Angels Rumors

Injury Notes: Hill, Ethier, AGon, Bailey, Melancon, Mariners, Kluber, Gray

By Jeff Todd | May 12, 2017 at 9:38pm CDT

Here’s the latest on some notable health situations from around the game:

The Dodgers have updates on a number of players. Lefty Rich Hill is going to return as a starter, but if his blister issue recurs then the team will consider moving him into some kind of relief role, manager Dave Roberts tells MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (Twitter link). The timeline remains a ways off for outfielder Andre Ethier, meanwhile. He’s still not able to run without feeling pain in his back, Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times reports, making it seem unlikely he’d be able to return early July. Finally, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez is expected to begin a rehab assignment next week, Alanna Rizzo of Sportsnet LA tweets. He may only require two or three games before returning.
On the other side of the city, the Angels are sending righty Andrew Bailey for a visit with Dr. David Altchek, as Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times tweets. The reliever “felt something” in his shoulder during a recent throwing session. Shoulder issues have kept him on the DL all year.
Further north, the Giants have cause for hope that closer Mark Melancon will require only the brief DL timeline the club had charted when he was taken off the active roster. As Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on Twitter, Melancon is reporting reduced symptoms in his forearm. The righty will test things out by playing catch tomorrow.
Continuing up the coast, the Mariners also have a smattering of health updates of note, as Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune reports. Key young talents James Paxton and Mitch Haniger are moving in the right direction, with the hope still being that they’ll return before the month is out. Reliever Steve Cishek is also close. But Felix Hernandez is going to rest his ailing shoulder a bit more, leaving his timeline somewhat cloudy, and it’s still not clear what to expect from Hisashi Iwakuma.
Indians righty Corey Kluber is moving slowly in his rehab, Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal reports. Out with lower back issues, Kluber has begun throwing from flat ground but still hasn’t taken the hill. Manager Terry Francona did say that the team is seeing progress, though perhaps the biggest test is yet to come.
Rockies staff ace Jon Gray is also taking longer than had been hoped, as Nick Groke of the Denver Post writes. Gray is still in a walking boot while his broken left foot heals, though the hope seems to be he’ll be ready to shed that soon. While Gray has been able to continue throwing, he’ll obviously need to boost his conditioning and ensure his foot is at full health before undertaking at least some kind of rehab assignment.

AL West Notes: Cotton, Alonso, Paxton, Ramirez

By Steve Adams | May 11, 2017 at 4:34pm CDT

The Athletics announced on Thursday that right-hander Jharel Cotton has been optioned to Triple-A Nashville. While Cotton has been impressive at times, he’s also allowed five or more runs in three of his starts, including a seven-run drubbing at the hands of the Angels on Tuesday. As Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes, GM David Forst suggested that Cotton merely needs to improve his consistency and may not be long for the minors. ““Jharel has pitched better than what his overall line shows,” said the GM. “…[H]e just needs some more consistency with his performance. The bottom line is that we currently have six starters who are probably deserving of being in the big leagues; Jharel needs to continue to improve in Nashville so he’s ready when the next opportunity arises.” Cotton’s demotion will clear a spot in the rotation for lefty Sean Manaea, who is returning from shoulder troubles early next week. Manaea will be joined by Sonny Gray, Kendall Graveman, Andrew Triggs and Jesse Hahn in the starting five.

Padres Claim Jose Valdez From Angels

By Steve Adams | May 10, 2017 at 1:09pm CDT

The Padres announced that they have claimed right-hander Jose Valdez off waivers from the Angels and optioned him to Triple-A El Paso. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, San Diego transferred left-hander Christian Friedrich from the 10-day disabled list to the 60-day DL.

The 27-year-old Valdez threw just one inning with the Halos this season but logged 23 1/3 frames out of their bullpen in 2016. In 33 Major League innings between Detroit and Anaheim, Valdez has a 4.59 ERA with an unsightly 27-to-21 K/BB ratio and a 37.5 percent ground-ball rate. However, Valdez does boast a fastball that has averaged 95.5 mph in his big league career, and he’s logged an even 3.00 ERA in 105 Triple-A innings (albeit with similar control issues).

