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Angels Outright Six Players

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The Angels began the process of clearing space on their 40-man roster today, sending six players outright to Triple-A Salt Lake: right-handed pitchers Carson Fulmer, Andrew Wantz, and José Marte, and infielders Charles Leblanc, Jack López, and Michael Stefanic. Evidently, all six players were designated for assignment and cleared waivers earlier this week. They will be eligible to elect free agency and seek new opportunities in free agency this winter.

Fulmer, 30, made 37 appearances, including eight starts, for the Angels in 2024, pitching to a 4.15 ERA and 4.39 SIERA over 86 2/3 innings. It was the most productive season of his career, which began in 2016 with the White Sox and took him to the Tigers, Orioles, Reds, Dodgers, and Mariners before he signed a minor league deal with the Angels in 2023. While his moderate success this year was promising, the former first-round pick has a career 5.38 ERA and 4.92 SIERA in 227 1/3 frames. He offers versatility as both a bullpen arm and a serviceable spot starter, though his splits aren’t much different whether he’s pitching out of the rotation or the bullpen.

Wantz, 29, was attempting to stretch back out as a starter in 2024 after several years as a bullpen arm. However, the initial results were poor in spring training and at Triple-A. Then, he managed to make just one appearance for the big league club before he landed on the IL with an elbow injury, which ultimately required surgery. It is not clear what, exactly, the surgery was, though it was not a Tommy John procedure. The Angels originally hoped Wantz would be ready to return next spring, but according to MLB.com, he suffered a setback in his recovery and it is unclear when (or if) he will be able to pitch in 2025. Prior to this past season, he had a 3.85 ERA and 3.93 SIERA over 117 innings pitched with the Angels between 2021-23.

Marte, 28, also finished the 2024 season on the IL. He pitched well for the Angels over 14 appearances, tossing 19 1/3 innings with a 2.33 ERA, and he made another 25 appearances with a 2.22 ERA at Triple-A. Unfortunately, a viral infection forced him to the IL in August. To make matters worse, he felt pain in his shoulder while attempting to return from the infection and ultimately underwent shoulder surgery in September. It’s unclear if he will be ready to pitch again by next spring. Despite his impressive ERA this past season, Marte has a career 5.56 ERA and 5.64 SIERA in 43 2/3 innings of big league work. His 4.46 ERA in 74 2/3 innings at Triple-A isn’t much more inspiring.

Leblanc, 28, made his MLB debut with the Marlins in 2022. He performed reasonably well, slashing .263/.320/.404 with four home runs over 48 games but was outrighted over the offseason. Despite continuing to produce solid numbers at Triple-A (.807 OPS), he failed to make it back to the majors the following year. He inked a minor league pact with the Angels last November and appeared in a handful of games for the big league club in August and September, putting up an impressive .869 OPS in 28 trips to the plate. Leblanc split his playing time between all three bases in 2024, though he also has a bit of experience in left field. He still has minor league options remaining and can offer a team some defensive versatility and righty pop off the bench.

López, 31, made his way back to the majors with the Angels for the first time in nearly three years. After several seasons in the Royals minor league system and a brief stint in the Braves organization, he debuted with the Red Sox in 2021. He went 2-for-13 over seven games. The infielder spent the 2022 season at Triple-A for the Tigers before joining the Angels in 2023 and finally making it back to the big leagues in August 2024. He appeared in 27 games, splitting his time between second base and shortstop while slashing .254/.286/.343 (.629 OPS). López also has minor league options remaining, and his biggest asset is his ability to play shortstop.

Finally, Stefanic, 28, appeared in 40 games for the Angels this past season, largely at second base. He continued to tear the cover off the ball at Triple-A, which he has done for the past several years, but failed to make an impact at the MLB level. He slashed .218/.301/.255, and, unfortunately, his first big league home run continues to elude him. Stefanic has played 90 games for the Angels since his debut in 2022 and has yet to hit a single home run. He will be out of minor league options in 2025.

Angels Outright Willie Calhoun

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Today: The Angels have sent Calhoun outright to Triple-A Salt Lake, the team announced. Calhoun has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but it is unclear whether or not he plans to do so.

