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Angels Claim Kyle Tyler Off Waivers From Padres

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The Angels announced this afternoon they’ve claimed right-hander Kyle Tyler off waivers from the Padres. San Diego had designated him for assignment this week in advance of setting their Opening Day roster.

It’s a full-circle moment for Tyler, who made his first five major league appearances with Anaheim last season. He tossed 12 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on eight hits with six strikeouts and walks apiece. Tyler only generated swinging strikes on 4.7% of his offerings in his big league cameo, but he had strong strikeout and walk numbers in the minors.

Tyler started 14 of his 20 appearances between Double-A Rocket City and Triple-A Salt Lake. He worked 86 innings of 3.66 ERA ball between the two levels, punching out a solid 25.3% of opponents against an impressive 6.9% walk rate. Baseball America ranked the University of Oklahoma product #39 in the Angels farm system this winter, praising his above-average command.

Despite the solid minor league showing, the Angels designated Tyler for assignment last month when they signed Ryan Tepera. He landed with the Red Sox on waivers, but Boston designated him themselves just two days later. This time, the Friars grabbed him. His stay in San Diego lasted a couple more weeks than did his time with the Sox, but he now finds himself back in Orange County. Tyler has all three minor league option years remaining, so the Angels can stash him at the upper levels as rotation or long relief depth — if they keep him on the 40-man roster this time around.

In a corresponding move, the Angels placed righty Cooper Criswell on the 60-day injured list. The 25-year-old made his first big league start last August but otherwise spent the year in the upper minors. Criswell has been dealing with shoulder soreness this spring and evidently won’t be ready for MLB action until at least the second week of June.

AJ Ramos Announces Retirement

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Reliever AJ Ramos is retiring from professional baseball, he announced this afternoon (on Twitter). “Everyday you get to play/live truly is a blessing,” Ramos wrote as part of his statement. “The ability to enjoy the process is a big part of being successful because you soon realize that every setback or failure is just an opportunity to learn and get better. So I am thankful for my failures just as much as my success, beyond grateful for my time playing baseball.”

Ramos began his professional career as a 21st-round pick of the Marlins out of Texas Tech in 2009. Despite not being a high draft pick, the right-hander pitched his way to the majors within three years. Ramos made 11 appearances with the Fish late in the 2012 campaign, and he emerged as an important and effective late-inning option by the following year.

The 2013 season marked Ramos’ first of four straight seasons working at least 64 innings with an ERA no higher than 3.15. He held opponents to a pitiful .194/.303/.277 slash line over that stretch, allowing a cumulative 2.64 earned runs per nine. The Lubbock native punched out 27.4% of batters faced at a time when the league-wide strikeout rate for bullpen arms was about five points lower. Ramos emerged as Miami’s closer by 2015 and he was selected to the All-Star game during a 40-save 2016 campaign.

Miami traded Ramos to the division-rival Mets in advance of the 2017 trade deadline. His numbers ticked down in Queens, particularly in 2018. He never seemed fully healthy that season, and he was diagnosed with a labrum tear in his throwing shoulder that June. That required season-ending surgery, one from which Ramos didn’t appear to ever fully recover.

After missing all of the 2019 campaign rehabbing, Ramos announced he was attempting a comeback in July 2020. After successive stints with the Dodgers and Cubs didn’t result in a big league look, he was rewarded for his perseverance with a late-season return to the majors as a Rockie. He signed a minor league contract with the Angels last season, and Los Angeles brought him up for the final week of the year.

Ramos returned to the Anaheim organization on another minors pact this offseason. Unfortunately, he suffered a torn capsule in his shoulder last week. Ramos quipped in his retirement announcement that he “gave it (his) all until (his) arm gave out … then threw two more pitches just to make sure.” It’s certainly not how the 35-year-old would’ve wanted his career to wrap up, but there’s no question he had a successful run.

Altogether, Ramos appeared in parts of nine big league seasons, working 373 1/3 innings across 381 games. He struck out 430 hitters, saved 99 games, held 46 more leads and posted a 3.04 ERA. Ramos had a four-year stretch as one of the more quietly effective relief arms around the sport, and while injuries plagued the late stages of his career, he was rewarded for his comeback efforts with late MLB looks in each of the last two years. MLBTR congratulates Ramos on his career and wishes him the best in retirement.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Angels Sign Monte Harrison To Minors Deal

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The Angels have signed Monte Harrison to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been released by the Marlins last month.

