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Jared Walsh Undergoes Thoracic Outlet Surgery

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The Angels informed reporters that first baseman Jared Walsh underwent surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome yesterday (via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). The club still anticipates he’ll be ready for Spring Training 2023.

It’s an unsurprising development, as the Halos announced last week that Walsh would be shut down for the year with TOS. It wasn’t clear whether that’d necessitate surgical repair, but he unfortunately had to go under the knife. Thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition in which nerves or blood vessels compress in the rib area, has become a more common injury around the league in recent seasons. It’s more frequently an issue for pitchers, but Walsh joins Rays catcher Mike Zunino as notable position players who’ve undergone TOS surgery in 2022.

The diagnosis perhaps comes as some explanation for Walsh’s dismal season. A breakout performer late in 2020, the lefty-swinging Walsh doubled down with a 29-homer campaign last year. He earned an All-Star nod amidst a .277/.340/.509 showing, looking as if he’d join Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani (and potentially Anthony Rendon, when healthy) as fixtures in the middle of the lineup.

Walsh remained an everyday player this season, but his results plummeted. He finished the year with a .215/.269/.374 line through 454 trips to the plate. His strikeout rate spiked to an unacceptable 30.4% clip, while his walks dipped to a meager 5.9% rate. Walsh’s average exit velocity and hard contact rate didn’t much change relative to last year, but his rate of homers per fly ball and general power production fell off.

Assuming he’s indeed healthy by the start of next season, Walsh figures to get another opportunity to cement himself as the primary first baseman. Since he went down, the club has leaned on journeyman Mike Ford at the position. Ford is off to a nice start through seven games, but it’s unlikely he’d leapfrog Walsh on the depth chart barring an otherworldly showing in September. Walsh will reach arbitration for the first time this offseason; he’s controllable through 2025.

Every Team’s Initial September Call-Ups

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Each season as the calendar flips to September, we see a flurry of transactions around Major League Baseball. Active roster sizes jump from 26 to 28 for the season’s final month, with teams permitted to bring up no more than one additional pitcher. We’ve already covered a host of transactions with 40-man roster implications throughout the day at MLBTR. Here’s a full round-up of teams’ initial September roster moves.

American League West

Houston Astros:

Los Angeles Angels:

Oakland Athletics

Seattle Mariners

  • Reinstated LHP Matthew Boyd from 60-day injured list
  • Recalled OF Taylor Trammell from Triple-A Tacoma
  • Corresponding moves: None required

Texas Rangers

  • Selected contract of RHP Jesus Tinoco from Triple-A Round Rock
  • Recalled OF Nick Solak from Triple-A Round Rock
  • Corresponding move: Transferred RHP Josh Sborz to 60-day injured list

American League Central

Chicago White Sox

  • Recalled OF Adam Haseley from Triple-A Charlotte
  • Recalled RHP Matt Foster from Triple-A Charlotte
  • Corresponding move: None required

Cleveland Guardians

Detroit Tigers

Kansas City Royals

  • Selected contract of RHP Daniel Mengden from Triple-A Omaha
  • Recalled OF Nate Eaton from Triple-A Omaha
  • Corresponding move: None required

Minnesota Twins

  • Added LHP Austin Davis (previously claimed off waivers from Red Sox) to active roster
  • Selected contract of OF Billy Hamilton from Triple-A St. Paul
  • Corresponding move: Transferred OF Trevor Larnach to 60-day injured list

American League East

Baltimore Orioles

  • Selected contract of 1B Jesus Aguilar from Triple-A Norfolk
  • Recalled LHP DL Hall from Triple-A Norfolk
  • Corresponding move: Designated INF Richie Martin for assignment

Boston Red Sox

New York Yankees

  • Recalled SS Oswald Peraza from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
  • Activated INF Marwin Gonzalez from paternity list
  • Corresponding moves: None required

Tampa Bay Rays

  • Reinstated RHP Matt Wisler from the 15-day injured list
  • Recalled INF Jonathan Aranda from Triple-A Durham
  • Corresponding moves: None required

