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Luis Rengifo Wins Arbitration Hearing Against Angels

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Infielder Luis Rengifo won his arbitration hearing against the Angels, tweets MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. He’ll earn the $2.3MM salary at which he and his representatives from MVP Sports Group filed, rather than the team’s $2MM submission.

Rengifo, 26 later this month, appeared in a career-high 127 games in 2022 and tallied 511 plate appearances, batting .264/.294/.429 with 17 home runs, 22 doubles, four triples and six steals. He bounced all over the infield, logging 693 innings at second base, 250 innings at third base and 99 innings at shortstop (in addition to a 15-inning cameo in the outfield).

That marked the most productive season of a four-year career for Rengifo,  who entered the season as a .216/.293/.325 hitter in 702 trips to the plate. The strong showing perhaps contributed to the Angels’ decision not to make a strong push for shortstop help this offseason. Instead, they’ll likely rely on a combination of Rengifo, David Fletcher and perhaps trade acquisition Gio Urshela to handle the bulk of the workload at shortstop.

Slick-fielding Andrew Velasquez remains on the 40-man roster as well, though he also has a minor league option left. Infield prospect Livan Soto is another candidate, although his brilliant .400/.414/.582 showing in an 18-game MLB debut last year was propped up by a .500 batting average on balls in play that clearly can’t be sustained over a larger sample. He’s also yet to play a single inning at the Triple-A level, so the Halos might want to give him some additional development time. A free agent like Elvis Andrus could conceivably fit in Anaheim still, but the Angels generally appear set with their infield depth given the combination of Rengifo, Fletcher, Urshela and free-agent pickup Brandon Drury.

This was the first trip through the arbitration process for Rengifo, who’ll be eligible for arbitration twice more before reaching free agency upon completion of the 2025 campaign.

Read The Transcript Of Our Live Chat Hosted By Former MLB Pitcher Deck McGuire

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Deck McGuire was drafted 11th overall in 2010 by the Blue Jays as a starting pitcher out of Georgia Tech, signing for $2MM.  Baseball America ranked him 95th among all prospects shortly after that.  At the time, BA felt that McGuire’s “good stuff and polish” and college resume would result in a quick path to Toronto’s rotation.

Things went off track for McGuire in 2012 at Double-A, however.  Eventually, the Blue Jays traded McGuire to the A’s for cash considerations in July 2014.  He signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in 2015, and another one with the Cardinals after that season.  McGuire continued finding Triple-A jobs, signing with the Reds prior to the 2017 campaign.

After a strong 2017 season as a starter at the Double-A level, the Reds rewarded the tenacious McGuire with a September call-up.  He made his MLB debut at the age of 28, entering a bases loaded situation against the Cardinals and inducing a double play off the bat of Harrison Bader.  McGuire even got to finish that season with a start at Wrigley Field, tossing five scoreless with only two hits allowed and a strikeout of Kris Bryant.

Following the ’17 season, McGuire moved back to the Jays on a minor league deal.  By May, he was working out of the bullpen for the team that had drafted him eight years prior.  In June of that year, the Rangers claimed McGuire off waivers, trading him to the Angels shortly thereafter.  He made it back to the bigs for a few spot starts, also working out of the Halos’ bullpen that year.

After being part of three MLB organizations in 2018, McGuire signed a deal with KBO’s Samsung Lions.  He made 21 starts for that club, including the 14th no-hitter in KBO history.  McGuire landed with the Rays on a minor league deal in February 2020.  That minor league season was lost to the pandemic, and McGuire moved to the Rakuten Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League for ’21.

McGuire started the ’22 season in the Atlantic League, which he parlayed into another minor league deal with the Reds.  McGuire wrapped up his pitching career last December, writing on Twitter, “For 12 years I got to live out my dream of being a professional baseball player.”

McGuire’s journeyman career was not what anyone expected when the Blue Jays drafted him 11th overall, but his perseverance got him to the Majors for 51 2/3 innings with the Reds, Blue Jays, and Angels.  Even in that brief time he struck out Bryant, Jose Altuve, Rafael Devers, and Ryan Braun, among many others.  McGuire pitched for seven different MLB organizations while also spending multiple seasons overseas.

Asked about his post-retirement plans, Deck wrote in an email, “As of right now my plans are to stay in the game somehow. I’m currently working with some guys and youth teams in my area of Colorado. I’m gonna head back to Georgia Tech in the fall to graduate and be around the program.”  You can follow Deck on Twitter @deckmcguire.