Harrison was a second round pick of the Brewers in 2014 and impressed prospect evaluators in his first few seasons in the minors. Baseball America ranked him the 75th best prospect in baseball in 2018, around the same time that Harrison was included in the blockbuster trade that sent Christian Yelich from the Marlins to the Brewers.

Unfortunately, Harrison struggled as he reached higher levels of competition. In 2019, he cracked Triple-A for the first time, putting up a respectable line of .274/.357/.451, though that came with a worrisome strikeout rate of 29.9%. In 2020, with the minor leagues cancelled, Harrison made it to the big leagues and got into 32 games in the shortened season. His line of .170/.235/.255 and 51% strikeout rate showed that he clearly needed some more seasoning, leading to another year primarily spent in the minors. In 2021, he played 74 Triple-A games and hit .242/.331/.446. Despite a wRC+ of 108, strikeouts were a problem again, as he was K’d in 39.3% of his plate appearances.

Having exhausted his option years, the Marlins finally gave up on Harrison and designated him for assignment last month, eventually releasing him. For the Angels, there’s no harm in taking a flier on Harrison to see if he can right the ship. He’s only 26 years old and at least offers speed, having stolen more than 20 bases in the minors in each of the past four seasons in which they were played. He’s also been praised for his elite center field defense, a rare skill that means he wouldn’t need to be an excellent hitter to be valuable. If he can cut down on the strikeouts and earn his way back onto the big league roster, he has less than a year of MLB service time, meaning the Angels would have to ability to keep him around for years to come.

The club is currently heading into the season with Mike Trout, Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh slated to be their regular outfielders, though all three of those come with question marks. Trout only played 36 games last year due to a calf injury, making his future uncertain. Even if he can have better health this year, the Angels will likely give him occasional breathers in order to not push him too hard. As for Marsh and Adell, they each have less than 80 games of big league experience and haven’t truly established themselves just yet. In the event of injuries or underperformance, Harrison could have a path back to the big leagues.

Drew Butera Retires

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Drew Butera has made the leap from the roster to the coaching staff, as Sam Blum of The Athletic reports that Butera will now act as the bullpen catcher for the Angels.

Butera was selected by the Mets in the fifth round of the 2005 draft but was traded before making it to the big leagues. In 2007, he was sent to the Twins as part of the deal for second baseman Luis Castillo. Butera went on to make his MLB debut as a Twin in 2010 and played parts of four seasons in Minnesota. Although he didn’t hit much in that time, he did rack up one significant career highlight in that stretch, as he caught Francisco Liriano’s 2011 no-hitter.

He was traded to the Dodgers at the deadline in 2013 and spent a season and a half there, catching a second no-hitter, this time with Josh Beckett in 2014. After that season, he was traded across town to the Angels, playing just ten games for them in 2015 before being traded to the Royals. This proved to be an extremely fortuitous deal for Butera, as Kansas City would go on to win the World Series that fall. In the final game of the series, the club’s starting catcher, Salvador Perez, was removed for a pinch runner, which led to Butera catching the final strike as Wade Davis struck out Wilmer Flores to clinch the title.

The following year was probably Butera’s best, at least at the plate. He hit .285/.328/.480 for a wRC+ of 115 in 56 games, a showing that earned him a two-year, $3.8MM deal to stay in KC. He was traded to the Rockies in the second year of that deal and then spent the next few seasons there, with a brief interlude in the Phillies organization for Spring Training 2019. Last year, he got into 12 games with the Angels, the team with which he will now stay on in his new role.

Butera, 38, finishes his career having made 1,473 plate appearances in 556 MLB games over 12 seasons, racking up 262 hits, 59 doubles, 5 triples, 19 homers, 123 runs scored and 123 runs batted in. He caught the final out of a World Series and a pair of no-hitters. MLBTR congratulates Butera on a fine playing career and wishes him the best in his coaching career and any other post-playing ventures.

Angels Designate Justin Upton For Assignment

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The Angels have designated Justin Upton for assignment, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (via Twitter). Upton is owed $28MM this season in the last year of his deal. Anyone who claims Upton would have to take on the $28MM contract, so the likelihood here is that Upton will soon before a free agent.

The Angels appear ready to go young in the outfield. The burden to flank all-world superstar Mike Trout in the outfield will now fall to highly-touted prospects Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh. Taylor Ward, 28, will also be in the mix for playing time there.

