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Shaun Anderson Elects Free Agency

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The Angels announced that right-hander Shaun Anderson has cleared waivers and elected free agency. The Halos designated him for assignment earlier this week. He has the right to reject the outright assignment because he has a previous career outright.

Anderson, 30, has gone down this road before. The Angels signed him to a minor league deal in the winter. He was selected to the roster in May. He lasted about two weeks before getting bumped off the roster. Since he is out of options, he was designated for assignment. He cleared waivers and elected free agency but then re-signed with the Angels on a new minor league deal. The same sequence of events played out the next month, with Anderson on the roster for a few days in June.

The same script was followed this week, though at a quicker pace. Anderson was added to the roster on Monday. The Halos were leading the Dodgers 7-0 after seven innings. They put in Anderson to try to save their top bullpen arms, but it didn’t work out. Home runs by Shohei Ohtani and Max Muncy led to four runs going on the board, with Anderson only recording two outs.

The next day, he was designated for assignment for the third time this year. Like in the previous two instances, he has cleared waivers and exercised his right to test the open market. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he returns to the Angels on a new deal, as he has before. He has thrown 163 1/3 major league innings with a 6.39 earned run average. His minor league work has been better overall but he hasn’t been putting up great numbers this year. Pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, he has a 6.44 ERA in 81 innings in 2025.

Photo courtesy of Cary Edmondson, Imagn Images

Angels Notes: Anderson, Mederos, Campero, Stephenson

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Angels left-hander Tyler Anderson has had a shaky season, and the 35-year-old southpaw tells Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register that he’s been playing through a back injury throughout the year. Anderson’s most recent start was pushed from Tuesday back to Saturday in order to afford him some extra rest. Anderson described the discomfort as “on and off” but generally something he’s been able to pitch through. However, he acknowledged that it “flared up probably the worst it had been” this season after his most recent outing.

Anderson was tagged for four runs in four innings against the Rays in said start. That marked his sixth time in the veteran southpaw’s past ten trips to the mound that he yielded at least four runs. His ERA over that span is an unsightly 5.50 and has ballooned his season-long mark from 3.99 to its current 4.63.

This is the final season of Anderson’s three-year, $40MM deal with the Halos. At the time, it was the first multi-year deal for a free agent starting pitcher that owner Arte Moreno had authorized in a decade (though the Angels have since signed Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year deal as well). It’s not a promising note on which to end his season, though Anderson will hope that the extra rest can help him get back on track for a strong finish.

Anderson is far from the only struggling member of the Angels’ rotation. Righty Jack Kochanowicz has been optioned twice within the past month, understandably so after turning in a grisly 6.19 ERA with a 14.5% strikeout rate and 11.3% walk rate in 107 2/3 innings spread across 22 starts.

The struggles from the 24-year-old Kochanowicz have prompted a rotation change with some permanence. Another 24-year-old righty, Victor Mederos, appears set to serve as the Halos’ fifth starter for the time being, per Fletcher. The right-hander changed his arm slot and pitch mix this year, most notably swapping out his four-seamer for a sinker, and he’s found strong results in the upper minors thus far.

While Mederos has allowed five runs in eight big league innings, he’s sporting a 3.41 ERA in the hitter-friendly Triple-A Pacific Coast League. He’s not missing tons of bats (19% strikeout rate) but is sporting roughly average walk and ground-ball rates. Opponents have struggled to make hard contact against the righty, and he’ll get some opportunities to show he can stick on the big league staff down the stretch.

On the injury front, the Angels will be without outfielder Gustavo Campero for a significant period — perhaps the rest of the season. The 27-year-old was carted off the field with a lower-half injury earlier this week. He’s avoided a catastrophic injury, thankfully, but has still been diagnosed with a high ankle sprain, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger reports. The team hasn’t formally ruled Campero out for the rest of the year, but there’s a chance he won’t be able to make it back to the field.