August 15: The Angels are going to designate first baseman/outfielder Willie Calhoun for assignment, according to Alden González of ESPN on X. Infielder/outfielder Jack López is being called up, per Jorge Castillo of ESPN on X.

Calhoun, 29, signed a minor league deal with the Angels in the offseason and was selected to the big league roster on the first day of May. Since then, he has stepped to the plate 254 times in 68 games. His 9.1% walk rate in that time is solid and he’s done a great job of avoiding strikeouts, just a 12.2% rate, but hasn’t done much damage. He has five home runs and his .245/.315/.380 batting line translates to a 94 wRC+. His .263 batting average on balls in play is below league average, but he’s one of the slowest runners in the league and he has subpar metrics in terms of exit velocity, barrel rate and hard hit rate.

That has generally been the recipe with Calhoun. Although he was once one of the top prospects in the league and had a 21-home run season in 2019, that was the juiced-ball season and he’s been far less impactful since then. He has 857 plate appearances from 2020 to the present with an 8.4% walk rate and 12.8% strikeout rate but just 18 home runs, a .231/.299/.360 batting line and 82 wRC+.

Calhoun isn’t a burner on the basepaths, as mentioned, and isn’t considered a strong defender. It was once thought that he could make up for those shortcomings with his hit tool but he hasn’t provided enough thump for that to be the case thus far. He exhausted his final option in 2022, which has led to him bouncing around the league in recent years, spending time with the Rangers, Giants, Yankees and Angels. With the trade deadline now passed, the Halos will have no choice but to put Calhoun on waivers in the coming days.

López, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Halos in the offseason. He has played 104 Triple-A games this year, hitting 12 home runs and slashing .274/.333/.421 for a wRC+ of 86 in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

There’s not much in his track record to suggest he’ll provide much more than that. He first reached Triple-A in 2017 and has played 687 minor league games from that year to the present. In that time, he has a .256/.306/.386 batting line and 77 wRC+. His major league experience consists of seven games with the 2021 Red Sox and he hit .154/.214/.308 in those.

However, he has regularly provided double-digit steals during his minor league career, including 15 so far this year. He’s also capable of playing all three outfield positions and the three infield spots to the left of first base. Calhoun has been the club’s designated hitter for much of the year but now they can rotate various players through that spot. With López giving them extra depth all over the diamond, they will have some cover for whoever is the DH on a given day.

Angels Select Niko Kavadas, Designate Luis Guillorme

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4:05pm: The Angels have now made all of these moves official. Lopez and Kavadas have been selected, with Guillorme and Calhoun designated for assignment.

12:59pm: The Angels are calling up first baseman/designated hitter Niko Kavadas to make his major league debut, as first reported by Chuck Freeby. In order to make space for Kavadas on the roster, the Angels will designate infielder Luis Guillorme for assignment, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register adds. The Halos are also reportedly set to select the contract of infielder Jack Lopez and designate Willie Calhoun for assignment. All of those moves will be announced later today.

Kavadas, 25, was acquired from the Red Sox alongside three other minor leaguers in the trade sending reliever Luis Garcia to Boston prior to the deadline. He’s posted a combined .264/.400/.521 slash between the two organizations’ Triple-A affiliates this year, though it’s worth noting he’s struggled mightily with the Angels’ top affiliate in Salt Lake, batting just .159/.229/.341 in 48 plate appearances.

An 11th-round pick by the Red Sox in 2021, Kavadas has clear plus power. He hit 26 homers in 515 plate appearances across three levels in 2022, belted 22 homers in just 480 plate appearances last year, and already has 19 long balls in 383 plate appearances this season.

That big-time power comes with a familiar red flag, however, in the form of strikeouts. Fans have seen plenty of three-true-outcomes sluggers over the years, and Kavadas embodies that approach to its fullest extent. A whopping 57% of his professional plate appearances have ended in either a homer, walk or strikeout. This season, he’s punched out in 33.9% of his plate appearances — and that’s actually an improvement over last year’s 35.8% mark. He’s also drawn a walk in a gaudy 16.2% of his trips to the plate.

