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Jose Fermin (born 2001)

Angels Designate Hector Neris For Assignment

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The Angels announced this evening that they’ve designated right-hander Hector Neris for assignment. Right-hander Jose Fermin was recalled to the big league roster in a corresponding move.

Neris, 36, departs his second organization of the 2025 campaign. He signed in Atlanta on a minor league deal in mid-March and made the Opening Day roster despite making just three appearances in Spring Training. That abbreviated ramp-up period may have contributed to his deep struggles out of the gate with the Braves, as he surrendered five runs on five hits and a walk in one inning of work across two appearances. He found himself designated for assignment before the end of March, and elected free agency after clearing outright waivers in early April.

He signed with the Angels on a minor league pact in mid-April but didn’t find his way to Anaheim until May 6. Since then, the veteran has made 21 appearances for the Angels despite pitching only 14 innings. He’s surrendered nine runs (eight earned) in that time, leaving him with a lackluster 5.14 ERA, but his 31.7% strikeout rate and 3.30 FIP with Anaheim are both potentially encouraging signs in the underlying numbers. Enticing as that high strikeout rate is, however, the fact that Neris never found himself into a high leverage role with the Angels suggests that the club had little confidence in the veteran to continue putting up those impressive numbers.

Given that, it’s not exactly a surprise to see him cut loose. The Angels will have one week to either trade Neris or pass him through waivers. If he clears waivers, he’ll have the opportunity to elect free agency but could also choose to remain in the organization on an outright assignment. Should he elect free agency, it’s not hard to see him continuing to garner interest on a minor league deal. After all, the veteran of 12 big league seasons was a dominant set-up man as recently as 2023. From 2019 to ’23, Neris posted a 3.12 ERA and a 3.47 FIP across 307 appearances for the Phillies and Astros and even picked up 50 saves along the way. That sort of late inning experience could be an asset for clubs in need of bullpen depth, though Neris’s 4.84 ERA since the start of the 2024 season seems to suggest his high-leverage days are behind him.

Replacing Neris on the active roster is Fermin, who made his big league debut with the Angels earlier this year. The righty has ten big league appearances under his belt during which he’s posted a 4.82 ERA across 9 1/3 innings of work, but his 33.3% strikeout rate is impressive enough that it’s not hard to imagine the 23-year-old finding some success in the majors if he can maintain a role in the Anaheim bullpen over a longer period of time. He’s posted a 3.00 ERA in 15 innings of work across three levels of the minors this year.

Angels Select Shaun Anderson, Designate Garrett McDaniels For Assignment

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The Angels announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Shaun Anderson.  Fellow righty José Fermín has been optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake as the corresponding active roster move.  To open a 40-man spot, left-hander Garrett McDaniels has been reinstated from the injured list and designated for assignment.

Anderson has a 6.30 ERA over 10 relief innings for the Halos this season, with most of that damage caused by three home runs allowed during that small sample of work. Los Angeles signed Anderson to a minors contract in February and selected him to the active roster for the first time a month ago, but designated the righty for assignment in the wake of his struggles.

The home run ball has long been an issue for Anderson, who has a 6.11 career ERA in the majors over 162 innings with eight different teams. Despite his lack of production at the big league level, Anderson has consistently kept drawing interest due to his ability to work as a swingman, though he hasn’t gotten much consistent work as a starter since the 2019 season when he pitched for the Giants. There is also a bit of a “quad-A” air to the righty’s career, as Anderson has pitched decently well at the Triple-A level and during a brief stint overseas in the KBO League in 2023.

Anderson will now get a chance to cover some innings and see if he can stick in the L.A. bullpen, with McDaniels the odd man out on the 40-man roster.  McDaniels was a Rule 5 Draft pick out of the Dodgers organization back in December, and his debut season in the majors saw the southpaw post a 5.91 ERA over 10 2/3 relief innings, with more walks allowed (eight) than strikeouts (six).  In fairness to McDaniels, he had only two games of Double-A experience on his resume before being exposed to MLB hitters this season, and he didn’t make his Triple-A debut until this year, while rehabbing from biceps tendinitis.

McDaniels’ Rule 5 status would carry over if another team acquired him via claim or trade during the DFA period, so this new club would also have to carry McDaniels on its active roster for the entire roster in order to fully obtain his rights.  If McDaniels clears waivers, the Angels would have to offer him back to the Dodgers for $50K (i.e. half of the original $100K fee the Angels paid the Dodgers for making the Rule 5 selection).

Angels Announce Three Roster Moves

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The Angels announced three moves this afternoon, including Jose Fermin’s placement (retroactive to May 15) on the 15-day injured list due to an impingement in his right elbow.  Los Angeles selected Hunter Strickland’s contract from Triple-A, and also designated infielder Ryan Noda for assignment to open up a spot on the 40-man roster.