Minor MLB Transactions: 5/9/17

By Jeff Todd | May 9, 2017 at 9:50pm CDT

Here are the day’s minor moves:

Angels lefty John Lamb has received a fifty-game suspension for his second positive test for a drug of abuse, as Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times was among those to tweet. The 26-year-old received 24 MLB starts over 2015-16 with the Reds, who acquired him in the Johnny Cueto deal. But he struggled to a 6.17 ERA in that span, striking out 8.7 batters per nine while issuing 3.8 walks per nine and allowing 142 base hits — 22 of them long balls. Lamb caught on with the Halos on a minors deal after he was cut loose by Cincinnati over the winter.
The Dodgers have inked lefty Logan Darnell to a minors pact, as Triple-A Oklahoma City broadcaster/media relations director Alex Freedman announced on Twitter. Darnell, 28, has 24 MLB frames under his belt, all of those coming in 2014 with the Twins. Last year, he worked to a 3.53 ERA over 109 2/3 Triple-A frames. He wasn’t exactly generating great results with the indy ball Somerset Patriots, but evidently showed enough to catch the eye of the Dodgers’ brass.
Righty Justin De Fratus has signed a minor-league deal with the Mariners, the indy ball Southern Maryland Blue Crabs announced on Twitter. De Fratus, 29, spent parts of five years in the majors with the Phillies. But he struggled in 2015 and then bounced around the minors last season.
The Cardinals have released reliever Mitch Harris, as Glenn Sattell of MLB.com reports. The 31-year-old has continued to struggle with elbow issues. He had made a notable big league debut in 2015, making it to the majors after putting his professional career on hold during a stint in the Navy. The Naval Academy grad worked 27 innings of 3.67 ERA ball that year, though he managed only 5.0 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9 in that stretch.

Doug Fister Close To Signing; Mets Not Involved

By Steve Adams | May 9, 2017 at 10:11am CDT

10:11am: Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that the Mets are not signing Fister. He characterizes the Angels as one of multiple “serious considerations” for Fister.

9:48am: Free-agent right-hander Doug Fister is close to signing with a yet-unreported team, per Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports (Twitter link). Though Fister has had interest from both the AL and NL, he’s likely to land with a National League club, per Heyman. In a second tweet, Heyman notes that the D-backs are “in the mix” on Fister, adding that he hasn’t heard much tying him to the Mets as of late. SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets that the Mets, D-backs, Giants, Angels and Blue Jays have all been in the mix to varying extents.

From the listed teams, the Mets jump out as the club in most dire need of rotation reinforcements, as New York has lost Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and Seth Lugo to injuries already, while right-handers Matt Harvey, Robert Gsellman and Zack Wheeler have all struggled thus far in 2017. The Mets are hopeful that Matz and Lugo will be able to return in late May or early June, though there’s no guarantee that either comes back at full strength just yet. And Wheeler, of course, is on an innings limit in 2017 after missing the entire 2015 and 2016 seasons due to Tommy John surgery.

The D-backs, of course, have had their own brush with injuries, having lost right-hander Shelby Miller for the season due to a torn ulnar collateral ligament that necessitated Tommy John surgery. Arizona, though, seemingly has better depth at the upper levels of its farm, with Braden Shipley, Anthony Banda and Zack Godley among the potential rotation options currently in Triple-A (to say nothing of right-hander Archie Bradley, who is currently in the Major League bullpen but could likely start if deemed necessary).

As for the Giants, they lost Madison Bumgarner for what will likely be most of the first half of the season, if not more, due to a controversial dirtbike accident that resulted in a shoulder injury. None of the Giants’ other starters — Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Matt Moore, Matt Cain or Ty Blach — has mustered an ERA south of 4.50 on the season. The Giants also traded one of their upper-level depth options, Clayton Blackburn, to the Rangers earlier this year. However, with Tyler Beede and Chris Stratton both in Triple-A, the Giants do possess some upper-level options should they decide to shuffle the rotation.

The Angels and Blue Jays, of course, both have plenty of cause to seek rotation help as well. However, Heyman seems to suggest that an AL club isn’t as likely, and that’s a logical line of thinking for Fister, who could likely post better numbers in the National League.

It should be noted that Fister is hardly a quick fix for any team’s rotation; the right-hander will almost certainly need a fair amount of time to ramp up before he’s ready to join a Major League rotation. And while he comes with plenty of name value, Fister’s fastball has been in the 86-87 mph range in recent seasons. Unsurprisingly, there’s been a corresponding dip in his effectiveness. Last year he proved a durable rotation piece for the Astros (32 starts) but logged just a 4.64 ERA with 5.7 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9 in 180 1/3 innings.