As for Upton, the 34-year-old has proved a streaky hitter in recent years, though his final line came in at just .211/.296/.409 over 362 plate appearances. He did, however, still slug southpaws to the tune of .225/.355/.483. As a free agent, Upton could be a low-cost option to provide some value in a short-side platoon. He’s also been working out at first base this spring, which could give an avenue to playing time somewhere. Speculatively speaking, the Red Sox, Padres, Tigers, Rangers, Dodgers, or Rockies might be interested in giving Upton a look in this capacity.

Today’s move ends what has to be considered an overall disappointing tenure in L.A. for Upton, given that he hit a modest .232/.322/.443 with 75 home runs over his 1512 PA in an Angels uniform. Injuries were undoubtedly a factor, as Upton has battled back problems in recent years and also missed the majority of the 2019 season with both knee issues and turf toe.

While Upton’s numbers as an Angel still work out as above-average (106 OPS+) offensive production, more was expected given Upton’s salary. The Halos acquired Upton from the Tigers in August 2017, and though Upton had an opt-out clause following that season, the two sides worked out a new contract extension to keep Upton in Anaheim. The new deal guaranteed Upton $106MM covering the 2018-22 seasons.

In a corresponding move, Ty Buttrey was reinstated from the restricted list and placed on the 40-man roster. The right-handed reliever has been optioned to Triple-A, per the team. Buttrey had been on the restricted list since last April when he decided to take some time away from baseball, but decided over the winter to return.

Reid Detmers Makes Angels Rotation

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Reid Detmers will open the season in the Angels six-man rotation, per Jeff Fletcher of the SoCal News group (via Twitter). Detmers made five starts in 2021 to mixed results, but the Angels have high hopes that the 22-year-old will develop into a rotation staple. For now, he’ll join Shohei Ohtani, Noah Syndergaard, Patrick Sandoval, Michael Lorenzen, and Jose Suarez in manager Joe Maddon’s rotation. There’s a fair amount of injury concern in the group, but it’s also one of the higher ceiling units the Angels have started with in the rotation during Maddon’s tenure. As with most seasons, the Angels hopes for contention will hinge largely on the success of this group. Elsewhere out west…

Angels Sign Wander Suero To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have signed former Nationals righty Wander Suero to a minor league deal, per Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle. The REP1 Baseball client will provide the Halos with an experienced option to carry in Triple-A.

Suero, 30, is a veteran of four big league seasons, all with the Nats. He at times looked like a potential key piece in Washington but has yet to find the consistency needed to solidify himself at the big league level. Suero has twice posted sub-4.00 ERAs (2018, 2020), and he’s generally racked up strikeouts and limited walks at better-than-average levels.

Home runs, however, became a glaring issue for Suero in 2021, when he served up a whopping 11 round-trippers in just 42 2/3 innings (2.38 HR/9). That only exacerbated a longstanding issue in stranding baserunners, which he did at just a 59.7% clip in 2021. Suero ultimately yielded a 6.33 ERA last year, and the Nationals opted to non-tender him at the end of November rather than pay him a raise in arbitration.

Even with last year’s rough showing, however, Suero has a career 4.61 ERA with even better marks in FIP (3.80) and SIERA (3.78). He’s whiffed 25.4% of the opponents he’s faced in the big leagues against a solid 8.4% walk rate. He’s not a flamethrower, averaging just over 92 mph on his go-to cutter, but Suero possesses strong spin rates on both his fastball and curveball. And, prior to the 2021 season, he consistently limited hard contact at rates well better than the league average.

Suero has three years and 110 days of big league service time, so if he does make it to the big leagues with the Angels this season, he can be controlled for multiple years via arbitration.

Angels’ AJ Ramos Diagnosed With Torn Shoulder Capsule

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Veteran right-hander AJ Ramos, who’s in camp with the Angels as a non-roster invitee, has been diagnosed with a torn capsule in his right shoulder and will likely be out for the entire 2022 season, the team announced to reporters (Twitter link via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com).

It’s a disheartening setback for the clearly talented but oft-injured Ramos, who has managed just 27 innings total over the past four seasons — due primarily to troubles in that same shoulder. Ramos hit the injured list around Memorial Day 2018 while pitching for the Mets, and just three weeks later it was announced that he was headed for surgery to repair a torn labrum. The right-hander went more than two years between big league appearances while rehabbing that injury, and he’s only made it back to the mound for sparse looks with the Rockies (2020) and Angels (2021) in that time.