Toronto Blue Jays

  • Recalled RHP Casey Lawrence from Triple-A Buffalo
  • Added OF Bradley Zimmer (claimed off waivers from Phillies this week) to active roster
  • Corresponding moves: None required

National League West

Arizona Diamondbacks

Colorado Rockies

  • Recalled INF Alan Trejo from Triple-A Albuquerque
  • Recalled RHP Chad Smith from Triple-A Albuquerque
  • Corresponding moves: None required

Los Angeles Dodgers

  • Reinstated LHP Clayton Kershaw from 15-day injured list
  • Recalled 3B Miguel Vargas from Triple-A Oklahoma City
  • Corresponding moves: None required

San Diego Padres

  • Recalled INF Matt Beaty from Triple-A El Paso
  • Recalled RHP Reiss Knehr from Triple-A El Paso
  • Corresponding moves: None required

San Francisco Giants

National League Central

Chicago Cubs

  • Selected contract of RHP Jeremiah Estrada from Triple-A Iowa
  • Recalled INF David Bote from Triple-A Iowa
  • Corresponding move: Transferred Wade Miley from 15-day injured list to 60-day injured list

Cincinnati Reds

Milwaukee Brewers

  • Recalled RHP Luis Perdomo from Triple-A Nashville
  • Recalled OF Esteury Ruiz from Triple-A Nashville
  • Corresponding moves: None required

Pittsburgh Pirates

  • Recalled RHP Johan Oviedo from Triple-A Indianapolis
  • Recalled OF Calvin Mitchell from Triple-A Indianapolis
  • Corresponding moves: None required

St. Louis Cardinals

  • Selected contract of OF Ben DeLuzio from Triple-A Memphis
  • Recalled RHP James Naile from Triple-A Memphis
  • Corresponding moves: None required

National League East

Atlanta Braves

  • Reinstated IF Orlando Arcia from 10-day injured list
  • Added recently-claimed RHP Jesse Chavez to active roster
  • Corresponding moves: None required

Miami Marlins*

New York Mets

Philadelphia Phillies

  • Selected contract of RHP Vinny Nittoli from Triple-A Lehigh Valley
  • Recalled C Donny Sands from Triple-A Lehigh Valley
  • Corresponding moves: None required

Washington Nationals

  • Recalled C Tres Barrera from Triple-A Rochester
  • Recalled RHP Mason Thompson from Triple-A Rochester
  • Corresponding moves: None required

*Marlins moves reported by Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link)

Angels Designate Steven Duggar, Jose Rojas For Assignment

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The Angels announced Thursday that outfielder Steven Duggar and infielder Jose Rojas have been designated for assignment. Their spots on the 40-man roster will go to outfielder Ryan Aguilar and righty Zack Weiss, both of whom have had their contract selected from Triple-A Salt Lake.

Duggar, 28, was a sixth-rounder with the Giants back in 2015 and had some solid showings in San Francisco. He never established himself as a consistent presence in their outfield, however, in part due to injury troubles. Duggar suffered a torn labrum that required surgery in 2018, ending his rookie campaign. He avoided surgery on a second shoulder injury, sustained in August of 2019, but that issue still ended his season.

Duggar received minimal playing time in the shortened 2020 season but returned with a career-best .257/.330/.437 batting line in 297 trips to the plate in 2021. That success hasn’t carried over to the current campaign, however. He’s appeared with three different teams this season and batted .153/.225/.222 in 80 trips to the plate. Duggar, who’s capable of playing all three outfield spots, has already been traded once and claimed off waivers this season, so it’s possible there’s another club out there who’ll be interested in carrying him on the 40-man roster once he hits waivers. That outcome is a formality at this point; he’s ineligible to be traded and thus will be placed on outright or release waivers in the coming week.