In brighter Angels injury news, right-hander Robert Stephenson is setting out on a minor league rehab assignment today. Stephenson tells Erica Weston of FanDuel Sports West that he’ll make appearances with the Angels’ Triple-A club today and again on Sunday.

Stephenson, 32, signed a three-year, $33MM deal with the Angels in the 2023-24 offseason but missed the entire ’24 campaign due to Tommy John surgery. He briefly returned earlier this summer but pitched only one inning before heading back to the injured list — this time due to inflammation in his right biceps. He’s since been moved back to the 60-day IL but now finally appears to be nearing a return.

Stephenson’s rise from journeyman DFA candidate to high-leverage standout in 2023 was rapid. He was designated for assignment by the Rockies late in 2022, claimed off waivers by Pittsburgh and, in 2023, was flipped from the Pirates to the Rays in a minor June swap for minor league infielder Alika Williams.

While Stephenson had long proven capable of missing bats at a high level, he never put it all together until that trade to Tampa Bay. In 38 1/3 innings with the Rays, he posted a 2.35 ERA while punching out a colossal 42.9% of his opponents against just a 5.7% walk rate. Stephenson was averaging 96.8 mph on his four-seamer, and his gargantuan 24.8% swinging-strike rate (28.9% with the Rays) was the highest single-season mark by any pitcher (min. 40 innings) since Brad Lidge’s 25.1% mark back in 2004.

The first two years of that sizable free agent contract will go down as a wash, by and large, but if Stephenson can finish the year on a high note, it’d give the Angels a bit more optimism regarding their bullpen heading into the 2026 campaign.

Angels Outright Scott Kingery

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The Angels announced that infielder Scott Kingery has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Salt Lake. He had been designated for assignment earlier this week when righty Shaun Anderson was selected to the roster.

Kingery has the right to reject this assignment but likely won’t. Players with at least three years of major league service time have the right to reject outright assignments in favor of electing free agency. However, they need five years of service to do so while keep their remaining salary commitments intact. Kingery is in that three-to-five window. He and the Angels avoided arbitration in the offseason by agreeing to a $770K salary. There’s a little under $200K still to be paid out, so he would have to walk away from that money to hit the open market.

Once a notable prospect with the Phillies, he signed a $24MM extension with them back in 2018. At the time, that was a record for a player who had not yet made his major league debut. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to give the Phils the return they were expecting. He hit just .229/.280/.387 in 1,127 plate appearances for the Phillies. He was often passed through waivers as that extension ran its course, with no other club wanting to take it on.

That deal was done when the Angels brought him aboard and gave him a 40-man spot to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency. They agreed to the aforementioned arbitration salary and then passed him through waivers prior to Opening Day. Due to the aforementioned conditions, Kingery accepted an outright assignment in March, sticking around as a non-roster depth player who could slot in at multiple defensive positions.

He was added back to the 40-man in May but has largely been on optional assignment. He got into 14 games for the Halos and took 27 plate appearances. He produced a .160/.222/.200 batting line in those and now has a .228/.279/.382 line for his career. In Triple-A this year, he has a .256/.317/.424 line. In the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League, that translates to a 78 wRC+, indicating he’s been about 22% below league average.

Assuming he accepts this assignment and rejoins the Bees, he’ll look to play his way back to the majors. If not added back to the 40-man by season’s end, he’ll be able to elect minor league free agency, as is the case for all players with at least three years of service who are removed from a 40-man during a season.

Photo courtesy of David Richard, Imagn Images

Angels Designate Shaun Anderson For Assignment

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The Angels announced that they have recalled infielder Niko Kavadas and right-hander Víctor Mederos from Triple-A Salt Lake. In corresponding moves, they have placed outfielder Gustavo Campero on the 10-day injured list with a left ankle sprain and designated right-hander Shaun Anderson for assignment.

Anderson was just selected to the roster yesterday. On Sunday, starter Jack Kochanowicz had lasted just three innings. Carson Fulmer came in from the bullpen to mop up five innings of long relief. With Fulmer likely unavailable for a few days, the Halos optioned out Kochanowicz and selected Anderson to give them a fresh arm.

