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Angels’ Chris Rodriguez Expected To Miss Most Of 2022 Season After Undergoing Shoulder Surgery

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Angels right-hander Chris Rodriguez recently underwent capsule repair surgery on his throwing shoulder, general manager Perry Minasian told reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). He is expected to miss the majority of next season recovering.

It’s unfortunately familiar territory for Rodriguez, who only made three minor league appearances between 2018-19 because of back issues. (He also didn’t appear in a game in 2020 because of the canceled minor league season). Public prospect evaluators have raved about his upside on the mound for years, but there’d been questions about whether he could stay healthy enough to live up to his potential even before this latest development.

Rodriguez made his big league debut in 2021, working 29 2/3 innings across 15 appearances. The 23-year-old posted a 3.64 ERA despite subpar strikeout and walk numbers (21.6% and 11.2%, respectively), largely on the strength of a huge 54.7% ground-ball rate. Rodriguez averaged nearly 96 MPH on his power sinker, so it’s little surprise batters had such difficulty elevating the ball against him. That showing likely would’ve put him in the mix for a high-leverage bullpen role come Spring Training, but the Angels will now have to navigate at least the first couple months of the season without him.

In other Angels’ news, Minasian told reporters that outfield/first base coach Bruce Hines will not return in 2022 (via Sam Blum of the Athletic). The GM also confirmed the previously-reported departures of catching coach José Molina and third base coach Brian Butterfield.

Quick Hits: Rojas, Kelly, Horowitz

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Luis Rojas has been unemployed for over a month now, after the Mets declined to pick up his option and retain him as manager for 2022. But he may have a chance to stay in the Big Apple, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that he was interviewed by the Yankees for one of their base coach jobs and “made a positive impression.”

Rojas had been in the Mets’ organization since 2007, working his way through the ranks of the minor leagues and eventually becoming quality control coach at the big league level in 2019. He was shoved into the manager’s chair after Carlos Beltran was fired in the wake of the Astros’ sign-stealing revelations and lasted two seasons. He hasn’t yet found a new position for 2022, but seems to have interest around the league, as he also interviewed for the Padres’ managerial opening before that was filled by Bob Melvin.

The Yankees are going to have a high degree of turnover in their coaching staff before next season, despite manager Aaron Boone being extended for three more years. First base coach Reggie Willits, third base coach Phil Nevin, hitting coach Marcus Thames and assistant hitting coach P.J. Pilittere have all either stepped down or been let go in recent weeks. If the Yankees end up getting Rojas to put pen to paper, Boone can be supported by a coach with a couple seasons of managerial experience under his belt.

More tidbits from around the league…

  • Joe Kelly’s 2021 was arguably his best season since becoming a reliever, but it ended on an ominous note. In the regular season, Kelly logged 44 innings with an ERA of 2.86, strikeout rate of 27.5%, walk rate of 8.2% and groundball rate of 58.9%. But then he left game five of the NLCS with an arm injury that ended his season, and the Dodgers declined his $12MM option for 2022, reportedly because they didn’t expect him to recuperate before spring training. However, it now seems like his outlook isn’t quite so dour, at least according to one medical professional. Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed shoulder surgery on Kelly a year ago, provided an update on the situation to Rob Bradford of WEEI. In regards to a team asking his opinion about the hurler, ElAttrache said, “I would tell the front office and their team doctors that I would be very optimistic that he would be ready for spring training.” If the 33-year-old is indeed healthy, he figures to be one of the most sought-after relievers this offseason, alongside guys like Raisel Iglesias, Kenley Jansen and Kendall Graveman, though he’ll likely have to hold a showcase at some point in the new year to prove his effectiveness and assuage the concerns of interested teams.
  • Jack Harris of the L.A. Times reports that Angels’ director of pro scouting Nate Horowitz has left the team. In recent weeks, the club has been shuffling a lot of chairs around behind the scenes, as they also parted ways with scouting director Matt Swanson and replaced him by bringing in Tim McIlvaine from the Brewers. The persistent narrative around the Angels in recent years has been their inability to build a well-rounded team to support their marquee players such as Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Anthony Rendon and Justin Upton. Despite the presence of Trout, arguably the best player of his generation, the Angels haven’t finished above .500 since 2015 and haven’t won a playoff game since 2009. There have been some positive signs recently, as younger players like Jared Walsh, Brandon Marsh, Jo Adell and Patrick Sandoval have started filling some holes around the veterans. But the shake up in the scouting department suggests the club is still trying to reshape their approach to team building in order to give their stars a chance to shine in the postseason.

