John Mozeliak On Angels’ Deadline
Angels interim general manager John Mozeliak met with the media before the Halos welcomed his former team, the Cardinals, to Angel Stadium on Monday. The veteran executive will oversee some kind of deadline sale off the American League’s worst roster.
How aggressive that’ll be remains to be seen. Mozeliak didn’t tip his hand beyond broadly indicating he’ll be open-minded. “Understanding the market and where that’s going, that’s … my biggest thing,” he told reporters (links via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com and Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register). “We can talk about X, Y, and Z, but if we don’t understand what the ROI should look like, we’re not quite there yet. We also don’t know what people are really willing to give up. So over the next two weeks, that is 100% our focus.”
There’s little doubt the Angels will look to move impending free agents like Kirby Yates and Brent Suter, but those modest prospect returns aren’t going to change the franchise outlook. The much bigger question is whether they’d listen on controllable trade assets. Starting pitchers Reid Detmers and José Soriano are their two biggest potential trade chips, assuming they don’t have any interest in moving shortstop Zach Neto.
Detmers and Soriano are each under arbitration control through 2028. Neto is controllable through the ’29 season. They’re the kind of players the Angels have refused to trade in previous seasons as they resist a full rebuild. Mozeliak has already said he doesn’t believe a complete rebuild is necessary, though he didn’t rule out listening to offers on controllable players.
[Related: Angels Deadline Outlook]
“Possibly,” he replied when asked broadly about the idea of making a bigger move. “But the real answer is what are we getting in returns, right? We could be presented with lots of deals that we just do not feel are in the best interest of this franchise. But my responsibility is to really understand what that looks like. Once we get there, I think we have to do what’s best for the franchise.”
Mozeliak’s own status is another wrinkle. He was hired last month when the Angels dismissed Perry Minasian. Mozeliak was officially brought in as a baseball operations consultant who’ll oversee the hiring of a new GM. He’s theoretically running the front office on an interim basis and only under contract through the end of the year. Angels owner Arte Moreno has a history of intervening in baseball decisions under previous full-time GMs — most famously pulling Shohei Ohtani off the trade market in 2022 and ’23.
A Detmers or Soriano trade wouldn’t be that kind of blockbuster, but they’re two of the organization’s most valuable players. Would Moreno allow an interim GM to handle a trade of that significance this summer? “I definitely feel like Mr. Moreno is trusting me to get this right,” Mozeliak replied when asked about his level of autonomy. “And so, that’s what I’m certainly going to try to do.”
Much of that depends on whether the Angels believe there’s a path to competitiveness in 2027. They have the worst record in the AL. Baseball America ranked their farm system 23rd earlier this month. (Those rankings were before the draft, in which the Angels selected high school two-way player Jared Gridlinger with the #12 overall pick.) They’re not going to lose much in free agency next offseason, but they don’t have a ton of upper minors talent looming beyond center fielder Nelson Rada.
“That’s a challenging task,” Mozeliak replied when asked about getting to contention in 2027. “Can I answer that like in a week and a half? I’m working through some things to sort of understand how to get there, and I don’t know.”
It’s fair to say that he hasn’t had much time to evaluate the organization. Mozeliak’s hiring seemingly came together quickly, and the unconventional timing threw him right into the fire with the draft taking immediate precedence. Their internal projected window is significant. Detmers and Soriano are controllable beyond next year, but the risk of pitching injuries is high enough that it’d behoove the Angels to move them this summer or in the offseason if they don’t expect to compete in 2027.
The Halos have already said they’re not trading Mike Trout. They could get modest interest in Jo Adell, who’d be due a raise on his $5.2MM salary if he’s tendered a contract for his final arbitration season. Adell has right-handed power and connected on 37 home runs as recently as last season, but his combination of low on-base marks and mediocre corner outfield defense limit the overall value. He’s hitting .240/.287/.393 with 14 longballs this season.
Pre-arbitration reliever Ryan Zeferjahn has big stuff and an excellent 32% strikeout rate across 46 innings. He’ll get some attention, but his near-16% walk rate is going to keep contenders from plugging him into high-leverage spots. The Dodgers sent a pair of mid-level prospects to the Rockies for hard-throwing reliever Seth Halvorsen this afternoon. The Angels should be able to get a similar return for the 28-year-old Zeferjahn if they wanted to cash him in.
John Mozeliak Discusses Angels’ Draft, Deadline Plans
For the first and maybe only time, John Mozeliak will run the Angels’ draft and trade deadline this summer. The longtime Cardinals baseball operations leader signed on as interim GM with the Halos. He’s only signed through the end of 2026 and was brought in to oversee the club’s search for a new general manager.
Mozeliak temporarily takes over the front office at a key time. The MLB draft is this weekend and there’s less than a month until the August 3 trade deadline. The Angels are riding a six-game losing streak that currently has them as the worst team in the game at 36-55. They’re clearly going to be sellers; the question is how aggressive they’ll be.