In last night’s game against the Dodgers, the Angels had a 7-0 lead through seven. Starter José Soriano had put up six zeroes and then Luis García put up one more. They tried to spare their high-leverage arms by putting Anderson in to pitch the eighth. Unfortunately, he only recorded two outs, allowing four earned runs along the way. That included a solo home run to Shohei Ohtani and a three-run shot to Max Muncy.

That performance has led to Anderson getting bumped off the roster approximately 24 hours after being added. He is out of options, so the Angels had to remove him from the 40-man entirely. With the trade deadline having passed, he’ll be on waivers shortly. He cleared waivers a couple of months back and could do so again. If that comes to pass, he’ll have the right to elect free agency since he has a previous career outright. He has 163 1/3 big league innings under his belt with a 6.39 earned run average.

Mederos is starting for the Halos tonight. As mentioned, Kochanowicz was optioned out. Also, Tyler Anderson has back stiffness, per Sam Blum of The Athletic. It’s unclear if this is just a spot start or if Mederos will having a rotation role for a while. Mederos will be pitching on just three days rest, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. Interim manager Ray Montgomery says he thinks Mederos can still take on a fairly normal workload since he only tossed 52 pitches last time out.

The 24-year-old Mederos has a limited major league track record but is having a decent season in Triple-A. He has tossed 87 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.39 ERA, 18.6% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 40.2% ground ball rate.

Photo courtesy of Cary Edmondson, Imagn Images

Angels Select Shaun Anderson, Designate Scott Kingery For Assignment

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The Angels announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Shaun Anderson. Fellow righty Jack Kochanowicz has been optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake in a corresponding active roster move. To open a 40-man spot, infielder Scott Kingery has been designated for assignment.

This is the second time this year Kochanowicz has been optioned down to the minors. The first was just before the All-Star break, reducing the number of actual games he would miss with the 15-day minimal stint. He was recalled in late July and has made three more starts since then. The most recent one was yesterday, which did not go well. He allowed seven runs, six earned, in just three innings against the Tigers.

Long reliever Carson Fulmer came in and tossed five innings to get the Angels through the rest of the game, throwing 85 pitches in the process. Presumably, Fulmer won’t be available for a few days, so they’ve made these moves to get Anderson into the mix. He’s been starting in Triple-A and should be able to absorb some innings out of the bullpen, if the Angels need such a performance while Fulmer is out of action.

Anderson has tossed 10 2/3 innings over six appearances for the Halos this year, allowing nine earned runs on 16 hits and three walks while striking out ten opponents. In his 81 Triple-A innings, he has a 6.44 earned run average, 17.9% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate.

The Halos will have to replace Kochanowicz in the rotation but not immediately. José Soriano, Tyler Anderson and Kyle Hendricks are slated to start the next three games. The club is off on Thursday and could go with Yusei Kikuchi on Friday, followed by Soriano, Anderson and Hendricks on normal rest. That means the Angels could postpone the decision on a fifth starter/spot starter for about a week.

They are also off on the two following Thursdays, so perhaps they could survive for a while with a four-man rotation and occasional bullpen days. They also have guys like Caden Dana and Víctor Mederos on the 40-man and starting in Triple-A, so calling one of them up for a spot start or two is a possibility.

Kingery, 31, has mostly been in a depth role for the Angels this year. He has appeared in 14 big league games, producing a .160/.222/.200 line in 27 plate appearances. His minor league work has been better but still subpar. His .271/.337/.452 line at Triple-A this year looks nice but actually translates to a 91 wRC+ in the context of the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

Once a notable prospect with the Phillies, Kingery signed a pre-debut extension with that club, though he never developed into the regular player the Phils were hoping for. That deal has since expired. The Halos acquired him ahead of this season and agreed to a $770K salary to avoid arbitration. Kingery has more than three years of service time but less than five. That means he has the right to reject an outright assignment but has to forfeit his remaining salary commitments in order to do so.

