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Jared Walsh, Max Stassi To Start Season On Injured List; Angels To Select Jake Lamb

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Angels first baseman Jared Walsh and catcher Max Stassi will begin the 2023 season on the injured list, tweets Sam Blum of The Athletic. Walsh is currently being plagued by headaches and insomnia, while Stassi is dealing with a hip injury. With that pair of IL stints, the Halos will carry top catching prospect Logan O’Hoppe and veteran corner infielder Jake Lamb on the Opening Day roster. Lamb, who’s in camp on a non-roster deal, will need to have his contract selected.

Walsh’s trip to the injured list is an unfortunate development for the Halos, given the resurgent showing he turned in this spring after undergoing thoracic outlet surgery in 2022. The 29-year-old Walsh’s 2021 breakout sent him to the All-Star Game, and he finished out that season with a hearty .277/.340/.509 batting line and 29 homers. He hit just .215/.269/.374 in 2022 before landing on the injured list and undergoing surgery, but through 14 spring games in 2023 Walsh looked like his old self: .400/.512/.686 with a pair of homers and four doubles in 43 plate appearances. He’ll meet with a specialist to determine the root of his current issues.

With Walsh out, the veteran Lamb could step into the large half of a first base platoon. He’s had a monster spring, batting .324/.419/.595 with a pair of homers, four doubles and a 9-to-5 K/BB ratio in 43 plate appearances. Lamb hit 59 home runs as the D-backs’ regular third baseman back in 2016-17 but has since had his career derailed by shoulder injuries. He’s batted just .198/.310/.394 in 606 plate appearances since 2018 shoulder surgery. That said, Lamb is a .251/.339/.455 hitter against right-handed pitching.

There’s no timetable provided for Stassi’s return, but his trip to the IL paves the way for O’Hoppe, one of the sport’s top catching prospects, to open the season as the Angels’ primary starter. It also at least temporarily resolves the Angels’ dilemma with regard to catcher/first baseman Matt Thaiss, who’s out of minor league options. Thaiss will now slot in as the backup to O’Hoppe early on, and his experience at first base will also be a factor with Walsh sidelined.

O’Hoppe, 23, made his big league debut with the Angels late in the 2022 season but received just 16 plate appearances in five games. Acquired from the Phillies in the deadline deal that sent center fielder Brandon Marsh the other way, O’Hoppe posted a combined .283/.416/.544 batting line in 447 plate appearances between the Double-A affiliates for his two organizations.

With this Opening Day assignment, he’ll skip the Triple-A level entirely. He’s looked ready for the challenge in Cactus League play, batting .281/.361/.438 with a homer and a pair of doubles. O’Hoppe’s 13 strikeouts in 36 plate appearances are a red flag, but he’ll get the chance to prove he’s ready to step up as the organization’s long-term option behind the plate right now. Baseball America currently ranks O’Hoppe as the game’s No. 42 overall prospect.

Turning to the rest of the Halos’ roster, there’s further clarity being gained. While the Halos are still deciding who’ll round out the final spot in their six-man rotation, they’ve decided on carrying righty Andrew Wantz in the bullpen and, perhaps more interestingly, will run with offseason trade acquisition Gio Urshela as their Opening Day shortstop.

It’s long been expected that Urshela would see some time at shortstop in Anaheim, and he’ll get the nod over Luis Rengifo and David Fletcher. It bears mentioning that the Angels will face a lefty starter (Kyle Muller) on Opening Day, so getting Urshela’s right-handed bat into the lineup is particularly sensible. Whether he holds the shortstop job on an everyday basis will be seen, but he’s made a strong case for as much playing time as possible this spring, batting .382/.417/.471 with a double, a triple and just two strikeouts in 36 trips to the plate.

The Angels’ Catching Competition

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The Angels have made a number of acquisitions this offseason. GM Perry Minasian and his staff addressed virtually every area of the roster in some capacity. Hunter Renfroe came in via trade to bolster the outfield. Gio Urshela and Brandon Drury were brought aboard as infield help. Tyler Anderson signed a three-year deal for the rotation. Carlos Estévez and Matt Moore step into the bullpen mix.

The primary exception is behind the plate. While the Halos were tied to top free agent backstop Willson Contreras at the start of the winter, they ultimately head into Spring Training with a trio of catchers who were on the roster to finish last season. That’s not especially surprising — catcher never looked like the biggest area of concern for the group — but it represents one of the areas that’s least solidified at the moment.

Manager Phil Nevin told reporters this week he views the catching situation as an open competition going into camp (via Sam Blum of the Athletic). With that in mind, it’s worth examining the options at his disposal.

Acquired from the Phillies last summer in a surprising deadline deal that sent center fielder Brandon Marsh to Philadelphia, O’Hoppe is one of the sport’s top catching prospects. He’s been a minor leaguer of some regard for a few years running but took things to a new level last season. O’Hoppe spent the vast majority of 2022 with the Double-A affiliates for the respective clubs. He combined for a .283/.416/.544 line with 26 home runs, a massive 15.7% walk percentage and a modest 16.6% strikeout rate during his age-22 campaign.

At the very end of last season, the Halos rewarded O’Hoppe with his first MLB call. He appeared in only five games, far too small a sample upon which to draw any conclusions. The move was more about giving him an opportunity to get acclimated to an MLB atmosphere than in providing useable data for the front office to determine his readiness for 2023.

O’Hoppe is widely praised by prospect evaluators. Baseball America considers him the top young talent in the organization, placing him 42nd among prospects overall. The Athletic and ESPN each slot him towards the back half of their respective top 100 lists. All three outlets credit him for a well-rounded game with solid expected contributions on both sides of the ball.