Today, Deck chatted for over an hour with MLBTR readers, talking about the differences between KBO and MLB, the pressure of being a high draft pick, dealing with hecklers, and much more.  Read the transcript here.

Zack Britton Working Out For Six Teams Today

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Former All-Star closer Zack Britton is hosting a workout for six interested clubs today, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports that the Mets are one of the six teams in attendance. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic adds that the Angels, Giants, Dodgers, Cubs and Rangers were also in attendance. The Angels, in particular, have been linked to Britton in recent weeks. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, meanwhile, writes that the Tigers have had interest in Britton, though it doesn’t seem they attended today’s showcase.

It’s the second time the 35-year-old Britton has thrown for teams this offseason, though the first was more of a leaguewide showcase. That took place back in mid-January, and it stands to reason that today’s workout will offer his most interested suitors a chance to get another look at him as he gears up for a potential signing. That Britton would offer multiple showcases to interested teams isn’t necessarily a surprise, given that he pitched just two-thirds of an inning in 2022 and only 18 1/3 frames in 2021.

Once one of the game’s elite relievers, Britton has seen his star fade in his mid-30s as injuries have begun to take their toll. The lefty had his elbow scoped in March 2021, which cost him the first two months of that season. He returned in June but quickly went down with a hamstring strain that sidelined him another few weeks. The return from that balky hamstring proved similarly short-lived, as an elbow strain again sent him to the injured list.

In Sept. 2021, Britton underwent surgery to address that second elbow issue. The hope was that, like the arthroscopic procedure in March, removing some bone spurs would alleviate the issue. Instead, surgeons determined that Britton’s ulnar collateral ligament had suffered enough damage that a Tommy John surgery was required. He missed almost all of the 2022 season but did make an improbable late-September return. However, that amounted to just three games, during which time Britton walked six of nine batters faced before going back to the injured list yet again. He averaged 92.8 mph on his fastball in that time — nowhere close to the 94.9 mph he averaged during his last healthy season in 2020 (and even further from the 96.9 mph on his sinker at its peak).

That peak, of course, was one for the ages. From 2014-20, Britton notched a superhuman 1.84 ERA in 367 1/3 frames. He punched out 24% of his opponents against a 9.2% walk rate in that time, and Britton’s 76.2% ground-ball rate over that period cemented him as the best ground-ball pitcher since 2002, when batted-ball data of that nature began being carefully tracked. Britton posted a laughable 80% ground-ball rate in 2016 and was at 79.1% in 2015 and 77.2% in 2019 — the three highest single-season marks ever posted by a qualified pitcher.

Whether he can get back to that form in his mid-30s is an open question. Given his diminished velocity and recent elbow woes, it seems like a long shot. But, given that Britton isn’t likely to command more than an incentive-laden deal with a low base salary, there’s plenty of sense in taking a low-cost risk, given the obvious talent and track record of dominance.

Angels Looking To Increase Workload For Top Starters

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Angels manager Phil Nevin spoke with reporters (including The Athletic’s Sam Blum) about the club’s pitching plans this afternoon. The Halos have run with a six-man rotation for the past few seasons, and while they could adopt that as a loose framework in 2023, Nevin indicated the team wants to put an emphasis on allowing the pitchers at the top of the rotation- including two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani – to get more action on the mound. Rather than adhere to a rigid six-man staff every turn through, Nevin suggested the club would be flexible in deploying their nominal sixth starter as more of a swing option.

Headed into the 2022 season, the club had few surefire starting pitchers beyond Ohtani, as Patrick Sandoval had started just fourteen games in 2021 while the big pitching acquisition for the Halos that offseason was Noah Syndergaard, who was returning to the mound after pitching just two innings since the end of the 2019 season.

Fortunately, the 2022 season saw multiple impressive performances from Angels starters: in addition to Ohtani improving as a pitcher on his 2021 MVP campaign and placing fourth in Cy Young award voting, Sandoval impressed with a 2.91 ERA and 3.09 FIP in a career-high 148 2/3 innings while Reid Detmers showed flashes of the talent that made him the 10th overall pick in the 2020 draft. Jose Suarez proved to be a capable back-of-the-rotation starter over twenty starts. The Halos also improved their rotation externally with the addition of Tyler Anderson, a durable starter who broke out with the crosstown Dodgers in 2023 to the tune of a 2.57 ERA and 3.31 FIP across 178 2/3 innings.

With Sandoval having proved himself, Anderson under contract, and both Detmers and Suarez looking ready for a bigger challenge, it makes sense for the Angels to try and lean more on their top five in the rotation, especially if it means getting Ohtani on the mound more often. After years of carefully managing Ohtani’s workload in an attempt to keep him healthy, the Angels have allowed him to play more and more, with less firm restrictions in recent years. Considering a more traditional rotation appears to be the next logical step in that process.