Back in March, Kingery cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Salt Lake. He accepted that assignment, which allowed him to get selected back to the roster in May. It’s possible the same sequence of events plays out in the coming days, which would allow the Angels to keep him as non-roster depth for the rest of the season.

Photo courtesy of Cary Edmondson, Imagn Images

Poll: Who Had The Best Deadline In The AL West?

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The trade deadline has come and gone. While trade season was slow to get started this year, when all was said and done, there were several dozen trades made in a flurry of movement over the final few days before the deadline arrived. The full impact of these trades won’t be known for years to come, but that doesn’t mean we can’t analyze the deals and decide whose haul looks the best right now. Over the next week-plus, MLBTR will be running a series of polls asking which club in each division had the best deadline. So far, the Phillies, Reds, and Padres have each come out on top in their respective divisions. Today, we’ll be moving on to the American League with the AL West. A look at each of the five clubs, listed from best to worst record in 2025:

Houston Astros

The Astros made one of the most shocking moves of the deadline when they brought Carlos Correa home in a trade with the Twins. Adding Correa back to the mix creates something of a positional logjam on the infield for the club in the long-term, but with third baseman Isaac Paredes unlikely to return this season due to a severe hamstring injury, Correa shores up the infield in a big way and cost the club virtually nothing other than money. Two more players were acquired to help round out the club’s position player mix: infielder Ramon Urias and outfielder Jesus Sanchez.

All three are controlled beyond the 2025 season, and while Sanchez cost the Astros rookie right-hander Ryan Gusto, no upper-level prospects changed hands in the club’s trio of deals. That ability to add long-term talent without surrendering the best prospects in the system was impressive, though the roughly $70MM they’ll be paying Correa over the life of his contract is a significant outlay and they failed to add the starting pitcher they were hoping could fill out the middle of the rotation behind Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown.

Seattle Mariners

The Mariners’ moves at the deadline were arguably even splashier than those in Houston. While the club acquired three rental players without any team control beyond the current campaign, it’s hard to argue against the fact that they’ve significantly upped their chances of winning both the AL West and even the World Series this year. Adding Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor to the infield corners in separate deals with the Diamondbacks represents a sizable upgrade over Luke Raley and Ben Williamson.

Meanwhile, the return (Tyler Locklear and a quartet of pitching prospects outside of Top 100 consideration) was lighter than what was required to bring in high-end controllable talents at this deadline. The Caleb Ferguson trade with the Pirates follows a similar path. The swap gives a club in need of left-handed help in the bullpen a steady, capable setup man who throws from the left side and can partner with Gabe Speier. That deal cost only Class-A pitching prospect Jeter Martinez, who has a 6.18 ERA in 16 starts this year. The Mariners opted to maximize short-term impact while doing so on a budget, and if they can overtake Houston in the West down the stretch, it would be hard to argue with them as the winners of the deadline.

Texas Rangers

With one-and-a-half games currently sitting between the Rangers and a postseason berth, it’s understandable that they acted quite aggressively this trade season. The focus of their haul was a trio of veterans: starter Merrill Kelly, setup lefty Danny Coulombe, and relief arm Phil Maton. Kelly stands out as arguably the best starting pitcher traded this summer, and the high cost (by the standards of a rental player) reflects that. The Rangers had to surrender their #5, #9, and #13 prospects according to MLB.com to get the deal done. Coulombe and Maton weren’t quite that expensive, but cost Texas a trio of prospects led by southpaw Garrett Horn, who was recently added to the club’s top 30 prospects list over at Baseball America at #25.

Shelling out significant prospect talent in order to make a serious run at a Wild Card berth is understandable, but what’s worth noting is that the Rangers also blew past the luxury tax in order to make those additions. Texas had worked meticulously throughout the season in order to stay below the first threshold and reset their penalties, but all of that work has now been thrown out in an effort to maximize their odds at making the postseason in 2025. The potential impact is clearly significant, but was that worth it for a team not even in playoff position on deadline day?