Rojas, 29, has appeared in 83 games with the Halos over the past two seasons but managed just a .188/.245/.339 batting line in 241 plate appearances. He’s a .277/.344/.524 hitter in parts of four Triple-A campaigns, however, and has a minor league option remaining beyond this year, which enhances his appeal. Rojas also has notable amounts of experience in both outfield corners and at every infield slot other than shortstop, although he doesn’t have strong defensive grades at any of those spots in mostly limited MLB action.

Aguilar, 28 later this month, made his big league debut this year as a replacement player during the Angels’ series in Toronto. He’s in his first season with the Angels organization after spending his career in the Brewers system. Through 342 plate appearances of Double-A ball, he’s slashed .280/.427/.517 with 15 homers, 13 doubles, two triples and 11 steals.

Weiss, 30, is also in his first season with the Angels organization. The former Reds farmhand signed a minor league deal in the offseason and has turned in 50 innings of 4.50 ERA ball with a 29.7% strikeout rate against a 9.6% walk rate. Weiss received an extremely brief cup of coffee  with the 2018 Reds but did not retire any of the four batters he faced (two walks, two home runs allowed). He’ll obviously hope for a shot at redemption four years after the fact.

Lee Thomas Passes Away

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The Phillies announced this afternoon that former major league player and general manager Lee Thomas has passed away. He was 87 years old.

A St. Louis native, Thomas began his professional career shortly after graduating high school in 1954. He spent seven years climbing through the Yankees farm system and got his first cup of coffee on New York’s 1961 team that wound up winning the World Series. Thomas wasn’t with the club by that point, as the Yankees traded the left-handed hitter to the expansion Angels a few weeks into the ’61 season. Thomas played in 130 games as a rookie, putting up an impressive .284/.353/.491 line. He tied for third in AL Rookie of the Year balloting, and his impressive showing earned him a regular spot between the Halos corner outfield and first base for the next few seasons.

Thomas posted arguably the best year of his career in 1962, blasting 26 homers and plating 104 runs with a .290/.355/.467 slash line. He played in 160 games, earned a spot in the All-Star Game and finished 11th in AL MVP balloting. Thomas’ production dipped the following season, however, and he settled in as a journeyman by the 1964 campaign. He played for five teams — Angels, Red Sox, Braves, Astros and Cubs — through the end of his playing days in 1968. Over parts of eight seasons, Thomas compiled a .255/.327/.397 line with 106 round-trippers and 428 RBI.

An eight-year playing career that featured an All-Star appearance and some early-career award support would’ve been impressive enough on its own, but Thomas’ influence on the game extended well beyond his on-field days. He transitioned into coaching in the minors and eventually moved into front office work with the Cardinals. He was part of the St. Louis front office during their 1982 championship season, and he got an opportunity to run his own baseball operations department when he was hired by the Phillies as vice president of player personnel in June 1988.

Thomas would lead the Phils baseball ops for almost a decade. His front office put together a roster that won 97 games and advanced to the World Series in 1993, eventually dropping the six-game set in Toronto capped off by Joe Carter’s championship-winning home run. Thomas remained Philadelphia GM until he was replaced by Ed Wade in 1997. He’d go on to spend time with the Red Sox, Astros, Brewers and Orioles this century, holding a special assistant position in Baltimore as recently as 2018. All told, Thomas’ career in the industry spanned parts of seven decades.

MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, friends and former colleagues throughout the game.

Braves Claim Jesse Chavez Off Waivers From Angels

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The Braves announced that they have claimed right-hander Jesse Chavez off waivers from the Angels.

Chavez, 39, is no stranger to switching jerseys, having played for the Pirates, Braves, Royals, Blue Jays, Athletics, Dodgers, Angels, Rangers and Cubs in his career, having returned to many of those clubs for a second or even third stint. 2022 has been no exception, as the veteran hurler began the season with the Cubs, but has since been traded twice, going to the Braves and then the Angels. He was released by the Halos yesterday and now returns to Atlanta for the second time this season.