Each of those five starting options appears likely to be a substantial improvement over the starts Anaheim’s internal options for a sixth starter can provide. Following his trade to the Angels last summer as part of the deal that sent closer Raisel Iglesias to the Braves, lefty Tucker Davidson struggled mightily in eight starts (36 2/3 innings): a ghastly 6.87 ERA and nearly matching 6.30 FIP was good for an ERA+ of just 60, or 40% worse than the league average pitcher.

Blum notes that right-hander Griffin Canning is fully healthy and partook in a normal offseason after missing the entire 2022 season with a back injury, so he could certainly factor into the sixth starter mix as well. That said, despite roughly league average results in his major league career to this point (an ERA+ of 96 in 209 1/3 innings spanning from 2019 to 2021), Canning has never reached 100 innings pitched in the majors and is coming off a long layoff, so it would be no surprise if the Angels planned on managing his workload carefully during his age-27 season.

Overall, given the relative strength of their starting five, the emphasis on letting Ohtani play without restriction in recent years, and the dearth of quality, reliable options for the sixth starter slot, Nevin’s plan to consider a more traditional rotation in 2023 makes sense. A reliable sixth starter would likely have to come externally, and those options are slim following Michael Wacha’s signing with the Padres earlier today.

Angels Sign Fernando Romero To Minor League Deal

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The Angels announced a host of non-roster invitations to Spring Training this evening. Among the group was right-hander Fernando Romero, who returns to the affiliated ranks after two seasons in Japan.

Romero, a native of the Dominican Republic, was a highly-regarded prospect early in his professional career. Baseball America slotted him among the ten most promising talents in the Twins’ minor league system in 2017-18. He reached the majors in the latter of those two seasons, starting 11 games and posting a 4.69 ERA as a rookie. He worked exclusively out of the bullpen during his sophomore campaign but was tagged for 12 runs in 14 innings.

The Twins granted Romero his release at the start of the 2020-21 offseason. That facilitated a deal with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball. He logged parts of two seasons there, tallying 173 innings at Japan’s top level. Romero posted a 4.01 ERA with a meager 12.7% strikeout rate and average 8.5% walk percentage. That included 92 frames of 4.87 ERA ball last year, though Romero fared better with the BayStars’ minor league affiliate.

While he worked out of the bullpen for his final season in the Minnesota organization, the 28-year-old has plenty of professional experience as a starting pitcher. He can serve as a depth option for either the rotation or multi-inning relief. Romero joins players like Chris Devenski, Jonathan Holder, Gerardo Reyes, César Valdez, Nash Walters, Austin Warren and Jacob Webb as right-handed non-roster options in Halos’ camp.

Each MLB Team’s Players On WBC Rosters

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The World Baseball Classic is returning this year, the first time since 2017. The quadrennial event was supposed to take place in 2021 but was scuttled by the pandemic, now returning after a six-year absence. Rosters for the tournament were announced today and those can be found at this link. Here is a breakdown of which players from each MLB team are set to take participate. Quick caveat that this list is fluid and might be changed as more information becomes available.

Without further ado…

Angels

Astros

Athletics

Blue Jays

Braves

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Diamondbacks

Dodgers

Giants

Guardians

Marlins

Mariners

Mets

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Phillies

Pirates

Rangers

Rays

Red Sox

Reds

Rockies

Royals

Tigers

Twins

White Sox

Yankees

Arte Moreno Reiterates Angels’ Desire To Keep Shohei Ohtani Past 2023 Season

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Shohei Ohtani’s long-term future has been a marquee storyline in the game for the past couple years. He’s now a season away from the open market, where he presently seems on track for a record-setting contract. There’s already been plenty of speculation among rival fanbases and presumably within other front offices about the possibility of Ohtani signing elsewhere after six seasons with the Angels.

Halos’ brass has unsurprisingly maintained on numerous occasions they’re hopeful of retaining the two-way superstar for the long haul. Owner Arte Moreno reiterated that goal in a recent interview with Jon Heyman of the New York Post. “I’d like to keep Ohtani. He’s one of a kind. He’s a great person,” the Angels owner told Heyman. “He’s obviously one of the most popular baseball players in the world, and he’s an international star. He’s a great teammate. He works hard. He’s a funny guy, and he has a really good rapport with fans.”