Now 35 years old, Ramos was an All-Star with the Marlins back in 2016 and, for a few years, was one of the more effective relievers in the National League. From 2013-16, he tallied 278 1/3 innings of 2.62 ERA ball while racking up 72 saves and punching out 27.4% of the opponents he faced. Walks were an issue even at that point (12.6%), but Ramos’ ability to miss bats and limit hard contact helped him to offset that penchant for free passes.

Back in 2020, Ramos told reporters: “[Earlier in my career], I was motivated to show everybody that I was good enough. Now, I’m motivated just to play — to have the max amount of fun doing it.”

There should be no doubt that Ramos, who has a 3.04 earned run average, 99 saves, 46 holds and a 27.2% strikeout rate in 373 1/3 career innings, is “good enough,” to use his own words. The question at this point is simply one of whether he’ll embark on yet another comeback attempt next year in what would be his age-36 season.

Angels Sign Max Stassi To Extension

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The Angels announced this evening they’ve signed catcher Max Stassi to a three-year, $17.5MM extension. The veteran backstop will earn $3MM in 2022, and $7MM apiece in 2023-24. The deal also contains a $7.5MM club option for the 2025 campaign that comes with a $500K buyout. Stassi is a Wasserman client.

The deal buys out up to three free agent years, as Stassi had been set to hit the open market after this season. He and the team had already agreed to a $3MM salary for the upcoming season. That figure remains in place, with the club tacking on $14.5MM in new money to keep him under club control through 2025.

Stassi has appeared in each of the last nine big league seasons, but he didn’t play in more than 15 games in any of the first five years. The righty-hitting backstop had never even tallied 300 plate appearances in a season until last year, as he’d spent his early days as a depth catcher with the division-rival Astros.

The Angels picked up Stassi in a seemingly minor deadline deal with Houston in 2019. He didn’t do much in 20 games with the Halos down the stretch that season, but he’s enjoyed a late-career breakout over the past two years. Stassi mashed at a .278/.352/.533 clip during the shortened 2020 schedule, rapping nine extra-base hits in 105 plate appearances. There’s little doubt the limited sample inflated his numbers that year, but Stassi continued to perform well over his largest body of work last season.

In 2021, Stassi appeared in 87 games and picked up 319 trips to the plate. He hit .241/.326/.426 with 13 homers, showing solid power and drawing a fair number of walks. Stassi struck out in an alarming 31.7% of his plate appearances, but the combination of pop and patience were more than adequate for a catcher. By measure of wRC+, Stassi’s production lined up exactly with that of a league average hitter. League average offense isn’t easy to find at the most demanding position at the diamond, with catchers overall posting a .229/.305/.391 mark last season.

Stassi pretty clearly wielded an above-average bat for a backstop, and he also rated well in the eyes of Statcast’s pitch framing metrics. Baseball Savant pegged him as six runs above average as a framer last season, his fourth straight year garnering positive marks in that regard. He didn’t do well to control the running game, throwing out only 15.4% of attempted base-stealers (against a 24.3% league average). Stassi had fared a bit better in that regard in years past, however, and the Angels are clearly comfortable in both his receiving ability and ability to handle a pitching staff over the coming seasons.

Because he didn’t establish himself as a regular until nearly a decade into his big league career, Stassi wasn’t going to hit free agency until after his age-31 season. That always figured to cap his long-term market upside, but the two years and $14.5MM in guarantees for his first couple free agent seasons is in line with the recent going rate for capable but not elite #1 catchers. The Braves signed Travis d’Arnaud to a two-year, $16MM extension last August; the Cubs added Yan Gomes for two years and $13MM just before the lockout.

d’Arnaud and Gomes were the top options in a free agent catching class that was short on #1 options this winter. Next year’s crop looks stronger, with Mike Zunino, Willson Contreras, Gary Sánchez and Omar Narváez among a handful of players set to hit the market. Rather than stick in that fairly deep class, Stassi will stick around in Orange County for at least the next couple years.