While it seems the plans are still being ironed out, Mozeliak has shed some light on the process in recent interviews with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Bill Shakin of The Los Angeles Times. Last week, the interim GM told Rosenthal that he did not believe the Angels needed a complete rebuild. “I don’t think in this market you need to do that. I think what you need to do is understand what those arbitrages look like. You need to understand what the future free agent market looks like,” he told The Athletic on Tuesday. “This team has resources. Now it’s just making sure we deploy them correctly.”
Mozeliak struck a similar tone in his conversation with Shaikin. “The one thing you have to realize about the Los Angeles Angels is they do have resources,” he said. “From (owner Arte Moreno) to the market size, this is a place that could be a very, very special place. … There are many franchises in the game of baseball that cannot do that. They have tradeoffs. They have to make a decision: If I’m going to give you $20MM for your infrastructure, that’s $20MM less for your payroll. This place is different.”
Moreno’s spending history doesn’t exactly support that point. The Angels famously made significant scouting cuts during the pandemic in 2020. They have generally run higher than average player payrolls, though Moreno has stopped short of paying the competitive balance tax since 2004. (They were willing to go into luxury tax territory in 2023 until falling out of the playoff picture, in fairness.) Moreno has pulled back spending following the collapse of the team’s local broadcast contract. MLBTR’s payroll tracker — available to Front Office subscribers courtesy of contributor Ethan Hullihen — has the Angels 16th in MLB with an approximate $186MM payroll and $202MM luxury tax number.
The issues clearly extend beyond the mid-tier spending. Most of the free agent investments the Angels did make under former GM Perry Minasian busted. They made a habit of drafting lower-ceiling college players whom they could quickly jump to the majors to address roster deficiencies. That only really panned out with shortstop Zach Neto, though Reid Detmers has settled in as a mid-rotation starter after early-career inconsistency.
Speaking with Shaikin, Mozeliak mostly downplayed the notion that anyone was untouchable. The exception, as expected, was Mike Trout. “That’s not happening,” he replied when asked about the possibility of a Trout trade. There was never any reason to think it would, at least not this summer.
Trout has full no-trade rights and hasn’t publicly expressed any interest in going elsewhere. Moreno has seemingly never wanted to entertain the possibility and it wouldn’t make sense to turn that decision to an interim GM even if it were on the table for ownership. That’s before considering the complication of Trout’s injury history and the nearly $142MM on his contract between 2027-30.
The bigger question is whether the Angels would entertain moving any of their productive arbitration-eligible trade chips. Given the organizational history, they’ll probably take Neto more or less off the table when he’s controllable for another three seasons. Detmers and José Soriano have two and a half seasons of team control and a higher injury risk as pitchers. They probably should be available, yet Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote last month that Moreno didn’t want to move either of those starters or right fielder Jo Adell (controllable through ’27).
If the Angels again shy away from moving controllable pieces, they wouldn’t have much to offer. Their impending free agents are Jorge Soler, Travis d’Arnaud, Kirby Yates, Yoán Moncada, Adam Frazier and Brent Suter. Yates has pitched well lately and could probably land a mid-level prospect. He’ll still be a second or third-tier bullpen target for a lot of contenders as a 39-year-old working with the lowest velocity of his career. No one else from that group seems likely to get more than cursory interest.
Mozeliak did suggest the Angels could take a different approach to the draft than they have in recent years. “I’m not wedded to a high school player or a college player. I want the best player,” he told Shaikin. Essentially every team espouses the “best player available” approach, so perhaps that’s just a truism, but the Angels haven’t selected a high schooler in the first round since taking Jordyn Adams in 2018. Their most recent second-round selection out of high school was Kyren Paris one year later.
That’s not to say that drafting high school players in the top round or two is necessarily a better strategy. Though it’s broadly true that high school signees tend to have wider ranges of outcomes than players selected out of college, that obviously varies on a case by case basis. The Angels clearly have had one of the most extreme college-heavy bents of any team in recent seasons, though, so it’d be notable if they’re truly open to the entire board. They’ll pick 12th and 45th overall, then have the sixth selection of Rounds 3-20.
Why Can’t The Angels Accept Reality?
We’re nearly one third of the way through the 2026 regular season. The Angels have won exactly one third of their games. Despite getting out to a decent start — the Halos were 11-10 after a win on April 17 — they’re now sitting on a 17-34 record. A resurgent performance from Mike Trout and a breakout from Jose Soriano fueled that early success, but those two alone can’t carry the rest of the roster. The Angels have won only six of their past 30 games and just one of their past 10.
The end result doesn’t come as a major surprise, although it’s nevertheless jarring when any team rattles off a stretch with only six wins in 30 games. Still, the Angels didn’t enter the season expected to be contenders. MLBTR readers overwhelmingly voted that their offseason was worthy of a D or F grade. FanGraphs projected what now looks like a charitable 72 wins. PECOTA had them down at 66 wins, which now also looks like it could finish on the high end. My colleague Anthony Franco opened his review of the Halos’ offseason by writing that the Angels “did little to improve a 90-loss roster and again enter the season as one of the American League’s worst teams on paper.”
It’s a familiar refrain. The Angels will extend their playoff drought to 12 years when the current season concludes. They haven’t had a winning record since 2015. Owner Arte Moreno has cycled through seven managers since their last winning season. Current skipper Kurt Suzuki is in a virtually unprecedented situation: a rookie manager on a one-year deal. There’s a chance that 2027 will bring an eighth manager in 12 years.