Noda, 29, ends his tenure with the Angels without making an appearance with the big league club. The infielder was plucked out of the Dodgers organization by the Athletics in the Rule 5 draft prior to the 2023 season. Noda made that pick look like a brilliant move during his first season in Oakland, hitting .229/.364/.406 with 16 homers, 22 doubles, and a 122 wRC+ while serving as the A’s primary first baseman that year. With that being said, a 34.3% strikeout rate raised real long-term concerns even as he was producing at an above-average clip.

Given that, it was hardly a surprise when he struggled badly in his sophomore season as a major leaguer. Noda’s age-28 campaign saw him hit just .137/.255/.211 (44 wRC+) in 111 trips to the plate as he spent most of the season at Triple-A. Following the 2024 season, the A’s placed him on waivers and he found himself claimed by the Angels off waivers. With that being said, Noda did not make the club out of Spring Training and has failed to hit even at the Triple-A level with a .148/.364/.270 slash line in 38 games for the club’s affiliate. That was evidently enough for the Angels to feel comfortable pulling the plug on Noda, and they’ll now have one week to either work out a trade involving the infielder or try to pass him through waivers.

Noda’s departure creates room on the roster for Strickland, a veteran of ten MLB seasons already who made his big league debut with the Giants all the way back in 2014. Strickland was a solid late-inning relief arm early in his career with San Francisco, pitching to a 2.91 ERA and 3.40 FIP while racking up 19 saves in parts of five seasons. Things have been up and down in the years since then, however, with a 4.18 ERA and 4.73 FIP from 2019 to 2022 including a 2021 season where he pitched to a strong 2.61 ERA despite bouncing between three different teams over the course of the season. Last year, Strickland was a largely adequate middle reliever for the Angels with a 3.31 ERA in 73 1/3 innings of work despite a 4.45 FIP. He signed with the Rangers organization on a minor league deal over the winter but returned to the Angels earlier this month and will now get a shot in the club’s bullpen once again in 2025. In doing so, he’ll replace Fermin, a 23-year-old rookie with 7 2/3 innings of 5.87 ERA ball to his name in the majors so far.

Angels Designate Carl Edwards Jr., Select Jose Fermin

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The Angels announced four roster moves Saturday, including the news that right-hander Carl Edwards Jr. has been designated for assignment.  Right-hander Jose Fermin had his contract selected from Triple-A Salt Lake and southpaw Jake Eder was called up from Triple-A, while righty Victor Mederos was optioned to Salt Lake.

Edwards’ minors contract was only selected to the Halos’ roster on Wednesday, and he allowed three earned runs over three innings and two appearances during what might be a brief stint in the organization.  If Edwards clears waivers, he has enough MLB service time to reject any outright assignment in favor of free agency, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see Edwards quickly re-sign with the Angels on a fresh minors deal, or he might accept an outright assignment to Triple-A if he is comfortable in his current situation.

Now a veteran of 11 Major League seasons, Edwards has made seven or fewer appearances in five of those seasons, including a single-game cameo with the Padres in 2024.  Best known for his time in the Cubs bullpen during their last run of success and their World Series run in 2016, Edwards’ production fell off sharply from 2019-21 before he rediscovered some of his old form while pitching out of the Nationals’ bullpen in 2022-23.  A stress fracture in his shoulder prematurely ended Edwards’ 2023 campaign, and he has just the three MLB appearances in the last two years, though obviously there’s a ton of time left in the 2025 season for the veteran righty to find some more playing time.

Not to be confused with the Cardinals infielder of the same name, the Angels’ Jose Fermin is a 23-year-old righty who will be making his Major League debut whenever he appears in a game.  An international signing in 2023, Fermin isn’t considered one of Los Angeles’ top 30 prospects, but his relatively quick path to the majors does continue the Angels’ trend of rapidly promoting prospects.  Fermin is making the jump from Double-A to the Show without even any Triple-A experience, and Fermin’s Double-A tenure consists of just 10 innings over the last two seasons.

It could be that Fermin is just being called up for a cup of coffee and to give the Angels another fresh arm in the pen, yet the reliever will surely want to make a good impression even in what might be a brief stint in the big leagues.  Over 73 2/3 innings in the minors, Fermin has a 2.93 ERA, 10.33% walk rate, and a very impressive 35.33% strikeout rate, working exclusively as a relief pitcher.  As Baseball America’s Taylor Ward wrote in January, Fermin quickly put himself on the team’s radar with his strong work in 2024, and the righty’s arsenal includes an upper-90s fastball that can touch 99mph, and an outstanding slider with “double-plus potential.”

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