The Angels re-signed Kurt Suzuki this winter, and he’ll serve as Stassi’s back-up for the upcoming campaign. The extension won’t affect the Angels’ books for the upcoming season, given that it doesn’t change his price tag from the previously agreed upon $3MM arbitration settlement. Los Angeles is still set to open this season with a franchise-record payroll in the $188MM range. The extension brings their 2023 estimated player commitments up to around $119MM, in the estimation of Jason Martinez of Roster Resource.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Latest On Angels’ Pursuit Of Right-Handed Hitters, Payroll, Starter Search

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The Angels were exploring the market for prominent right-handed hitters, checking in with such notable names as Trey Mancini, J.D. Davis, and Luke Voit, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link).  However, that search may now be limited if not over, as after signing Ryan Tepera, the Angels appear only willing to significantly stretch their payroll for a starting pitcher, rather than a position player.

With Tepera signed for two years and $14MM, Roster Resource projects the Angels for a payroll of roughly $188.3MM, and a luxury tax number of just under $204MM.  The latter figure is well under the $230MM luxury tax threshold, and while the Angels have been willing to spend in general under Arte Moreno, it is clear Moreno considers the CBT threshold to be something of a barrier, as the Halos have only paid the tax once during Moreno’s ownership (in 2004, his second year owning the franchise).

In terms of pure dollars, the Angels had roughly $179MM on the books in 2020 before accounting for the prorated salaries of the shortened season, and then around $182MM in payroll last season.  So while the current $188.3MM payroll represents some increase, surely some Angels fans won’t be pleased at the idea that this Los Angeles-based team is hesitating about further spending, particularly since the Halos are coming off six losing seasons, and seven seasons without a playoff appearance.

If the club is only willing to spend in one area, focusing on pitching rather than hitting does make sense from a roster-building perspective.  In a response to the club’s long-standing pitching woes, the Angels added Noah Syndergaard and Michael Lorenzen to the rotation mix this year, though both of those hurlers come with some injury concerns.  Plus, the Angels have an even greater need for pitching than most other clubs since L.A. is deploying a six-man rotation — Syndergaard, Lorenzen, Shohei Ohtani, Patrick Sandoval, Jose Suarez, and Jaime Barria, and look to be the top six choices, with top prospect Reid Detmers in the wings.

The three names cited by Rosenthal also represent somewhat curious fits for the Angels, considering that Ohtani will get most of the DH at-bats and Jared Walsh is penciled into regular first base duty.  Voit is a pure first baseman but presumably no longer an option anyway since the Yankees already dealt him to the Padres.  Mancini has some outfield experience but is perhaps best suited at first base.  The same could be said of Davis, as while he has spent the majority of his big league career as a third baseman and left fielder, his defensive struggles at both positions could ultimately lead him to a future path as a first baseman/DH type.

Walsh is somewhat in the same boat, as he can play a corner outfield spot in a pinch, but isn’t known for his outfield glove.  Walsh also struggles against left-handed pitching, so the Angels are looking for a righty bat who can spell Walsh when a southpaw is on the mound.  The Los Angeles outfield picture consists of the returning Mike Trout (who could be moving out of center field), highly-touted young prospects Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh, bench option Taylor Ward, and veteran Justin Upton, who has himself been getting some reps as a first baseman.  It could be that in lieu of landing a new right-handed bat to share time with Walsh at first base, the Halos might now be prepping Upton for the role if he can adjust to the new position.

Though recent reports suggested that the Mets were looking to keep Davis, rumors have swirled for months about his trade availability, particularly as New York has added several other position players this winter.  Davis missed over half of the 2021 season due to injuries, but he has hit a very solid .288/.373/.472 over 893 PA in three seasons with the Mets.  Davis will earn $2.76MM this season, and while his addition wouldn’t necessarily be a big financial hit for the Angels, he would likely come at a notable trade cost since Davis is controlled through the 2024 season.

Mancini will be a free agent next winter, and thus would be cheaper on the trade front.  Money-wise, Mancini and the Orioles could be going towards an arbitration hearing, as Mancini filed for an $8MM salary in 2022 while the O’s offered $7.375MM.  As the Orioles continue to rebuild, they haven’t shown any inclination towards retaining their veterans, Mancini included — The Athletic’s Dan Connolly reports that the O’s haven’t talked to Mancini about a contract extension.  After sitting out of the 2020 season to battle cancer, Mancini made a triumphant return to the field last year, winning AL Comeback Player Of The Year honors while hitting .255/.326/.432 with 21 home runs over 616 PA for Baltimore.

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