14 Players Receive Qualifying Offers

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Today was the last day for teams to issue qualifying offers to eligible free agents, as teams had to make their decisions by 4pm CT.  With the deadline now behind us, here are the players who were issued the one-year, $18.4MM offers…

This is the highest number of qualifying offers issued since the 2015-16 offseason, when a record 20 players received the QOs.  Only six players received qualifying offers last winter, which was the lowest ever issued in an offseason, yet not really surprising given the pandemic’s impact on the 2020 season and league revenues.

These 14 players now have until November 17 to decide whether or not to accept the offer.  If they accept, they’ll receive $18.4MM next season, and can’t be traded until June 15, 2022.  They also won’t be eligible to receive a qualifying offer in any future trips to free agency (players are also ineligible for the qualifying offer if they haven’t spent at least one full season with their current team).  Since the qualifying offer system was introduced in the 2012-13 offseason, 10 of the 96 players to receive a QO have taken the deal.

If a player rejects the qualifying offer, draft pick compensation is now attached to their market, unless they re-sign with their former team.  Teams who sign a QO free agent will have to surrender at least one draft pick, and potentially some international bonus pool money depending on their status as revenue-sharing recipients or whether or not they exceeded the luxury tax threshold.  (Here is the list of what every team would have to give up to sign a QO free agent.)

If a QO free agent signs elsewhere, that player’s former team receives a compensatory draft pick based on this criteria….

  • A draft pick after Competitive Balance Round B will be awarded if the team losing the free agent did not receive revenue sharing or if the free agent in question signed a contract worth less than $50MM in guaranteed money.
  • A draft pick after Round 1 will be awarded if the team losing the free agent received revenue sharing and the free agent in question signed for more than $50MM.
  • A draft pick after Round 4 will be awarded if the team losing the free agent paid luxury tax penalties in the preceding season.

As always, several factors are weighed by both teams and players about whether or not to issue or accept qualifying offers.  This winter provides yet another wrinkle — this could be the final year of the current qualifying offer system due to the expiration of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement on December 1.  It is widely expected that the owners could lock out the players if a new deal isn’t reached by that date.  In the event of a lockout, MLB would institute a roster freeze on all transactional business involving Major League players, thus bringing the free agent market to a halt.

With this deadline looming, it is possible we could see some QO recipients (those less certain of landing big multi-year contracts) choose to accept the one-year deal in order to guarantee themselves some financial and contractual security prior to a possible lockout.  By that same token, this could make teams warier about extending the qualifying offer to certain players due to a larger suspicion that they would accept…or perhaps a player’s willingness to accept could make a team more inclined to issue a QO to a so-called borderline case.

Angels Select Brendon Davis

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This afternoon, the Angels selected infielder Brendon Davis onto their 40-man roster. The move prevents the 24-year-old from qualifying for minor league free agency.

The Dodgers originally selected Davis in the fifth round of the 2015 draft out of a California high school. He spent the next two seasons in Los Angeles’ farm system before being sent to the Rangers alongside Willie Calhoun and A.J. Alexy at the 2017 trade deadline in exchange for Yu Darvish.

While Davis put up decent numbers at High-A in 2018, his production cratered the following season upon a promotion to Double-A. After last year’s canceled minor league season, the Angels selected Davis in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft. That might turn out to be a feather in the cap of the Angels’ scouting department, as Davis mashed across three levels this year.

Assigned back to High-A to start the season, Davis hit that level around at a .280/.337/.535 clip. That earned him a second crack at Double-A, and he looked far readier this time around. After hitting .268/.366/.536 in Double-A, Davis earned his first bump up to Triple-A. He immediately took to the minors’ top level with his hottest tear yet, posting a .333/.409/.641 mark over 133 trips to the plate to close out the year.

That breakout season evidently impressed Angels’ brass enough they decided to dedicate him a spot on the 40-man rather than risk losing him this winter. Given his lack of Triple-A experience, Davis seems likely to open the 2022 season back with the Angels’ top affiliate in Salt Lake. Were he to pick up where he left off, he might soon be an option at the big league level.