2018 Vesting Options Update

By Steve Adams | May 9, 2017 at 8:26am CDT

Each year, the free-agent class is impacted by the performance of players with vesting options (as is the financial future of players with said provisions in their contract). For those unfamiliar with the option, a vesting option is typically (though not always) a club option that can automatically trigger based on the player’s health and/or performance. Meeting pre-determined criteria for games played, innings pitched and plate appearances are the most common ways of triggering a vesting option. Some also require that a player avoid the DL at the end of the season and/or for a certain number of games over the course of the year.

Here’s a look at all of the 2018 player options that can automatically trigger based on the players’ 2017 performance…

Matt Cain: The 2017 campaign is the final season of a six-year, $127.5MM extension that Cain signed with the Giants on April 2, 2012. Prior to that point, Cain had been one of the most durable and efficient starters in the NL, but injuries have completely derailed Cain’s career since that 2012 season. Cain hasn’t thrown more than 90 1/3 innings since 2013, and so far he’s delivered just a 4.64 ERA in 455 1/3 innings over the five extra years of control the Giants bought out. If he can reach 200 innings this season and is not on the disabled list due to elbow or shoulder troubles to end the year, his $21.5MM club option would become guaranteed. However, he’s averaging fewer than 5 1/3 innings per start in 2017, and his previous health woes make that decidedly unlikely. His option comes with a $7.5MM buyout, which seems like an inevitable outcome.
Andre Ethier: Ethier batted .273/.351/.429 through the first three seasons of his five-year, $85MM extension (including particularly strong efforts in 2013 and 2015), but he played in just 16 games last season and has been on the disabled list for the entire 2017 season (herniated disk in his lower back). His $17.5MM club option would automatically vest with 550 plate appearances this season, but that’s obviously not going to happen, so he’ll receive a $2.5MM buyout instead.
Matt Garza: Garza’s four-year, $50MM contract with the Brewers contained one of the more convoluted vesting options in recent memory. Injury concerns surrounding Garza allowed the club to land a team option valued at a base of just $5MM. However, had Garza made 110 starts over the contract’s four years, pitched 115 innings in 2017 and avoided the DL at the end of the 2017 season, the option would’ve become guaranteed at $13MM. On the other side of the coin, the Brewers would’ve been able to pick it up at just $1MM had Garza missed 130 or more days during any single season of the contract. Neither of those scenarios will play out at this point, though. All of that is a long-winded way of saying that Garza’s option won’t be vesting at $13MM and will come at a potentially reasonable rate of $5MM.
Gio Gonzalez: Gonzalez’s five-year, $42MM extension came with a $12MM club option for the 2017 season (which was exercised) and a $12MM club/vesting option for the 2018 campaign. If the left-hander reaches 180 innings this season, he’ll be locked in at $12MM next season. For a player as durable as Gonzalez, who averaged 31 starts per year from 2010-16, that seems simple enough. But, Gonzalez has had difficulty working deep into games and has not crossed the 180-inning threshold since 2013. This season, though, he’s already racked up 44 1/3 innings through seven starts — an average of about 6 1/3 frames per outing. He’d need only 29 starts at that pace to trigger the option. And even if he doesn’t sustain that innings pace, if he can avoid the DL and average even 5 1/3 to 5 2/3 innings per start for the rest of the year, he’d accrue enough innings to guarantee that option. Of course, if Gonzalez delivers anything close to the 3.57 ERA he’s turned in through parts of six seasons as a National, the team will likely pick up the option even if it doesn’t vest.
J.J. Hardy: Hardy decided to forgo the open market at the end of the 2014 season, instead re-upping with Orioles in early October on a three-year, $40MM deal. His contract comes with a $14MM club option ($2MM buyout) that could automatically vest in the event that Hardy reaches 600 plate appearances this season. Hardy, however, has reached that total just twice in six previous seasons with the Orioles, and he’s hitting a mere .196/.232/.252 through his first 113 plate appearances in 2017. Based on his recent health track record, it could be considered unlikely that he stays healthy enough to trigger the option. But if he does remain healthy and doesn’t turn things around at the plate, the O’s won’t have a hard time justifying a reduction in playing time to prevent the option from vesting.
Greg Holland: Holland signed a one-year, $7MM deal with a mutual option for the 2018 season, though so long as he remains healthy it’s effectively a two-year, $22MM contract with a player option/opt-out provision. Holland’s $10MM mutual option becomes a $15MM player option if he appears in 50 total games or finishes 30 games in 2017. He’s come out of the gate roaring as a dominant closer in Colorado, just as he was in Kansas City. Holland has already finished 14 games, meaning he needs just 16 more to trigger that player option and secure the right to re-enter the open market. An injury seems like the only thing that will stand in Holland’s way, as he’s currently sporting a 1.29 ERA with a 17-to-5 K/BB ratio, a career-best 51.6 percent ground-ball rate and a 93.9 mph average fastball through his first 14 innings.
Hisashi Iwakuma: After injury concerns stemming from Iwakuma’s physical caused the Dodgers to back out of a reported three-year, $45MM agreement in the 2015-16 offseason, Iwakuma instead returned to the Mariners on a one-year deal with a pair of vesting options. Iwakuma needed 162 innings to trigger his 2017 option, and he needed either 162 innings in 2017 or 324 innings between 2016-17 to trigger his $10MM option for the 2018 season. The 36-year-old racked up 199 innings last year, meaning he now needs just 125 innings in 2017, though he must also avoid the disabled list at season’s end as well. Iwakuma has barely averaged five innings per outing (31 through six starts), but he also needs just 94 more innings this year for that option to kick in.
Ricky Nolasco: Nolasco’s option isn’t a standard vesting option, but his $13MM club option would become a player option with 400 innings pitched between 2016-17. The 34-year-old logged 197 2/3 innings last year, meaning he’d need 202 1/3 innings in 2017 in order to convert his option. That’s a total that Nolasco has reached only twice in his career, and he’s not on pace to approach that number through his first seven starts of the season. If Nolasco were to make the same number of starts as last season (32), he’d need to average nearly 6 2/3 innings per outing for the rest of the season to reach that level. If he ties his career-high with 33 starts, he’d need to average 6 1/3 frames through season’s end. It’s technically possible that Nolasco does end up with a $13MM player option, but the likelier scenario is that the Halos will choose between a $13MM club option and a $1MM buyout. (Thanks to MLBTR commenters paytoplay and jdobson1822 for pointing out Nolasco’s option.)