To hear Suzuki tell it, the Angels are right on the cusp of turning things around. Sam Blum of The Athletic asked him last week whether he felt this was a cold stretch or reflective of where the Angels are as an organization. Suzuki replied: “I truly do believe that we’ve hit a cold stretch. Even that being said, there are a lot of games where we’re in it. We’re one swing away, maybe one pitch away, one out away.”
Granted, there’s not much Suzuki can say in that situation. It’s a perfectly fair question to be asked, but a rookie manager on a one-year contract isn’t going to throw the entire organization under the bus. He probably does believe, to an extent, that the players on hand have underperformed, gotten unlucky and that the record could be better. There may even be some truth behind that. The Angels certainly aren’t a good team, but a team with Trout, Soriano and Zach Neto probably isn’t quite bad enough to be a 54-win team (the Angels’ current pace).
That said, the Angels are an unequivocally bad team. The organization has been stuck in neutral for more than a decade. Let’s take a look at the current state of the roster, what could be done, and why the Halos are spinning their wheels in perpetuity.
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The Angels May Have Found An Ace
Angels right-hander José Soriano has had a really tough journey but it seems he has arrived. He has largely stayed healthy for a few years and his results keep getting better. The timing of his breakout puts the Halos in an interesting position.
Soriano has always had good stuff. Even as a teenager, he was hitting the mid-90s with his fastball and showing good secondary stuff while pitching in Rookie ball. Still, there were questions about whether or not he could utilize that arsenal. From 2016 to 2018, he tossed 155 2/3 innings between Rookie Ball and Low-A. He did have a 2.89 earned run average but his 19.3% strikeout rate and 12.7% walk rate didn’t suggest dominance.
He missed a few more bats in 2019 but also with more walks. Then the injury odyssey began. He required Tommy John surgery in February of 2020. The pandemic canceled the minor leagues that year but Soriano was going to be rehabbing regardless.
The Pirates tried betting on his arm, selecting him with the first overall pick in the Rule 5 draft in November of 2020. Naturally, the hope was that he would return from his surgery and get right back on track. He began a rehab assignment in May of 2021 but that lasted only two appearances before his elbow discomfort returned. He required yet another Tommy John surgery in June. At the end of the 2021 campaign, he was returned to the Angels.
He sat out most of the 2022 season but did make seven appearances in the minors late in the year. The Angels were encouraged enough that they didn’t want to risk another Rule 5 selection, so they added him to their 40-man roster in November of that year.
The Halos used Soriano as a reliever in 2023, an understandable decision for a guy who had effectively missed the previous three years. He tossed 23 1/3 innings in the minors and another 42 in the majors, getting him to 65 1/3 for the year overall. The major league results were good, as Soriano posted a 3.64 ERA. His 12.4% walk rate was high but perhaps some rust was understandable after so much missed time. He struck out 30.3% of batters faced and induced grounders at a 51% clip.
Going into 2024, the Angels could have kept him in the bullpen but decided to give starting another try. A few years later, that looks like an inspired decision. He stayed healthy in 2024 for the most part. Soriano had a brief stint on the injured list in the summer due to an abdominal infection and also landed on the IL late in the year due to some arm fatigue. However, he logged 113 innings over 22 appearances with a 3.42 ERA. His 20.7% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate weren’t astounding but he got grounders at a huge 59.7% pace.
Soriano’s 2025 season was even better. His only IL stint was right at the end of the season. He was struck by a comebacker and was put on the shelf on September 18th with a contusion. He made 31 starts on the year and tossed 169 frames. His 4.26 ERA wasn’t as nice as the year before but his rate stats were largely the same. He had a 21% strikeout rate, 10.8% walk rate and a huge 65.3% ground ball rate.
Soriano’s velocity has been in the upper 90s throughout his big league career but he has thrown his sinker a lot, leading to the grounder-heavy profile. He was atop the leaderboard in that category by a decent margin, with Andre Pallante a distant second at 59.1% last year.
Here in 2026, Soriano has changed up his pitch mix and it has seemingly propelled him to a new level. He threw his sinker 49.1% of the time in 2025 but that’s down to 30.5% so far this year. That’s led to way more four-seamers. Soriano threw that pitch just 8.6% of the time last year but is up to 23.4% in 2026. To smaller degrees, he has also thrown more splitters, sliders and curveballs.
This is only four starts and 27 innings but Soriano has only allowed one earned run, giving him a tiny ERA of 0.33. Part of that is a .143 batting average on balls in play and 100% strand rate, but it’s not entirely luck. Soriano is still getting grounders at a strong 60.7% clip but with a strikeout rate that has soared to 32%. His 2.33 FIP and 2.73 SIERA suggest he would be showing huge improvement even with more neutral favor from the baseball gods.
It’s obviously tremendous for the Angels. They need several things to break right in order to compete this year, since they haven’t been good in a decade and actually cut the payroll coming into this year. That creates a need for some internal guys to step up and be nice surprises. They’re getting a tremendous bounceback from Mike Trout. Former prospect Oswald Peraza is out to a great start. Reid Detmers moving from the bullpen to the rotation is going well so far.