Los Angeles Angels

The Angels had a quiet deadline that was somewhat incongruent with their status as fringe (at best) contenders. The Halos are currently six games out of an AL Wild Card spot with a middling 55-60 record, but that didn’t stop them from doing some light buying this summer. Adding former top prospect Oswald Peraza in a minor swap with the Yankees made some sense, given the club’s long-term needs on the infield, Peraza’s many years of remaining team control and a low cost of acquisition.

Acquiring a pair of rental veterans for their bullpen in the form of Andrew Chafin and Luis Garcia was a bit more questionable, but the cost do so was low. Former 13th-round pick Sam Brown and 26-year-old lefty Jake Eder (whom the Angels had picked up off waivers earlier in the year) went back to the Nats in that swap.

The Angels didn’t really damage the farm, but they missed an opportunity to listen on players like Yoan Moncada, Taylor Ward, Luis Rengifo, and maybe even Reid Detmers. Selling even some short-term pieces could have helped restock a farm system that’s been viewed as below-average for quite some time. The urge to push in during a rare, mostly-healthy season for Mike Trout is an understandable one, but it’s hard to say with confidence that doing so was the right move.

The Athletics

Unlike the rest of the division, the Athletics were sellers this summer. They made just two trades. Shipping Miguel Andujar to the Reds wasn’t a major move but netted a 2022 fourth-rounder (right-hander Kenya Huggins) who now sits 25th among their prospects at MLB.com.

The vast majority of their deadline focused on the single biggest blockbuster that happened this July: the deal that sent closer Mason Miller and lefty starter JP Sears to the Padres. Acquiring a consensus top-five prospect in the sport by bringing in Leo De Vries is arguably enough to win the deadline by itself, but he was also joined by well-regarded prospects Braden Nett and Henry Baez, Double-A starters who could be part of the rotation mix in West Sacramento sometime next year.

Rounding out the package is rookie reliever Eduarniel Nunez, who struggled in his first appearances with the A’s but could bolster their bullpen in the future. It was a very strong return, with De Vries in particular standing out as the sort of elite prospect that almost never gets dealt at all, much less in a deadline trade for a reliever. On the other hand, giving up Miller with four-plus years of team control remaining (not to mention the possibility he could be converted into a rotation role in the future to further raise his value) could make this deal a tough pill to swallow, particularly if the 18-year-old De Vries does not blossom into an All-Star caliber player.

A number of different approaches characterized this deadline for the AL West. The Rangers and Mariners were very aggressive on bringing in short-term additions, while the Astros focused on bringing in controllable talent, the A’s brought in a haul for the future and the Angels largely stood pat. Who had the best deadline of that quintet? Have your say in the poll below:

Kenley Jansen Aiming To Pitch “At Least” Four More Years

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Kenley Jansen will turn 38 in September, but the Angels righty isn’t planning on calling it a career anytime soon. The big righty tells Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register that his hope is to pitch for “at least” four additional seasons beyond the current campaign. That’d take Jansen into his early 40s and would also give him a clear runway to achieve some historic saves totals.

Jansen is currently fourth all-time with 467 saves. He’s just 11 saves behind Lee Smith for third-most in baseball history. He could theoretically reach that threshold this season, and if he finds his way into closing gigs in subsequent seasons, he’ll climb further into rarefied air. As things stand, Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman are the only two pitchers in MLB history to reach 500 and 600 saves. Jansen could realistically join the 500 club next year. A run at 600 would be unlikely but not completely implausible if he can continue pitching at his current level.

The 2025 season hasn’t been the best of Jansen’s career by any means, but he’s still an effective endgame option in Anaheim. He’s pitched 42 innings with a 2.79 ERA, 23.3% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate and gone 20-for-21 in save opportunities. Playing for a sub-.500 Angels club hasn’t afforded him the same number of closing opportunities he might expect on a winning roster, but he’s maximized the chances he’s received.