Angels Claim Andrew Velazquez From Yankees

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The Angels have claimed infielder Andrew Velazquez off waivers from the Yankees, per announcements from both teams. New York added that catcher Rob Brantly has been outrighted to Triple-A. He’s no longer on the 40-man roster and will be able to elect minor league free agency.

Selected to the Yankees’ roster in early August, Velazquez became something of a fan favorite down the stretch thanks to his Bronx roots and solid glove at shortstop. Well-regarded as he was by the fanbase, Velazquez didn’t offer his hometown club much with the bat. He hit just .224/.235/.358 in 68 plate appearances, and that’s actually a bit better than the .156/.257/.219 line he posted for three teams from 2018-20.

To his credit, the 27-year-old Velazquez is coming off a much better .273/.362/.451 showing over 306 Triple-A plate appearances. He offers a capable glove throughout the infield and could factor into an uncertain middle infield mix in Anaheim if he sticks on the roster all winter.

Brantly played in six big league games this past season, his seventh year logging at least minimal MLB action. The 32-year-old backstop hit a strong .289/.379/.456 in Triple-A this year and should attract interest from other clubs on minor league arrangements if/when he elects free agency.

Anthony Rendon Hopes To Be Ready For Spring Training

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  • The 2021 season was a disappointment for Angels star Anthony Rendon, who was held to 249 plate appearances by three separate injuries. His season came to a close in early August, when he underwent surgery to repair a right hip impingement. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem that injury is expected to carry over into next season, as Rendon told Grant Paulsen and Kevin Frandsen of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (Twitter link) this afternoon that he intends to be ready for Spring Training. “That’s the gameplan,” Rendon said. “That was what kind of pushed us to get the surgery done sooner than later. We were dealing with it for the entire year, trying to figure out what was going on and figure out the best way to approach it. … Once we knew where we stood in the standings and whatnot, we needed to knock it out so I could have an entire offseason to be able to get ready for Spring Training. That’s the goal.” The ongoing issues with his hip could certainly offer an explanation for Rendon’s downturn in production. The typically-excellent hitter posted a slightly below-average .240/.329/.382 line, the worst showing of his career at the plate.

Angels Hire Brewers' Tim McIlvaine As Scouting Director

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  • The Angels have hired Tim McIlvaine away from the Brewers to fill as their new scouting director, Kiley McDaniel and Alden Gonzalez of ESPN report (Twitter thread). McIlvaine, who was previously the Brewers’ assistant director of scouting, worked extensively with current Angels vice president of amateur scouting Ray Montgomery when both were in Milwaukee. Montgomery was one of the first hires by under new Angels GM Perry Minasian last offseason. The Angels removed former scouting director Matt Swanson from his post last week but offered him a position elsewhere in the organization. Swanson was hired by former general manager Billy Eppler and has overseen the Halos’ past five drafts.

MLB Awards Shohei Ohtani Historic Achievement Award

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Before tonight’s opening World Series contest, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced that he was awarding Angels star Shohei Ohtani an Historic Achievement Award. Ohtani becomes the 16th recipient of the award, which was first given to Cal Ripken Jr. in 1998 in honor of his consecutive games streak.

The Historic Achievement Award is granted at the commissioner’s discretion to individuals and teams who made an historically significant impact on the game. Ohtani is the first honoree of Manfred’s tenure as commissioner; the most recent recipients had been Derek Jeter and Vin Scully, who were recognized in 2014 by then-commissioner Bud Selig.

Ohtani’s two-way promise has been lauded for years, but 2021 was the first time he was able to stay healthy and put together a great season on both sides of the ball. Over 639 plate appearances, the 27-year-old hit .257/.372/.592 and blasted 46 home runs, the third-highest mark leaguewide. He also stole 26 bases and hit an MLB-best eight triples. Only Bryce Harper, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Juan Soto and Fernando Tatís Jr. topped Ohtani as overall hitters by measure of wRC+.