Time will tell if that’s enough to make the Angels legitimate contenders. They are currently 10-10. Hanging around .500 is enough to be in a playoff race these days, with the expanded postseason field. In some recent years, they have had strong starts that faded over time, as their lack of depth generally gets more exposed as a long season proceeds.
If the Angels aren’t strong contenders when July rolls around, Soriano will be an interesting theoretical trade candidate. His Rule 5 odyssey was harmless for the Angels in a sense, in that they got him back. However, he did get a year of big league service time while spending that season on the injured list. That means that despite only having pitched parts of three seasons with the Angels, he came into 2026 with his service clock at three years and 121 days. He is therefore slated for free agency after 2028.
That doesn’t mean the Angels would have to move him this summer but there would be an argument for it. A dominant pitcher with two-plus seasons of club control could get a haul. Given Soriano’s injury history, there would be sense in selling high, before another injury tanks his value.
This is an approach the Marlins have taken in recent years. They traded two-plus seasons of Trevor Rogers to the Orioles, two years of Jesús Luzardo to the Phillies, three years of Edward Cabrera to the Cubs and three years of Ryan Weathers to the Yankees. Those guys all had notable injury issues in Miami but were cashed in while the Marlins felt they were able to get good value. Those trades netted the Fish Kyle Stowers, Connor Norby, Owen Caissie and a bunch of prospects who are still in the minors. Their farm is now generally ranked in the top third of the league, and it’s possible they are forming a young nucleus that will have them well set up for the coming years. Along similar lines, MacKenzie Gore and Shane Baz were traded for big prospect packages in the most recent offseason, by the Nationals and Rays respectively. Gore had two years of club control remaining. Baz, who has since signed an extension with his new club in Baltimore, had three.
This is a path the Angels have typically avoided. Broadly speaking, they appear to be higher on their own chances of contention than outsiders. They have avoided rebuilding and haven’t made many major moves with a long-term focus. They often use their best draft picks on older college players and then fast-track them to the majors to try to help as quickly as possible. They had many chances to trade Shohei Ohtani for a huge package of prospects but held onto him and couldn’t get to the playoffs with him. They sent out notable prospects at the 2023 deadline to get Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López and others but immediately floundered and put those guys on waivers a few weeks later.
As a result, there’s not a lot of optimism about the future. Each of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, ESPN and The Athletic consider the Angels to have one of the four worst farm systems in the league.
If the Angels aren’t in contention this summer, there would be some sense in selling high on Soriano, Detmers, Peraza, Zach Neto, Jo Adell and others, in order to lay out a long-term path. History suggests that, if they are close this summer, they will try to ride the wave into the postseason. For the sake of their fans, it would be great if that worked out, though it has backfired on them in the past.
As mentioned earlier, Soriano’s step forward is unequivocally a good development for the Angels. The question is whether they will be able to take advantage of it. Making the playoffs for the first time since 2014 would be one way to do that. Setting themselves up for the future by building up a barren farm system would be another. The club hasn’t been able to take either of those roads in recent history. Hopefully this time is different, one way or another.
Photos courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images
Angels Place Jose Soriano On Injured List With Forearm Contusion
The season is over for Angels starter José Soriano. The Halos placed the righty on the 15-day injured list with a right forearm contusion. Lefty Sam Aldegheri was recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake in a corresponding move.
Soriano was struck in the arm by a comebacker from Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers last night. The ball came off the bat at 107.4 MPH. Soriano immediately exited the game. X-rays did not reveal any fractures, but the injury was significant enough that he won’t be able to make his final two starts. That won’t mean much to an Angels team that is officially resigned to a 10th consecutive losing season.
The only potential impact on the standings is that it takes Soriano out of consideration to start against the Astros in the final weekend. The hard-throwing sinkerballer would have lined up to start Tuesday’s series opener against the Royals. That would have put him on schedule for the finale against the Astros next Sunday. That game may be relevant with Houston currently tied with the Mariners for the top spot in the American League West.
Soriano’s season concludes with a 4.26 earned run average in 31 starts. He’s second on the team behind Yusei Kikuchi with 169 innings. Soriano and Kikuchi have been the Halos’ two best starting pitchers overall, though they’ve each had rough second halves after stronger starts. Soriano is the sport’s top ground-ball specialist, at least among starting pitchers. His 97 MPH sinker has led to a massive 65.3% grounder rate. That’s almost six percentage points above the second-highest mark in MLB (minimum 100 innings).
The 26-year-old fell 11 days shy of qualifying for arbitration as a Super Two player last offseason. He’ll earn his first significant pay raise next winter and is under club control for three more seasons. Soriano should be assured of a rotation spot going into next year. That’d also be true of Kikuchi barring an unlikely trade that allows the Angels to shed the remaining two years and $42MM on his contract. The Angels will probably need to make three acquisitions over the winter.