Based on his 2025 performance, there’s little reason to think Jansen can’t keep going for at least another year or two. Four-plus is ambitious, of course, but he’s shown minimal signs of slowing down. The 92.8 mph Jansen is averaging on his cutter isn’t demonstrably slower than peak levels. He sat 93 mph with the pitch from 2013-17. Jansen has given up more hard contact this season, with a career-high average exit velocity (92.3 mph) and hard-hit rate (43.7%).

Most of that hard contact came earlier in the year, though. He’s on an otherworldly run right now, with 18 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings and an 18-to-4 K/BB ratio along the way. He’s yielded only nine hits in that span, and opponents are averaging just 89.4 mph off the bat with a 39.3% hard-hit rate. His cutter isn’t moving as much as it used to, so he’s missing fewer bats, but he’s still sporting a league-average strikeout rate and swinging-strike rate. Coupled with good command and more than a decade of experience pitching the ninth inning, that’s been plenty to keep Jansen effective even if he isn’t the utterly dominant bullpen powerhouse he once was.

Jansen spoke highly of his time with the Angels when chatting with Fletcher and sounded amenable to a reunion. In a separate piece, Fletcher wrote that GM Perry Minasian lauded Jansen’s leadership and clubhouse presence when discussing the decision not to trade his closer prior to the deadline:

“He’s somebody that affects everybody, not only our pitchers in the bullpen, but our young rotation, our young position players. His pedigree, his desire to win games, I think, is more than welcomed, obviously, in this place and in this clubhouse.”

There’s no clear ninth-inning heir for the Halos — particularly not with flamethrower Ben Joyce on the shelf following May shoulder surgery — and owner Arte Moreno is loath to ever entertain the idea of going into any kind of rebuild. All of that would seem to bode well for a potential return in 2026, though Jansen should have plenty of other clubs interested if he ends up getting back to the open market. The Mets, Tigers, Cubs and Blue Jays were among the other teams that looked into him during free agency this past offseason.

Angels, Cavan Biggio Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Angels are in agreement with infielder Cavan Biggio on a minor league deal, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake. Biggio was released by the Royals last week.

Biggio broke camp with K.C. after signing an offseason minor league contract. He appeared in 37 games, hitting .174/.296/.246 with one home run in 83 trips to the plate. He had hit far better in Triple-A, slashing .285/.375/.464 over 41 contests. Biggio’s lack of production against big league pitching pushed him off the roster last week, as the Royals needed to open a 40-man spot to activate Hunter Harvey from the injured list.

The lefty-hitting Biggio has been a well below-average hitter in consecutive seasons. He combined for a .197/.314/.303 line across 225 plate appearances with three teams a year ago. Biggio continues to take a lot of walks, as he has throughout his career. His power production has plummeted since his first two seasons with the Blue Jays. Biggio’s extremely patient approach also comes with strikeouts, as he also takes a lot of pitches within the strike zone.

Biggio has more experience at second base than any other position. He only logged 10 1/3 innings there for Kansas City. The Royals used him most frequently in the corner outfield and at first base with occasional second and third base work. The Angels have Nolan Schanuel, Christian Moore and Luis Rengifo at the non-shortstop infield positions. They acquired Oswald Peraza as a defensive option off the bench, while Niko Kavadas is on the MLB roster as a lefty-swinging first baseman.

Angels Outright José Quijada

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The Angels have sent left-hander José Quijada outrighted to Triple-A Salt Lake, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week.

Quijada, 29, has the right to elect free agency but it’s unlikely he will do so. Players with at least three years of service time have the right to reject outright assignments and head to the open market. But if they have less than five years, they have to forfeit any remaining salary commitments in order to exercise that right. Quijada is in that three-to-five-year window. He and the Angels avoided arbitration in the offseason by agreeing to a $1.075MM salary. There’s a little over $300K still to be paid out. Presumably, he’ll want to collect that money and will report to Salt Lake.