Between those three clubs, he’s thrown 54 2/3 innings with a 3.62 ERA, 25.6% strikeout rate, 6.8% walk rate and 37.2% ground ball rate. His best stretch of the year was definitely with Atlanta, though, as he has a 2.11 ERA as a Brave while registering marks of 6.35 with the Cubs and 7.59 with the Angels.

The club already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster, meaning a corresponding move won’t be necessary. Placing him on the activer roster should be smooth as well, since rosters expand from 26 to 28 on September 1. Players claimed off waivers generally have three days to report to their new club, meaning Chavez can just join the club on Thursday and take one of the fresh spots.

Angels Release Jesse Chavez

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The Angels announced a series of roster moves today, with lefty Aaron Loup, righty Ryan Tepera and outfielder Taylor Ward all being reinstated from the restricted list. All three were ineligible to cross the border into Canada for the team’s series against the Blue Jays. Infielder Matt Duffy was also reinstated from the injured list. Outfielder Ryan Aguilar and right-hander Gerardo Reyes, who were called up as COVID substitutes, were returned to the minors. Infielder Jose Rojas was optioned to Triple-A, while right-hander Jesse Chavez was released. Right-hander Jose Marte, recalled for the Toronto series, is sticking with the team.

Chavez, 39, is a veteran who made his debut back in 2008. In his career, he’s pitched at the big league level for the Pirates, Braves, Royals, Blue Jays, Athletics, Dodgers, Angels, Rangers and Cubs. This year started with the Cubs, though Chavez was flipped to Atlanta for Sean Newcomb just a couple of weeks into the season while sporting a 6.35 ERA. He pitched well over 38 1/3 innings in Atlanta, registering a 2.11 ERA in that time before getting sent to the Angels as part of the Raisel Iglesias deal. Since becoming an Angel, he has a 7.59 ERA in 10 2/3 innings.

Putting those three stints together, he has a 3.62 ERA for the season with a 25.6% strikeout rate, 6.8% walk rate and 37.2% ground ball rate. Chavez will now head back out to the open market in search of his next opportunity. If he signs with someone prior to 11:59pm ET on Aug. 31, he will be eligible for that club’s postseason roster.

Angels Select Gerardo Reyes, Ryan Aguilar

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The Angels announced a host of roster moves before tonight’s series in Toronto. Relievers Aaron Loup and Ryan Tepera and outfielder Taylor Ward were all placed on the restricted list. That’s standard procedure for players who haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19 and are thus prohibited from traveling into Canada. In order to replace them on the roster, the Halos recalled righty José Marte and selected the contracts of reliever Gerardo Reyes and outfielder Ryan Aguilar. All three players have been designated as “substitutes,” meaning they can later be taken off the roster and returned to the minor leagues without passing through waivers.

It’s likely to be a temporary promotion for that trio, but Reyes and Aguilar have long-awaited opportunities to make an impact at the major league level. Reyes has a bit of big league experience, having come out of the bullpen 27 times for the 2019 Padres. The right-hander posted a 7.62 ERA over 26 innings. He spent 2020 at the alternate training site and was dealt from San Diego to Anaheim that deadline in exchange for veteran catcher Jason Castro.

Reyes was outrighted off the 40-man roster last March and underwent Tommy John surgery not long after, but he’s returned to action in Salt Lake this season. Through 39 innings with the Bees, the 29-year-old has a 3.69 ERA. He’s punched out an above-average 29.2% of opposing hitters but issued walks at an elevated 15.7% clip.

Aguilar, meanwhile, could get a chance to make his MLB debut. A 31st round pick of the Brewers out of the University of Arizona in 2016, he remained in the Milwaukee farm system through the end of last season. The 27-year-old signed a minor league deal with the Halos over the offseason and has spent the year at Double-A Rocket City. He’s posted an excellent .280/.427/.517 line with a massive 19% walk rate (albeit against generally younger competition) to earn a big league call. A left-handed hitter, he’s played primarily right field with the Trash Pandas.

Loup, Tepera and Ward will miss the weekend series. They’ll presumably rejoin the club on Monday, when they return home to host the Yankees. Sam Blum of the Athletic tweets that hitting coach Jeremy Reed also did not make the trip to Toronto.