Kyle Hendricks and Tyler Anderson are impending free agents. Jack Kochanowicz was one of the least effective starters in the majors. The Halos have given a handful of starts to each of Victor Mederos, Caden Dana and Mitch Farris. They’ll be in the mix for back-end or relief jobs but shouldn’t be in the projected starting five. That’s also true of the 24-year-old Aldegheri, who’ll probably make his first two MLB starts of the season next week. Aldegheri has been shelled in a pair of big league relief appearances but turned in a 3.72 ERA over 23 Double-A starts this year.
Angels Place Victor Mederos, Carson Fulmer On 15-Day IL
The Angels announced that right-handers Victor Mederos and Carson Fulmer have been placed on the 15-day injured list. Fulmer is dealing with inflammation in his throwing elbow, while Mederos has right shoulder inflammation. Righty Chase Silseth was called up from Triple-A to take one roster spot, and right-hander Jose Soriano was activated from the team’s restricted list in the other corresponding move. (Soriano was already on the paternity list and was moved to the restricted list for an additional day off.)
Both Mederos and Fulmer were roughed up during yesterday’s 12-1 loss to the Cubs, as each pitcher was charged with six earned runs. Mederos started the game and allowed four hits and two walks in his four-inning outing, plus his fastball lost four miles of velocity from his first inning to his last.
Beyond the damage on the scoresheet, Mederos said he felt some shoulder fatigue after the game, and the result is today’s IL placement. Mederos told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register that he’ll be underdoing an MRI to determine the extent of the problem.
Now in his third MLB season, Mederos has yet to find much consistency, as he has an 8.53 ERA in 25 1/3 innings and 12 appearances (all with the Angels). His last three outings have been his first three big league starts, as the Halos gave him a look as a starter after posting some solid numbers with Triple-A Salt Lake. Somewhat curiously, Mederos has struggled in the majors and at the lower minor league levels but he has a 3.43 ERA in 97 career innings in Salt Lake, even pitching within the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
The MRI results will determine Mederos’ immediate fate, yet even if the scans come back clean, the timing of the IL placement could mean that Mederos’ 2025 season is over. Any lingering shoulder soreness might lead the Angels to simply shut Mederos down, and the same is true of Fulmer and his elbow issue.
Fulmer had a 3.06 ERA in his first 17 2/3 innings for Los Angeles this season, but things have gone south in the form of a 10.03 ERA over Fulmer’s last 11 2/3 frames. That tough stretch includes a nightmarish performance yesterday, as Fulmer gave up six runs on seven hits and a walk in just 1 1/3 IP against the Cubs. Fulmer said his elbow started bothering him during the appearance, and he’ll undergo testing today.
Beginning the season on a minor league deal with the Pirates, Fulmer was cut loose in June and rejoined the Angels on a minors contract, with a selection to the active roster coming in July. All of Fulmer’s MLB time in the last three seasons has come in a Halos uniform, with a 4.43 ERA to show for his 126 career innings in Anaheim.
Perry Minasian Discusses Angels’ Future
Angels general manager Perry Minasian held an end-of-season press conference this week, with details provided by Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register and Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. Though the club is wrapping up another disappointing season, Minasian expressed confidence in what he believes to be a budding core and indicated the entire coaching staff will be returning next year.
The Halos finished 2024 with a record of 63-99. Despite plenty of challenging seasons in the club’s history, that was actually their worst performance ever by a notable margin. Prior to this year, the club’s worst record was a mark of 65-95 in 1980. This year’s struggles continued a dreary run for the club, as they haven’t made the postseason since 2014, the longest active drought in the league.
“As far as the season goes, very frustrating from a small-picture standpoint,” Minasian said. “Big picture, there are a lot of things to be excited about. I believe this is the type of year that we’ll look back at a year from now, two years from now, and say that was huge.” Per Bollinger, Minasian highlighted that the Diamondbacks only won 52 games in 2021 but were in the World Series two years later, while the Royals only had 56 wins in 2023 but are in the postseason this year.
Whether the Angels can mount a similar climb into contention remains to be seen. Minasian seems to be encouraged by the development of young players such as shortstop Zach Neto, catcher Logan O’Hoppe and first baseman Nolan Schanuel, as well as pitchers José Soriano, Jack Kochanowicz and Ben Joyce.
Those players all showed encouraging signs this year, to varying degrees. Neto hit 23 home runs and stole 30 bases. His defensive metrics were mixed, as he had 11 Defensive Runs Saved but -5 Outs Above Average, but he was still graded by FanGraphs as being worth 3.5 wins above replacement on the year. O’Hoppe provided offense around league average, with a 101 wRC+ on the year, though catchers are usually about 10 to 12% below par. His work behind the plate was also considered to be solid, leading to a 2.1 fWAR tally. Schanuel’s contributions were more modest. He drew walks at a strong 11.2% clip but only hit 13 homers and also had mixed reviews for his glovework, leading to 0.7 fWAR on the year.
On the pitching side of things, Kochanowicz made 11 starts with a 3.99 earned run average. His 9.4% strikeout rate was well below average but he limited walks to a tiny rate of 3.8% and forced opponents to put 57% of balls in play on the ground. Soriano tossed 113 innings, which was an achievement in and of itself after he missed so much time due to injuries. But the results were also good, as he had a 3.42 ERA, 20.7% strikeout rate, 9.6% walk rate and 59.7% ground ball rate. Ben Joyce used his triple-digit velocity to throw 34 2/3 innings with a 2.08 ERA, 23.2% strikeout rate, 9.9% walk rate and 58.9% ground ball rate.