Cot’s Contracts was used in the creation of this post.

Five Teams Interested In Doug Fister

By Connor Byrne | May 7, 2017 at 10:41am CDT

A month after they first drew a connection to free agent right-hander Doug Fister, the Mets are still considering signing the 33-year-old, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. New York was among four teams to watch Fister throw last week, joining the Blue Jays, Diamondbacks and Angels, reports Cotillo, who adds that the Giants also took a recent look at him.

The Mets’ rotation is in far worse straits than it was when they were eyeing Fister in early April. Ace Noah Syndergaard has since landed on the disabled list with a partially torn right lat, and he’s unlikely to return until after the All-Star break. Meanwhile, Steven Matz and Seth Lugo still haven’t pitched this year as a result of elbow problems, and Matt Harvey, Robert Gsellman and Zack Wheeler have logged subpar results. In the Mets’ view, Harvey also hasn’t been a model member of the organization behind the scenes, evidenced by the three-day suspension he’s currently serving.

The other four teams targeting Fister have also seen their rotations deal with injuries. Two of Toronto’s top starters, Aaron Sanchez and J.A. Happ, are on the DL. Arizona lost Shelby Miller to a season-ending elbow injury last month, leaving it without an obvious solution to team with Zack Greinke, Robbie Ray, Taijuan Walker and Patrick Corbin. Los Angeles is without two of its starters, Garrett Richards and Tyler Skaggs, both of whom are on the DL. Lastly, San Francisco’s ace, Madison Bumgarner, will sit out until at least midsummer thanks to a dirt bike accident, and fellow starters Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Matt Moore, Matt Cain and Ty Blach have recorded mediocre to poor results in the early going.