Ohtani also worked 130 1/3 innings on the mound, pitching to a 3.18 ERA while striking out 156 batters. He was selected to the All-Star Game as both a pitcher and position player, and manager Kevin Cash allowed him to start the contest for the American League in both roles. Unsurprisingly, Ohtani’s two-way exploits made him one of the game’s most popular players. According to MLB.com, he had the ninth highest-selling jersey of the 2021 season.

Angels Outright Three Players

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The Angels announced that three of their players have been outrighted to their Triple-A Salt Lake affiliate— right-handers Luke Bard and James Hoyt, and infielder Franklin Barreto. Of these three players, Barreto is the only one with more than three years of service time, a distinction that will allow him to elect free agency after this outright assignment should he choose to do so.

Bard has seen some action out of the Angels bullpen dating back to 2018 but, as today’s transaction indicates, has yet to establish himself as a reliable option. During this time, the righty has limited baserunners at an above average clip but has been undermined by a sky-high home run rate, allowing nearly two home runs per nine innings. The 30 year-old scarcely pitched in the big leagues the past two seasons, most recently owing to season-ending hip surgery this past May. He’ll look to shave some points off his career 5.05 ERA if he’s able to return to the Majors next year.

For the 35 year-old Hoyt, the outright is reflective of his recent career history, where he has been regularly shuttled on and off the Major League rosters of four different teams. While the 2021 season didn’t go as planned for Hoyt in the Majors, where he gave up six runs in eight innings, or the minors, where he put up a 9.42 ERA, his overall track record is much more encouraging. Prior to his time with the Angels, Hoyt had never pitched at the highest level with a strikeout rate south of 30% and just last year had a brilliant 20-game run with the Marlins, pitching to a 1.23 ERA (albeit with a too-high walk rate).

Acquired by the Angels in the deal that sent Tommy La Stella to the A’s last summer, Barreto comes with the highest pedigree of the bunch. The middle infielder regularly checked in on top prospect lists but has been unable to make much of an impact for either the Athletics or the Angels. Barreto has stepped to the plate just eighteen times as an Angel, owing to a number of surgeries including Tommy John surgery this past May. Now that he’s out of minor league options and can elect free agency, it’s quite possible that Barreto, owner of a .175/.207/.343 slash at the highest level, will look to establish himself elsewhere.

Angels Part Ways With Scouting Director Matt Swanson

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The Angels are making a change at scouting director, as Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register reports that Matt Swanson has lost his job after five-plus years with the team.  Swanson’s replacement has yet to be named.

Originally hired in August 2016 by former Angels GM Billy Eppler, Swanson was tasked with rebuilding a minor league pipeline that was almost completely bereft of premium talent.  (In February 2016, Keith Law described the Angels’ collection of minor leaguers as “by far the worst system I’ve ever seen” in what was then Law’s eighth year of ranking the farm systems of all 30 teams.)  While there may have been basically nowhere to go but up, the Angels did upgrade their prospect depth through five years of Swanson’s drafts, highlighted by such names as Jo Adell, and current MLB.com top-100 prospects Reid Detmers and Sam Bachman.

Overall, however, Los Angeles has to get much improvement from its farm system.  Law’s preseason organization ranking from this year placed the Angels 23rd, and Baseball America’s midseason organizational ranking slotted them 25th (though Adell, Detmers, and Brandon Marsh all moving to the majors lowered the ranking).  To date, the Angels have had nine players from the 2017-21 drafts appear on the big league roster, though that low number isn’t necessarily unusual considering how recent these drafts were, how long it usually takes even blue-chip prospects to hone their skills for the majors, and the pandemic’s impact on the last two minor league seasons.

Given all these factors, it is perhaps unfair to point the finger squarely at Swanson for the Angels’ lack of young impact players in recent years (and, the highly-touted Adell could certainly still blossom).  It could be that general manager Perry Minasian wants his own hire in place as scouting director, or it might stem from an overall change in direction in how the organization has been drafting.  As Law noted in his 2021 organizational rankings, “if we were just ranking systems by tools…the Angels would be in the top half, maybe the top 10.  They love athletes, targeting them in the draft and on the international market, but developing those guys when their baseball skill level starts out low is a huge challenge for any organization.”

The 39-year-old Swanson is himself a former player, who pitched in the Pirates’ farm system from 2005-07 before joining the Cardinals as a scout and crosschecker for the Midwest region from 2008-16.

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