In addition to their solid results, those players are all cheap and controllable. None of those six have reached three years of service time, meaning none of them are guaranteed to qualify for arbitration this winter. Soriano could perhaps qualify as a Super Two player, depending on where the cutoff will be. He is going into the winter at two years and 121 days, which is close to where the line has been in previous offseasons. Regardless of which side of the border Soriano is on, each of these players can be affordably controlled through at least 2028.
But even with contributions from those six, the club was still a disappointment in 2024, so improvements will be needed elsewhere. Perhaps that will come from other young players like Caden Dana, Sam Aldegheri, Niko Kavadas, Christian Moore, Nelson Rada and others, but the club will also need to make some external additions, something that Minasian is aware of. “We definitely need more players,” he said. “There’s no secret there.”
It’s unclear at this point what kind of resources Minasian will have at his disposal for the winter, as he said he hasn’t yet discussed the 2025 payroll with owner Arte Moreno. The club did cut back on spending in 2024, winding up in the range of $176MM per the calculations of RosterResource. That was close to $40MM below the roughly $215MM they spent in 2023.
RR currently pegs the club at $109MM for 2025 but that’s not a complete picture of their situation. The club has 12 arbitration-eligible players, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting that group for a total of $37.6MM. Not every player in that group will be tendered a contract, but the Angels could be internally committed to the $140MM range already.
That would leave them some wiggle room if they were willing to carry forward a similar payroll to 2024, but it remains to be seen as to whether that will be the case after a 99-loss season. The club presumably took some revenue hits in terms of ticket sales, TV ratings and advertising in their first season of the post-Shohei Ohtani era.
Regardless of how the club handles its offseason, Minasian did reveal a bit about how he’s thinking about the club going forward. Notably, he wouldn’t commit to Anthony Rendon being the club’s starting third baseman nor even being on the roster.
“When Anthony has played, he hasn’t been productive,” Minasian said. “So he’s gonna have to come in and earn it. There’s no handouts. We’re starting to create some depth, where we have some versatile players that can do some different things, so the best players are gonna play, no doubt about it.” When asked if Rendon would continue to have a roster spot if things don’t turn around, he responded with: “That’s a great question. We’re going to look at everything. We’re going to look at what makes the best sense for this organization.”
Rendon’s struggles with the Angels are well documented at this point. He signed a seven-year, $245MM deal with the club going into 2020 but they haven’t seen much return on that investment. He was good in the first year of the deal, though that was the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Over the four seasons since then, he has frequently missed time due to injury and only played 205 games. As Minasian said, he hasn’t done well even when on the field, having hit .231/.329/.336 for a wRC+ of 89 over those four campaigns. That includes a dismal line of .218/.307/.267 in 2024, when he only got into 57 contests.
Rendon is now 34 years old, turning 35 next June, and has two years left on his deal. He’ll make $38MM in each of those two years, leaving $76MM to be paid out. It’s not uncommon for a club to give up on a player with an underwater contract. The Angels themselves did it not too long ago by releasing Albert Pujols. However, while some fans may yearn for the same to happen with Rendon soon, it would be unprecedented for a club to eat this much money.
The largest guarantee still owed to a player at the time of his release was when the Red Sox cut Pablo Sandoval loose in July of 2017. At that point, he was still owed $18MM in each of the next two years, plus a $5MM buyout on his 2020 option. He was also still owed a little more than a third of his 2017 salary of $17MM. Matt Gelb of The Athletic recently pegged the total at $48.3MM of what Sandoval was still owed when he was released, which is barely half of what Rendon is still owed.
Whether the Angels want to break that record remains to be seen. They could perhaps have Luis Rengifo take over at third base, though he’s also an option to be the regular at second base or perhaps serve in a utility role. Moore is a second baseman has already reached Double-A and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the club quickly promote him, since they did the same with guys like Neto, Schanuel and Dana. Matthew Lugo, acquired in the Luis García trade, had a strong year in the minors. He has reached Triple-A and can play all over the infield, though he has some time in the outfield as well.
Perhaps there will come a time when the club decides it would rather dedicate playing time to those guys rather than continuing to run Rendon out onto the field. The designated hitter spot might be used by Mike Trout with some regularity as the club tries to stave off his own injury troubles. Offseason acquisitions could further crowd the roster. Rendon could put together a nice stretch of health and flip the narrative but it seems his contract is going to guarantee him any opportunities.
Angels Place Kevin Pillar, Jo Adell On Injured List
The Angels announced this afternoon that they’ve place outfielders Kevin Pillar and Jo Adell on the 10-day Injured List. Pillar is out due to a left thumb sprain, while Adell is being shelved due to a left oblique strain. Outfielder Jordyn Adams was recalled to the big league roster and outfielder Bryce Teodosio had his contract selected to replace the pair on the big league roster. To make room for Teodosio on the 40-man roster, the Angels transferred right-hander Jose Soriano to the 60-day IL.