Latest On Angels’ Potential Sale

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The Angels appear set for a major shake-up, as owner Arte Moreno announced Tuesday he’d retained financial advisors to explore a potential sale of the franchise. The news came as a surprise publicly, but Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reports that Moreno had planned to look into selling the team for a while before making the announcement. One source tells Rosenthal a sale has been under consideration for upwards of two months.

Precisely when Moreno settled upon this course of action isn’t clear, but it appears to have been at some point in June at the latest. As Rosenthal points out, that provides some interesting context for the Halos’ approach to the trade deadline — specifically with the organization’s handling of reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani. Reports emerged in late July the Angels were listening to trade offers on Ohtani, but any speculation was quickly dashed when the Halos took the two-way star off the market by August 1.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported shortly after the deadline that Moreno forbade the front office from exploring Ohtani trades at a time when fellow superstar Mike Trout was on the injured list. Buster Olney of ESPN relayed a similar sentiment this week, writing that the club’s baseball operations department viewed this summer as the ideal time to extract a maximum return for Ohtani, who is arbitration-eligible for a final time before reaching free agency after 2023. Moreno, however, stepped in and indicated he wouldn’t approve a trade.

In the aftermath of the announcement that Moreno was exploring a sale, there was plenty of speculation among rival fanbases that an Ohtani trade next offseason could be more viable than it was this summer. Yet Rosenthal feels that’s unlikely, reasoning that Moreno’s refusal to deal Ohtani at the deadline while already planning to explore a sale of the franchise seems unlikely to change over the winter.

It isn’t known how long the sales process will take, but it could extend well into the offseason. For reference, the Lerner family announced shortly after Opening Day they were exploring a sale of the Nationals. Earlier this week, Barry Svrulga, Ben Strauss and Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post suggested that process could be wrapped up by November, around seven months after the team’s announcement a sale was under consideration. If the Angels’ process follows a similar timetable, it’d push near Opening Day 2023. Each situation is individual, of course, and one can’t know precisely at this stage how long the possible sale of the Anaheim franchise might take. Yet the Nationals situation serves as an example of the complexity of a deal of this magnitude, and it seems likely Moreno will retain ownership at least for the early stages of the offseason.

Ohtani’s future is just one of many key decisions the Angels face as the franchise prepares for a possible monumental change. The club will have to settle upon a manager, with Phil Nevin currently holding the role on an interim basis after the team dismissed Joe Maddon in early June. General manager Perry Minasian and his staff will also be tasked with trying to overcome what’s set to be a seventh straight losing season and presumably make another push for contention in 2023. How much financial flexibility will be at the front office’s disposal remains to be seen.

The Halos entered this season with a franchise-record payroll north of $188MM, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Jason Martinez of Roster Recourse estimates the club has a bit above $103MM in guaranteed money on the books for next season. That doesn’t include what’ll surely be a massive raise for Ohtani over this season’s $5.5MM salary, and the team will also see first baseman Jared Walsh reach arbitration for the first time. The Halos aren’t facing many significant free agent departures, but they could arguably stand to use external help at shortstop, left field, catcher and in both the rotation and the bullpen.

Angels Claim Rob Zastryzny From Mets

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The Angels have claimed Rob Zastryzny off waivers from the Mets, and the left-hander has been optioned to Triple-A.  New York designated Zastryzny for assignment earlier this week.

The Mets signed Zastryzny to a minors contract in May, and he made a single appearance for the Mets (tossing one inning in the Mets’ 4-1 loss to the Phillies last Sunday) before being designated for assignment.  While a brief stint, it was surely a welcome return to the bigs for Zastryzny, whose last MLB appearance came with the Cubs back in 2018.  The left-hander tossed 34 2/3 innings for Chicago in 2016-18 before bouncing around to multiple teams and eventually landing his next chance at the Show.