None of that registers as any kind of surprise, of course. Anaheim general manager Perry Minasian made similar comments last week, telling reporters the “whole organization would like nothing more than to see him here for a long, long time” and calling the 2021 AL MVP “somebody that we can envision here for a long, long time” (link via Associated Press).

Neither Moreno nor Minasian handicapped their odds of getting a deal done, nor did they specify whether there any plans for extension talks with Ohtani’s representatives at CAA this spring. Both expressed general optimism about the Angels’ chances of retaining him, with Moreno telling Heyman “we have as good a chance as anybody” at signing Ohtani to a long-term deal.

As recently as last month, it didn’t appear Moreno would be concerned about Ohtani’s long-term future in Anaheim. He’d been exploring a sale of the franchise dating back at least to last summer before pulling the team off the market in the middle of January. Sam Blum of the Athletic was among those to report in the aftermath of the decision that bids on the franchise were expected to top $2.5 billion but Moreno had a change of heart about relinquishing the franchise.

That led to some questions amongst the fanbase about whether the Angels’ chances of re-signing Ohtani took a hit with Moreno retaining control. The Angels have had seven straight below-average records and haven’t made the playoffs in eight years. Moreno admitted to Heyman “we have to win, we have to do a better job on the field,” though both he and Minasian have pointed out the Halos anually rank among the league’s top ten in spending.

Cot’s Baseball Contracts estimates the Angels will open the 2023 campaign with the league’s 7th-highest payroll. They’re behind the Mets, Yankees, Padres, Phillies, Dodgers and Blue Jays by that estimate, and a handful of those big-market behemoths would surely relish the opportunity to make a run at Ohtani in free agency.

Cot’s projects the Angels for around $119MM in guaranteed commitments for 2024, headlined by the megadeals for Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon. Trout is under contract through 2030, while Rendon is signed through 2026. Tyler Anderson and David Fletcher are the only other players with deals past the ’24 campaign, with the guaranteed portion of both contracts wrapping up in 2025.

Jared Walsh Provides Update On Surgery Rehabilitation

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Jared Walsh underwent surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome in September and provided an update on his recovery in an appearance of MLB Network Radio (Twitter link with audio).

“I feel great,” Walsh said. “I don’t know if I’m exactly 100% but I think if we– if Spring Training started today, I would be fine to go out, do every drill, be on the field, making throws and all that.” Walsh then relays that his surgeon has informed him that his strength will continue growing for the next 6-8 months and even beyond. “I feel great but hopefully I can get even a little bit better.”

The surgery is somewhat common for pitchers, but with a mixed track record. Merrill Kelly underwent the procedure in 2020 but has returned to health and made 60 solid starts over the past two years. On the other hand, Stephen Strasburg has been severely hampered by the issue over the past few years. He underwent surgery in July of 2021 and returned to the mound a year later, but made just one start in 2022. He spoke about the issue in September, saying he hadn’t thrown in months and that he is “not really sure what the future holds.”

On the position player side of things, the surgery is more rare. Walsh and Mike Zunino are the two most recent players to go under the knife, with Zunino getting the procedure in July of last year. He was signed by the Guardians for 2o23 and the two players will make an interesting test case on the viability of rehabilitating from the disorder.

Both players had excellent campaigns in 2021 before the effects of the ailment seemingly dragged their respective performances down in 2022. Zunino launched 33 home runs in 2021 and hit .216/.301/.559 for a wRC+ of 134. Last year, his output felt to a dismal .148/.195/.304 line and 43 wRC+. Walsh hit 29 homers two years ago and slashed .277/.340/.509 for a 126 wRC+, but fell to .215/.269/.374 last year and a 78 wRC+.

For the Angels, it would serve as a tremendous boost if Walsh could return with no ill effects and put that 2022 season behind him. For many years now, they’ve struggled to string victories together despite the presence of superstars like Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Lack of depth and injuries like Walsh suffered last year have repeatedly undermined the strong performances at the top of their roster.

It seems the club has made more of a concerted effort to protect against those pitfalls this year, bolstering the roster with various supporting players who can guard against someone requiring a significant absence. The club added a couple of multi-position players by signing free agent Brandon Drury and acquiring Gio Urshela. Should Walsh miss any more time or struggle to get back on track, Drury would likely be first in line for extended time covering first base, with Jake Lamb also in the organization on a minor league deal. Though if Walsh is healthy, it would free Drury up to strengthen the club’s depth in the outfield corners or other infield positions.

The path ahead is fairly uncertain since there are few comparables for the road that Walsh is currently on, though the fact that he’s expressing such optimism is a good sign for now. Spring workouts begin next week and Opening Day is less than two months away.