It’s not yet clear how long either Pillar or Adell is expected to be out, but absences of any significance are likely to spell the end of the season for the hitters with just three weeks left in the 2024 campaign and the Angels set to miss the playoffs for the tenth consecutive season. If Pillar doesn’t return this season, it’s possible that means he’s already played his final MLB game given that he acknowledged back in July that he’s likely to retire following this season.
The 35-year-old veteran has enjoyed his best offensive season in a 162-game campaign since 2015 by measure of wRC+ as he’s hit a decent .242/.298/.392 in 93 games between the White Sox and Angels this year, including a fantastic 145 wRC+ against left-handed pitching. In addition to Pillar’s excellent numbers against southpaws, he’s played solid defense at all three outfield spots and chipped in ten steals in 13 attempts on the basepaths. Should Pillar not return to the field this season and decide to retire, he’ll finish his 12-year career with a .256/.294/.408 slash line with 1042 hits, 113 homers, and 106 steals.
As for Adell, the 25-year-old was a big league regular for the first time since he made his debut back in 2020 this year, acting as the Halos’ everyday right fielder. Unfortunately, the tenth overall pick of the 2017 draft and former top prospect left much to be desired with his performance in that first taste of regular playing time. The youngster got off to a hot start early in the season with a .234/.301/.516 slash line in his first 43 games year, but in 87 games since then he’s hit a paltry .195/.270/.350 with as many home runs (10) in his final 307 trips to the plate as he had in his first 144 plate appearances this year. While his overall wRC+ of 89 is an improvement over his career 70 wRC+ entering the year, it’s still both a major disappointment for a player who was once a consensus top-5 prospect in the game and a far cry from the production expected from an everyday corner outfielder.
Replacing Adell and Pillar on Anaheim’s big league roster are Adams and Teodosio. The Angels’ first-round pick in the 2018 draft, Adams made his big league debut last year with a 17-game cup of coffee where he hit just .128/.125/.128 with a 40% strikeout rate in 40 trips to the plate. Following that lackluster debut, Adams has struggled at the Triple-A level this year with a .261/.333/.386 line in 549 trips to the plate, good for a wRC+ of just 81 in the Pacific Coast League this year. Despite that lackluster production in the minors this year, the 24-year-old will now get another taste of big league action down the stretch in hopes of establishing himself as a potential big league option for the Halos in 2025.
As for Teodosio, the 25-year-old Clemson product signed with the club as a undrafted free agent back in 2021 and worked his way up the minor league ladder to reach the Triple-A level this year. In 114 games at the level this season, Teodosio has slashed .276/.339/.418 with an 89 wRC+ with similar overall numbers to those of Adams, though he’s managed to separate himself a bit with an excellent 40-for-44 record on the basepaths. With Teodosio now poised to make his big league debut when he first makes it into a game, he’ll join Adams in the club’s outfield down the stretch alongside Taylor Ward and Mickey Moniak in hopes of making enough of an impression to be looked at as an option in the outfield headed into next year.
Making room for Teodosio on the 40-man roster is Soriano, whose season is now over after being transferred to the 60-day IL. As noted by Sam Blum of The Athletic, Angels brass indicated that Soriano has not suffered a setback and is dealing with the same arm fatigue issue that initially sent him to the IL in mid-August. The 25-year-old hurler moved to the rotation in 2024 after pitching in relief during his rookie season last year. With a 3.42 ERA and 3.82 FIP in 113 innings of work, Soriano generally impressed with his work out of the rotation this year and appears likely to head into Spring Training next year with the inside track toward a 2025 rotation job.
AL West Notes: Blanco, Scherzer, Soriano
The Astros have been using a six-man rotation for the last couple of weeks, in order to both ease Justin Verlander‘s return from the 15-day injured list and to help manage the innings of Ronel Blanco and Spencer Arrighetti. With the team preparing to move back to the traditional five-man staff, GM Dana Brown said on his weekend radio show (hat tip to The Athletic’s Chandler Rome) that Blanco will probably be the pitcher moved into relief work. The right-hander had a 4.98 ERA in his last seven starts and 34 1/3 prior to today’s start, when he looked sharp in tossing five shutout innings in the Astros’ 7-2 win over the Royals.
Blanco’s unexpected emergence has been a revelation for a Houston team hit hard by rotation injuries earlier this season. He threw a no-hitter against the Blue Jays in his very first start of 2024, setting the tone for a year that has seen him post a 3.03 ERA over 148 1/3 innings. The concern is that Blanco has already topped his previous high of 125 1/3 innings across the majors and minors in 2023, and Houston naturally wants to keep him fresh for the playoffs. The Astros’ rotation has been so dominant in recent weeks that they can afford to lose Blanco’s production, and there’s plenty of upside to using Blanco as a bullpen weapon down the stretch and into October.
More items from around the AL West….