The 6’1″, 235-pound Kavadas is a well below-average runner, and scouting reports peg his glovework at first base to be below-average as well. His huge power is his carrying tool, and whether he’s able to make enough contact to get to that power with regularity will determine the type of future he has. Players who whiff this much in the upper minors don’t tend to make enough contact to succeed in the big leagues, although Baseball America wrote in 2023 that Kavadas is an “intelligent hitter” with at least a chance to close some of the holes in his swing as he gains more experience.

Nolan Schanuel, the Angels’ 2023 first-rounder, skyrocketed to the majors less than two months after being drafted and has settled in as the primary first baseman. The 22-year-old Schanuel is in many ways the opposite of Kavadas: a first-base prospect with elite bat-to-ball skills but more a more suspect power profile.

After a slow start to the season, Schanuel is hitting .269/.382/.409 with nearly as many walks (14.6%) as strikeouts (15.2%) through his past 250 trips to the plate. He’s slumped lately, but the Angels presumably want to keep getting him exposure to big league pitching. That the promotion of Kavadas coincides with the DFA of Calhoun — who’s seen 60 games at designated hitter this year — suggests that Kavadas and his simultaneously thunderous and porous left-handed bat could get the bulk of the Angels’ DH reps down the stretch.

As for the 29-year-old Guillorme, he’s split the season between the Braves and Angels, batting a combined .218/.285/.290 in 138 plate appearances. He’s never been a big threat at the plate, but the versatile Guillorme offers strong infield defense across second base, shortstop and third base. He’s a career .254/.336/.327 hitter in 961 plate appearances — the vast majority of which came with the Mets from 2018-23.

With the trade deadline behind us, Guillorme will be placed on outright waivers or released. He’s earning just a $1.1MM base salary this season and has about $266K of that yet to be paid out. He’s versatile, experienced and affordable enough that another club might consider placing a claim. Guillorme has more than five years of service, meaning he can reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency and retain his entire salary. As such, if he clears waivers he’ll surely become a free agent and look to latch on with a new club — likely on a minor league deal. The new team would only owe him the prorated minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster/injured list.

Tigers, Jack Lopez Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent infielder Jack Lopez, as first reported by former big league infielder Carlos Baerga (on Instagram). Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press tweets that Lopez has signed a deal and will head to the Tigers’ spring facility in Lakeland, Fla. for minicamp.

The 29-year-old Lopez won a Silver Medal as part of Team USA during last summer’s Olympics. He made his Major League debut with the Red Sox not long after returning, going 2-for-13 with a pair of doubles in a tiny sample of seven games. He split the rest of his season between Double-A (five games) and Triple-A (68 games), batting a combined .285/.355/.413 with four homers, 17 doubles, a triple and 15 steals (in 17 tries) over the life of 273 plate appearances.

Lopez, a 16th-round pick by the Royals back in 2011, has appeared in parts of nine minor league seasons and logged a collective .241/.295/.331 batting line in that time. The vast majority of his professional experience has come at the two middle infield slots, with more time at shortstop than at second base. Lopez also has more than 1200 professional innings at the hot corner, in addition to some more sparse work in the outfield.

Baseball America at one point ranked Lopez among the middle tiers of the Royals’ farm system, noting that his range, soft hands and solid arm gave him a chance to handle shortstop at the big league level. That was seven years ago, and the the bat obviously hasn’t panned out as hoped, but Lopez will give the Tigers some defensive value and versatility to stash in the upper minors.

Red Sox Place Garrett Whitlock On Injured List

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4:56 pm: Boston has officially placed Whitlock on the IL, retroactive to September 20. He’ll be first eligible to return next Thursday. Ryan Brasier has been recalled to take his place on the active roster. Additionally, Boston reinstated infielder Christian Arroyo from the COVID-19 injured list. Utilityman Jack López has been removed from the active and 40-man rosters and returned to Triple-A Worcester in a corresponding move. López had been selected as a COVID replacement, so he needn’t be exposed to waivers to be bumped from the 40-man.

3:44 pm: The Red Sox are placing reliever Garrett Whitlock on the 10-day injured list due to a right pectoral strain, manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Alex Speier of the Boston Globe). Cora stressed that the club doesn’t view the injury as overly serious but wants to be cautious not aggravate the issue. He didn’t rule out the possibility of Whitlock returning after a ten-day minimal absence.