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Former MLB Pitcher And Current Scout Tim Fortugno

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Tim Fortugno’s path to a Major League life was an unlikely one.  He’d played in high school, but didn’t seem to have much shot at the Majors.  But as Danny Knobler told it in a Bleacher Report article, Tim threw around a tennis ball during his lunch hour on a construction job as a 20-year-old, which led to him joining the baseball team at Southern California College.

He was drafted multiple times, but didn’t end up signing due to shoulder pain.  After a bout of acupuncture seemed to heal Tim’s shoulder, he landed with the Mariners on a $500 signing bonus.

Fortugno was eventually traded to the Phillies, who went on to sell his contract to the Brewers for $2,500 and 12 dozen baseballs.  The Angels snagged the lefty in the Rule 5 draft, and in 1992 Fortugno made his MLB debut at the age of 30.

In his second big league appearance, Tim pitched the game of his life: a complete game, 12 strikeout, 129 pitch masterpiece against a vaunted Tigers lineup featuring Tony Phillips, Travis Fryman, Cecil Fielder, and Mickey Tettleton.  Toward the end of that season, Tim gave up George Brett’s 3,000th hit – only to pick him off first base.

Tim bounced around after that, eventually finishing his career in Taiwan.  Despite pitching only 110 1/3 innings over three seasons with the Angels, Reds, and White Sox, Fortugno can list Brett, Roberto Alomar, Don Mattingly, and Edgar Martinez among his strikeout victims.

After his pitching career, Fortugno moved into scouting.  He spent seven years with the Rangers and 14 with the Mets, and has worked for the Rays since October 2019.

Tim chatted with MLBTR readers today, providing many interesting answers about a life in scouting.  Click here to read the transcript.

If you’re a current or former MLB player, join us for a one-hour live chat!  It’s easy and fun and you get to choose which questions you publish and answer.  Click here to contact us.

AL Notes: Ohtani, Angels, Vespi, Yoshida, Red Sox

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Despite the busy Angels offseason, Shohei Ohtani’s future remains the team’s biggest question in 2023, and Arte Moreno’s decision not to sell the Angels adds another layer of intrigue to Ohtani’s situation.  Speaking with reporters (including the Associated Press), Halos GM Perry Minasian reiterated that the organization would love to keep Ohtani, and suggested that Moreno was willing to pay Ohtani the record-setting contract it might take to keep the two-way star in Anaheim.  “[Moreno has] already invested in this club throughout his whole ownership.  We’ve been top-10 in payroll for a long time,” Minasian said.  “I don’t see that changing.  Knowing [Moreno] and knowing how much he wants to win, I wouldn’t put anything out of the realm of possibility.”

Desire to win notwithstanding, Moreno’s ability to construct a winning team is the another factor, as the Angels are mired in a string of seven consecutive losing seasons.  Unsurprisingly, Ohtani was openly disappointed by the Halos’ lackluster 2022 campaign, and any doubts he has about the Angels’ ability to compete might possibly result in Ohtani signing with a more proven contender next winter.  Even if Moreno is willing to splurge on Ohtani and take the Angels into luxury tax territory, it might not be enough to sway Ohtani from a comparable offer from a winning team.

More from around the American League….

  • Orioles left-hander Nick Vespi underwent hernia surgery in early January, and the reliever told MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko that he is “cleared to throw, so I am starting to throw already and I’ll be ready for Opening Day.”  There was some doubt as to whether or not Vespi’s recovery process might last into the early part of the season, and while it appears that might not be an issue, Vespi will miss pitching for Italy in the World Baseball Classic.  Vespi made his MLB debut in 2022, posting a 4.10 ERA over 26 1/3 innings out of the Orioles’ bullpen.  Cionel Perez and Keegan Akin are Baltimore’s top southpaw options in the relief corps, though Vespi may face further competition from any left-handed starting candidates who don’t make the rotation.
  • The Red Sox signed Masataka Yoshida to a five-year, $90MM deal in December, an investment that surpassed all projections for Yoshida as he made the move from Nippon Professional Baseball to the majors.  That said, the Sox also feel “other teams were prepared to bid more aggressively for Yoshida than has been widely reported,” the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier writes.  The Blue Jays and Dodgers were reportedly the other finalists for Yoshida’s services, though it isn’t known what those two clubs were willing to pay.  The $90MM guarantee is also a sign of just how much faith the Red Sox have in Yoshida’s ability to continue his production against Major League pitching, which is a belief born from heavy scouting and evaluation of Yoshida in Japan over the last three years.
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