Like the Giants’ starters, the soft-tossing Fister hasn’t been all that effective of late. Once a legitimate middle-of-the-rotation arm (if not more), Fister produced like a back-end type with the Nationals and Astros from 2015-16, posting a 4.48 ERA and a 4.68 FIP in 283 1/3 innings. Further, whether he signs a major league deal or a minor league pact, Fister will surely need some time to tune up at the lower levels before potentially contributing in the big leagues this season.

Angels Acquire Damien Magnifico; Designate Jose Valdez For Assignment

By Mark Polishuk | May 6, 2017 at 3:05pm CDT

The Angels have acquired right-hander Damien Magnifico from the Orioles in exchange for righty Jordan Kipper. Both teams have announced the deal, and both players have been assigned to their new clubs’ respective Triple-A affiliates. The Angels have also designated right-hander Jose Valdez for assignment to create roster space.

Magnifico joins his third different organization in less than a month, after being dealt from Milwaukee to Baltimore for an international bonus slot on April and now this move to Los Angeles. The O’s designated Magnifico for assignment earlier this week to create a 40-man roster spot for catcher Francisco Pena.

Magnifico was hit hard (11.37 ERA in 6 1/3 IP) in five relief outings for Triple-A Norfolk this season, and for his career, he owns a 3.82 ERA, 7.0 K/9 and 1.7 K/BB rate over 346 frames in the minor leagues. He made his MLB debut last season, appearing in three games for the Brewers.

Kipper, 24, was a ninth-round pick for the Angels in the 2014 draft. The righty has a 4.02 ERA, 5.8 K/9 and 2.28 K/BB over 338 1/3 career innings, starting 56 of his 70 career games. Kipper has gotten off to an especially good start this year with a 1.74 ERA over 31 innings at Double-A, though still with very modest strikeout totals.

The hard-throwing Valdez was purchased from the Tigers last June, and he posted a 4.81 ERA, 8.5 K/9 and a 6.3 BB/9 over his 24 1/3 innings in an Angels uniform. Big strikeout totals and a lack of control have been the story for Valdez over his nine-year pro career, as he has a 9.8 K/9 but an ungainly 5.2 BB/9 over his 314 1/3 IP in the minors, though he has gotten good bottom-line results in the form of a 3.21 ERA. Los Angeles previously outrighted Valdez off its 40-man roster during the offseason, so it isn’t a sure thing that another team would be interested in taking a flier on his power arm.

AL West Notes: Meyer, Miranda, Reddick, Rangers, Mariners

By Steve Adams | May 3, 2017 at 9:21pm CDT

Prior to acquiring Ricky Nolasco and Alex Meyer (plus some cash to offset Nolasco’s salary) in the trade that sent Hector Santiago to the Twins last summer, the Angels had the opportunity to trade Santiago to the Orioles for lefty Ariel Miranda, according to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. The Orioles were seeking a veteran arm for their rotation and dangled Miranda in talks with both the Angels and Mariners, ultimately flipping Miranda to Seattle in exchange for Wade Miley. Fletcher notes that the Halos were seeking more upside than Miranda brings to the table and felt that Meyer fit the bill. Indeed, the 27-year-old former first-rounder was a mainstay on Top 100 prospect lists throughout the industry several years ago, though shoulder injuries have derailed his career to date. Meyer will get a start for the Halos this week, while Nolasco has at the very least been a durable source of innings for manager Mike Scioscia. Miranda is currently in the Mariners’ rotation, though that’s out of necessity due to injuries throughout the Seattle pitching staff.

Minor MLB Transactions: 5/3/17

By Jeff Todd | May 3, 2017 at 1:45pm CDT

We’ll keep tabs on the day’s minor moves in this post …

The Blue Jays announced that they have released catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia. He had been designated for assignment recently. Saltalamacchia opened the year as the team’s reserve catcher, but never got it going offensively. The high-power, high-K switch-hitter did more of the latter, going down on strikeouts 16 times while recording only a single base hit over 26 trips to the plate. Saltalamacchia also struggled last year, though he did hit a dozen long balls in just 292 plate appearances.
Angels lefty Greg Mahle was outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers, per a club announcement. The 24-year-old was working at Salt Lake already, but gave up his 40-man spot when the team had a need for more pitching at the MLB level. Mahle reached the bigs last year, but struggled to a 5.40 ERA with 6.9 K/9 against 4.9 BB/9 in his 18 1/3 innings.

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