Even if Whitlock is able to make it by the middle of next week, his loss will still be a tough blow for a Boston team in a tightly-contested Wild Card race. The Red Sox enter play tonight up a game and a half on the Blue Jays for the top Wild Card position in the American League. The Yankees are only half a game back of Toronto for the league’s final playoff spot, and the A’s and Mariners are still within range themselves.

Whitlock has arguably been Boston’s best reliever this year, an improbably fantastic outcome for a Rule 5 draftee. Plucked from the Yankees’ system last winter, the right-hander has tossed 72 1/3 innings of 1.99 ERA ball across 45 appearances. He’s benefitted from a bit of good fortune to post such a strong run prevention mark — particularly with regards to stranding baserunners — but there’s little question Whitlock has had a strong year. He’s got better than average strikeout (26.8%), walk (5.8%), ground-ball (49.5%) and swinging strike (12.8%) rates.

That continued strong work has unsurprisingly gained Whitlock more important opportunities as the season has gone on. After deploying him in mostly mop-up situations early in the year, Cora has increasingly leaned on Whitlock in higher-leverage game states over the past couple months. The 25-year-old has continued to perform well in those key spots, holding opponents to a .151/.220/.283 line over 59 plate appearances deemed “high-leverage” by FanGraphs. With Whitlock down, Hansel Robles, Matt Barnes and the resurgent Garrett Richards look likeliest to shoulder the most important innings late in games.

Red Sox Place Danny Santana On COVID List, Select Jack Lopez

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Just four days after Danny Santana was reinstated from the COVID-related injury list, the Red Sox have sent the utilityman back to the COVID-IL.  Infielder Jack Lopez has had his contract selected from Triple-A, and Lopez will take Santana’s spot on the active roster.

Santana has tested positive for COVID-19, MLB.com’s Ian Browne reports (via Twitter), so he will miss at least 10 days while quarantined.  Santana previously spent only two days on the COVID-IL due to symptoms, rather than any positive tests.  He now becomes the latest Red Sox player to test positive in what has been a long-lasting outbreak within the Boston clubhouse.  While some players have started to return to action, Santana is the tenth Sox player currently on the team’s COVID list.

After an elbow injury limited Santana to 15 games with the Rangers in 2020, health issues have again plagued the utilityman in his first season in Boston.  Between a foot infection, a left quad strain, a left groin strain, and his two COVID-IL stints, Santana has appeared in just 38 games for the Red Sox, and batted only .181/.252/.345 in 127 plate appearances.  Santana’s minor league contract became a guaranteed deal worth $1.75MM when he made the big league roster, though a reunion between Santana and the Sox doesn’t seem very likely in 2022.

This is the second time Lopez has been selected to Boston’s roster in the midst of this coronavirus outbreak, resulting in the 28-year-old getting to make his Major League debut after nine seasons in the minors.  A 16th-round pick for the Royals in the 2011 draft, Lopez has spent much of his career in Kansas City’s farm system before moving to the Braves’ organization in 2019 and then signing with the Sox this past offseason.  Lopez hit .167/.231/.333 in his first 15 PA as a big leaguer.

Red Sox Sign Jose Iglesias

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11:46am: The Red Sox have announced the signing of Iglesias to a Major League deal and added him to the active roster. Additionally, Boston has reinstated reliever Josh Taylor from the Covid-19 list, selected the contract of right-hander Michael Feliz and returned Covid replacement players Kutter Crawford, Jack Lopez and John Schreiber to Triple-A Worcester. None of the three had to be passed through waivers to be sent down and removed from the 40-man roster because they were specifically appointed as Covid-19 replacements.

11:30am: Shortstop Jose Iglesias, who was released by the Angels over the weekend, is at Fenway Park today, per the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham (Twitter link). The Globe’s Alex Speier tweets that the Red Sox are expected to announce the signing of Iglesias shortly. He’s represented by the MVP Sports Group.

The Red Sox, in the midst of a Covid-19 outbreak in their clubhouse, have a whopping 11 players in Covid protocol at the moment. That group includes infielders Xander Bogaerts, Christian Arroyo, Enrique Hernandez and Yairo Munoz, leaving the Sox in dire need of some infield help. Jonathan Arauz and Jack Lopez have been lining up in the middle infield in recent days, but Iglesias figures to step into that mix and begin logging some regular reps while the team awaits the return of Bogaerts and others.