That sequence of events played out in March, leaving Quijada as non-roster depth for the Halos. He was selected back to the big league roster a week before the deadline. He made two scoreless appearances but was bumped back off the roster when the Angels acquired Andrew Chafin and Luis García from the Nationals.

Quijada now returns to the depth role he’s been in for most of this year. He had some good results for the Angels earlier in his career but missed most of the 2023 and 2024 seasons due to Tommy John surgery. This year, the Angels had him with the Double-A Trash Pandas prior to his promotion. He put up good numbers there, with a 2.73 earned run average in 26 1/3 innings. His 8.6% walk rate and 42.6% ground ball rate were both decent figures, while his 37.1% strikeout rate was quite strong.

He’ll now report to Salt Lake, which should be more of a challenge. In addition to simply being one level closer to the majors, the Bees play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He’ll try to put up some good numbers there and position himself to be called back up when the Angels next need a fresh arm in the big leagues.

Photo courtesy of Kirby Lee, Imagn Images

Angels Release LaMonte Wade Jr.

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The Angels have released first baseman and outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. and selected the contract of outfielder Bryce Teodosio, per a team announcement. The moves were first reported by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. The club also announced that infielder Kevin Newman has been released after he was designated for assignment on the day of the trade deadline to make room for infielder Oswald Peraza on the 40-man roster.

Wade, 31, was a ninth-round pick by the Twins back in 2015 and appeared in 42 games for the club early in his career before joining the Giants prior to the 2021 season. In San Francisco, Wade established himself as a quality first baseman with a .248/.352/.415 slash line (115 wRC+) between 2021 and 2024. After crushing 18 homers in his first 381 plate appearances with the club in 2021, he posted below-average numbers (93 wRC+) in a 2022 campaign derailed by both knee and hamstring issues.

After returning to health in time for the 2023 season, Wade lacked the power he had flashed in his first season with San Francisco but made up for it by serving as one of the league’s top on-base threats. While it was a non-traditional profile for a first baseman, it was nonetheless an effective one. Wade slashed .258/.376/.401 with a wRC+ of 120 over the 2023 and ’24 seasons, and only ten players posted a higher on-base percentage that him during those two seasons: Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Yordan Alvarez, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Bryce Harper, Christian Yelich, and Kyle Tucker. It’s a list stacked with superstars and MVP candidates.

Given that elite company Wade found himself in, his fall from grace this year has been shocking. In 50 games with the Giants this year, Wade maintained his trademark plate discipline with a 20.7% strikeout rate against a 12.4% walk rate. A combination of a comically low .211 BABIP and a complete lack of power left Wade as a deeply unproductive bat in the club’s lineup, however, as he hit just .167/.275/.271 (59 wRC+) in 169 plate appearances. The production was weak enough that the Giants ultimately opted to designate him for assignment in early June. He was traded to the Angels just a few days later, and the Halos had plans to include him in their outfield mix going forward.

It’s a plan that did not work out particularly well. Wade performed even worse in Anaheim than he had been in San Francisco, posting a brutal 38 wRC+ as his plate discipline left him. He struck out in 31.5% of his 73 plate appearances with the Angels and walked at just an 8.5% clip. Now that he’s been released, he’ll be free to sign with any club with interest in his services. His poor performance this year might leave him relegated only to minor league deals, but there are surely teams around the league in need of first base depth as they gear up for the stretch run who would be interested in giving Wade a shot to prove himself for their team in the minor leagues.

Replacing Wade on the roster is Teodosio, who made his big league debut with the Angels last year before being outrighted off their 40-man roster during the offseason. He has just five games of big league experience under his belt but immediately becomes the best defensive center fielder on the club’s roster. A career .281/.342/.426 hitter at the Triple-A level in spite of playing in the Pacific Coast League’s inflated offensive environment, Teodosio is unlikely to offer much with the bat. Even so, he swiped 40 bases in 114 games last year and can provide plenty of value both defensively and on the bases for the club going forward.

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