Zastryzny spent 2019 in the Dodgers farm system, and he’ll now head back to SoCal for an opportunity with Los Angeles’ other team.  He’ll provide the Halos with some relief depth in the minors, and with Jose Quijada increasingly getting some save chances, there could be room for the Angels to call up Zastryzny for more of a traditional lefty relief role.

Angels Place Jared Walsh On 60-Day Injured List

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1:16PM: Walsh has been placed on the 60-day IL, the Angels announced.  This officially ends the first baseman’s 2022 season.

10:06AM: The Angels announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s game with the Rays, including the news that Jared Walsh has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to thoracic outlet syndrome.  Infielder Phil Gosselin was also designated for assignment.  Filling the two roster spots are catcher Matt Thaiss (called up from Triple-A), and first baseman Mike Ford, whose contract was selected from Triple-A.

Thoracic outlet syndrome is a condition much more commonly seen in pitchers, making Walsh something of an outlier as a position player.  While Walsh drew some attention as a two-way player early in his career and during his time in the Angels farm system, he has only 26 2/3 professional innings pitched, and none since 2019.  Most pitchers who undergo surgery to correct TOS aren’t the same performance-wise after returning to the mound, but it remains to see if Walsh will indeed need surgery, or how such a procedure could impact his future production given that he isn’t pitching.

Even if Walsh opts for treatment without going under the knife, it would seem like the remainder of his 2022 season could be in jeopardy.  With the Angels out of contention, they would seemingly not have any reason to rush Walsh back into action.

Walsh hit .280/.338/.531 over 693 PA with the Angels in 2020-21, earning a seventh-place finish in 2020’s Rookie of the Year balloting and a slot on the 2021 AL All-Star team.  However, 2022 has been much more of a struggle, as the 29-year-old has contributed only 15 home runs and a .215/.269/.374 slash line.  Despite some decent defense at first base, this poor offensive production has resulted in an overall sub-replacement level performance for Walsh, who has -0.5 fWAR and -0.6 bWAR.

Even in 2020-21, Walsh has below-average walk and strikeout rates, but those numbers have sunk further downward in 2022 — Walsh’s 30.4% strikeout rate puts him in only the sixth percentile of batters.  He is also hitting with far less power, with an Isolated Power metric of only .158 (down from .354 in 2020 and .232 in 2021).  This decline has robbed the Angels of a key bat in their lineup, as Los Angeles has gotten very little from any players besides Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Taylor Ward, and the emerging Luis Rengifo.

Gosselin had enough MLB service time that he can reject an outright assignment to Triple-A, assuming that he clears waivers and the Angels don’t release him.  The Angels claimed Gosselin off waivers from the Braves in mid-July, and the veteran utilityman ended up playing 22 games with Anaheim, mostly as a third baseman.  Unfortunately, Gosselin provided very little offense, with only a .269 OPS over 51 plate appearances.

Gosselin has only sporadically delivered at the plate over his 10 Major League seasons, with a career .254/.305/.349 slash line over 1199 PA.  The 33-year-old has suited up for seven different big league teams, and this is his second stint with the Angels, after playing 104 games with the Halos in 2021.

Ford is in today’s starting lineup as the cleanup hitter, putting Ford on pace to see action for a fourth different Major League team this season.  The first baseman has appeared in 22 games combined with the Giants, Mariners, and Braves, with San Francisco and Seattle ping-ponging him back and forth between their rosters a few times earlier in the season and Atlanta releasing Ford earlier this month.  He signed a new minor league contract with Los Angeles in mid-August, and might now in line for some consistent playing time if Walsh does miss most or all of the remainder of the season.

In 2019, Ford burst onto the scene with 12 home runs and a .909 OPS over 163 PA as a rookie with the Yankees.  Since that initial breakout, however, he has scuffled to a .138/.267/.253 slash line in 206 PA since the start of the 2020 season, and the Yankees dealt him to the Rays in June 2021.  Ford also ended up heading to the Nationals on a waiver claim later in the 2021 season, making it quite a whirlwind of organizational change for the Princeton product in just 14 months’ time.

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