in return.

If completed, the swap would send Peters onto the Halos’ 40-man roster. He was designated for assignment by Miami yesterday as the team looked to set its 40-man roster in advance of next month’s Rule 5 Draft. Though the 26-year-old has not found any success in his two attempts at the majors, he was viewed as one of the organization’s more promising arms at this time last year and considered to be a mostly MLB-ready starter. To this point, Peters has only worked as a starter, though as Fletcher notes, he experienced a velocity boost in 2018, so perhaps he’ll be given a shot to transition into a relief role.

As for the 22-year-old Stephens, he reached the Triple-A level in his second season as a pro after opening the year with excellent numbers at High-A and Double-A. But the right-handed reliever was drubbed at the highest level of the minors, surrendering 34 earned runs on 58 hits in just 28 frames — though he did still maintain a respectable combination of 11.6 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9. Stevens is still rather young for that level and was a quick riser through the Angels’ system last year, so he’ll hope for better results with some additional experience under his belt in a second run at the Triple-A level.

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