- It has been over a month since Max Scherzer last pitched, as he was dealing with right shoulder fatigue and then had a Double-A rehab start on August 23 canceled for unspecified reasons. Scherzer discussed the situation with MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry and other reporters this weekend, saying he was hampered by a nerve problem in his triceps area, but it wasn’t actual nerve damage, as tests revealed. A change to Scherzer’s throwing motion might’ve “solved this,” as “there was something mechanically going on with my elbow and elbow retraction that was making that radial nerve of my tricep get irritated,” Scherzer said. “Yesterday, I got on the mound to do a full bullpen and no issue….Structurally, I’m fine. Strength, I’m fine. I don’t have an injury here. This was just a nerve irritation.” Scherzer is now hopeful that he’ll be able to properly resume his rehab program within the week, and he believes he’ll return to the Rangers rotation before the season is over.
- Jose Soriano was placed on the 15-day injured list on August 17, but he won’t be activated when first eligible. It isn’t yet clear if Soriano will return at all in 2024, as Angels GM Perry Minasian told the media (including MLB.com) that the team is considering shutting Soriano down. The right-hander was sent to the IL due to arm fatigue, which isn’t unexpected given that Soriano has thrown a career-high 113 innings this season. His previous high was 82 1/3 innings in the minors in 2019, before two separate Tommy John surgeries put Soriano on the shelf for almost three full years. He made his big league debut as a reliever in 2023 and moved into the rotation this season, posting a very respectable 3.42 ERA across his 113 frames. With some solid results already in the books, the Angels might opt to just let Soriano get a head start on his 2025 preparations rather than ramp him back up for another outing or two this season.
Angels Place José Soriano On 15-Day IL, Reinstate José Cisnero
The Angels have reinstated right-hander José Cisnero from the 60-day injured list, the team announced. He will take fellow right-hander José Soriano‘s place on the active roster, while Soriano heads to the 15-day IL with right arm fatigue. To make room for Cisnero on the 40-man roster, the Angels transferred Luis Rengifo to the 60-day IL. Rengifo underwent season-ending wrist surgery earlier this month.
Cisnero, 35, signed a one-year, $1.75MM deal with Los Angeles over the offseason. Unfortunately, his tenure with the Angels got off to a rough start, as he gave up three earned runs in 2/3 of an inning on Opening Day. He went on to put up a 7.07 ERA across 14 appearances over the first month of the season. Then, he landed on the IL with inflammation in his throwing shoulder at the end of April and has been out ever since. However, despite his poor start, the veteran has a track record as a reliable middle reliever. From 2019-23, he made 222 appearances for the Tigers with a 3.84 ERA and a 4.16 SIERA. Thus, the Angels will hope he can provide some stability for the bullpen upon his return. While L.A. ranks fifth in MLB with a 2.69 bullpen ERA since the trade deadline, the underlying metrics (4.40 SIERA, 4.57 xFIP) suggest that is highly unlikely to last. Angels relievers have a 4.13 ERA and 4.25 SIERA on the season, and that’s including the innings Carlos Estévez and Luis García pitched before they were dealt.
Regrettably for the Angels, Cisnero’s return comes just as another arm hits the IL. Soriano, 25, has been a breakout player for L.A. this year. Since joining the rotation on April 10, he has a 3.36 ERA, 3.98 SIERA, and 2.1 FanGraphs WAR over 20 starts. In that time, he leads Angels starters in all three metrics. However, he lasted just 3 1/3 innings in his last outing on Friday. Manager Ron Washington told reporters (including Dan Arritt of the Orange County Register) after the game that he could tell Soriano was tired and lifted him so that “he didn’t hurt himself.”
Thankfully for the Angels, “arm fatigue” does not sound like a particularly serious problem. Indeed, Soriano explained that he’s “not worried about it being a major injury” and said he’s “going to work to come back as soon as [he] can” (per Arritt). That being said, Soriano has already thrown 113 innings this season, far more than he’s ever thrown before in any other year of his professional career. Considering the Angels have no delusions about competing for a postseason spot this year, they would be smart to exercise the utmost caution with Soriano. Nevertheless, Washington made it clear that he expects to have the promising young hurler back in his rotation before the end of the year (per Arritt).
With Soriano making his last start yesterday, the Angels will need to choose a replacement in time for Wednesday’s series finale against the Royals. The most logical choice would seem to be Reid Detmers, who twirled a gem on Friday at Triple-A, giving up one run in eight innings while striking out 11. Detmers, 25, has been pitching at Triple-A since he was optioned in June. His overall results at Salt Lake have been disappointing (6.37 ERA in 12 GS), but he’s already on the 40-man roster and has several years of MLB experience under his belt. Other options on the 40-man roster include Sam Bachman, Davis Daniel, and Kenny Rosenberg. Daniel and Rosenberg were optioned earlier this week, but they could be recalled early if they are replacing the injured Greene.
Beyond the 40-man roster, veteran Johnny Cueto is the most intriguing option. The 38-year-old signed a minor league pact with the Angels in July, and he has a 3.09 ERA in four starts with the Salt Lake Bees. However, he had a 5.71 ERA and 4.91 FIP over nine starts at Triple-A in the Rangers organization earlier this year. Meanwhile, he had 6.02 ERA and 4.93 SIERA in the majors for the Marlins last season. In other words, there’s a reason the two-time All-Star and 2014 Cy Young runner-up has been unable to get back to the majors in 2024.