It was a rough season for Iglesias in Anaheim — his lone year with the Angels. The 31-year-old wasn’t able to replicate last year’s enormous production at the plate — or even to come particularly close. It was just 150 plate appearances, but Iglesias posted a career-best .373/.400/.556 batting line with the Orioles in 2021 before slipping back to a .259/.295/.375 slash that falls more in line with his overall career numbers.

More troubling than a return to the norm at the dish, however, has been the decline in Iglesias’ glovework. He’s made 16 errors in 961 innings this year after making just 18 errors in 2393 innings from 2018-20 combined. Iglesias had never made more than 11 errors in a season but already has 10 throwing errors alone, in addition to six fielding errors. Defensive Runs Saved pegs Iglesias at a stunning minus-21 this season, while his Ultimate Zone Rating is a career-low minus-4.9.

Defensive struggles notwithstanding, Iglesias now returns to his original organization as a veteran reinforcement at a critical juncture. The Sox are quite unlikely to run down the Rays, who lead them by eight games in the standings, but are hoping to maintain a three-game lead over the upstart Mariners for the second AL Wild Card spot. They’re also just a half-game behind the Yankees for the top AL Wild Card spot and would surely like to eek ahead of their archrivals in order to seize home-field advantage in a theoretical Wild Card showdown.

The Red Sox originally signed Iglesias back in Sept. 2009 after he left his native Cuba. He spent the next several seasons rising through their minor league ranks and making a handful of big league appearances before settling in as their shortstop in 2013. Boston, however, sent him to the Tigers that summer in a three-team trade that sent Jake Peavy from the White Sox to the Red Sox and Avisail Garcia from Detroit to Chicago. (The White Sox picked up both Frankie Montas and J.B. Wendelken from the Red Sox in the trade as well.)

It’s something of a full-circle moment for Iglesias, who won’t be eligible for the postseason roster due to the fact that he’s joining the organization after Aug. 31. He’ll still have the opportunity to help his original club reach the postseason again, though, and this late change of scenery can also provide him an offseason for the league’s other teams as he preps to head back to free agency this winter.

Red Sox Select John Schreiber, Jack Lopez

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The Red Sox announced they’ve selected right-hander John Schreiber and infielder Jack López to the big league roster. Shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, has been placed on the injured list. Infielder Yairo Muñoz has also landed on the COVID IL after testing positive today, bringing Boston up to seven positive tests. Additionally, reliever Ryan Brasier has been activated from the 60-day IL to make his season debut, while utilityman Danny Santana is back from the 10-day IL.

It’s the continuation of a virus-forced roster churn for the Red Sox. Schreiber will step into the big league bullpen for the first time this season after being outrighted off the 40-man roster during Spring Training. The 27-year-old has 28 2/3 innings of MLB experience, all coming between 2019-20 with the Tigers. Schreiber managed above-average strikeout and walk rates in that brief look, but he was tagged for a few too many home runs en route to a 6.28 ERA.

After clearing waivers, Schreiber was assigned to Triple-A Worcester. While Schreiber has had trouble keeping the ball in the yard in the majors, that hasn’t been the case at the minors’ top level, where he’s served up just three homers all year. He’s posted a 3.10 ERA with Worcester, showing the ability to work multiple innings when necessary.

López is up for his first big league opportunity. A longtime Royals farmhand, the versatile infielder also saw some time in the Braves’ organization but has spent this season in the Boston system. He’s spent the bulk of the season with Worcester, hitting .260/.321/.378 over 218 plate appearances. López is getting the start tonight at second base, where he’ll likely team with Santana and Jonathan Araúz to cover the middle infield with Bogaerts and Muñoz unavailable.

Brasier has been a reliable member of the Red Sox relief corps over the past couple seasons. He’s been held back by injury for the entire year. After suffering a calf strain early in the season, Brasier was struck in the head by a comebacker in June during his rehab. He has worked his way back to full strength and could be a key high-leverage option right away for the Red Sox with Matt Barnes, Hirokazu Sawamura and Josh Taylor all unavailable for virus-related reasons.

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