He’s clearly far too advanced for Double-A. He has zero Triple-A experience and only a cup of coffee in the majors, though, so there’s certainly risk in turning over the primary job on a club that hopes to compete for a playoff spot right out of the gate. O’Hoppe is the organization’s hopeful catcher of the future. They’ll need to determine whether he’s ready to take that mantle immediately. He still has a full slate of minor league option years remaining.

Stassi is much more of a known quantity. 32 next month, he’s played in parts of 10 big league campaigns. Stassi only started garnering legitimate playing time in 2018, his sixth year logging some MLB action. Between 2018-21, he looked like one of the sport’s more underrated catchers. Over that stretch, Stassi hit .222/.306/.382. That’s roughly average output for a catcher, though the cumulative slash is weighed down by an atrocious 2019 season. He was an above-average hitting catcher in the other three years, including a .241/.326/.426 showing for the Halos in 2021.

The veteran paired that solid offense with consistently excellent marks from public defensive metrics. He wasn’t especially adept at controlling the running game but garnered glowing reviews from pitch framing evaluations. The Halos signed him to a $14.5MM extension covering the 2023-24 seasons (with a ’25 club option) last spring. It seemed a firm commitment he’d be their primary catcher for the next few years, though that predated an underwhelming 2022 showing.

Stassi hit just .180/.267/.303 with nine homers in a career-high 375 plate appearances last year. His formerly excellent defensive grades slipped to almost exactly league average. His bat-to-ball skills and hard contact percentage each took steps back. It obviously wasn’t the kind of season he or the club had envisioned, meaning he’ll need a rebound showing if he’s to secure regular reps again. Stassi can’t be optioned to the minors, so he’ll be on the big league roster in some capacity. Whether that’s as the starter or reserve is up in the air.

Thaiss was a catcher at the University of Virginia. A bat-first player, he was selected in the first round in 2016 and immediately moved to first base. Scouts questioned whether he’d have the receiving skills to stick behind the plate. The Angels didn’t give him the chance to work on his defense, instead hoping his bat would launch him quickly through the minor leagues.

The lefty-hitting Thaiss proved a fine but not exceptional minor league hitter. He paired quality plate discipline with above-average contact skills but never made the kind of power impact one would expect from a first baseman. In 2021, the Angels started giving him reps back behind the plate with Triple-A Salt Lake. He’s played 99 games there the past two years and started 11 MLB contests at catcher last season.

Thaiss owns just a .205/.299/.373 line over 278 MLB plate appearances, striking out at an uncharacteristic 30.6% clip. He only fanned in 18.4% of his trips with a robust 13% walk rate for the Bees last season, hitting .268/.364/.451 over 77 Triple-A games. He’s an interesting depth player but comes with questions about both his offensive impact and receiving ability behind the plate. Thaiss has exhausted his option years; the Halos have to keep him in the majors or make him available to other teams via waivers or trade.

Outlook

Anaheim will also get looks at Chad Wallach, José Godoy and minor leaguer Anthony Mulrine in camp this spring as non-roster players. Mulrine has never hit in the minors and looks to be an organizational depth piece. Wallach and Godoy have played in the big leagues but typically function as third/fourth options on a depth chart.

The initial playing time will almost certainly be divided among some combination of O’Hoppe, Stassi and Thaiss. Carrying O’Hoppe in a reserve capacity feels unlikely. He should play regularly, either in the majors or at Salt Lake. Whether the Halos deem him ready out of the gate — and if they do, whether they feel there’s room to keep both Stassi and Thaiss on the bench — are key questions for the front office and coaching staff over the next month and a half.

Angels Place Jared Walsh On 60-Day Injured List

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1:16PM: Walsh has been placed on the 60-day IL, the Angels announced.  This officially ends the first baseman’s 2022 season.

10:06AM: The Angels announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s game with the Rays, including the news that Jared Walsh has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to thoracic outlet syndrome.  Infielder Phil Gosselin was also designated for assignment.  Filling the two roster spots are catcher Matt Thaiss (called up from Triple-A), and first baseman Mike Ford, whose contract was selected from Triple-A.

Thoracic outlet syndrome is a condition much more commonly seen in pitchers, making Walsh something of an outlier as a position player.  While Walsh drew some attention as a two-way player early in his career and during his time in the Angels farm system, he has only 26 2/3 professional innings pitched, and none since 2019.  Most pitchers who undergo surgery to correct TOS aren’t the same performance-wise after returning to the mound, but it remains to see if Walsh will indeed need surgery, or how such a procedure could impact his future production given that he isn’t pitching.

Even if Walsh opts for treatment without going under the knife, it would seem like the remainder of his 2022 season could be in jeopardy.  With the Angels out of contention, they would seemingly not have any reason to rush Walsh back into action.

Walsh hit .280/.338/.531 over 693 PA with the Angels in 2020-21, earning a seventh-place finish in 2020’s Rookie of the Year balloting and a slot on the 2021 AL All-Star team.  However, 2022 has been much more of a struggle, as the 29-year-old has contributed only 15 home runs and a .215/.269/.374 slash line.  Despite some decent defense at first base, this poor offensive production has resulted in an overall sub-replacement level performance for Walsh, who has -0.5 fWAR and -0.6 bWAR.

Even in 2020-21, Walsh has below-average walk and strikeout rates, but those numbers have sunk further downward in 2022 — Walsh’s 30.4% strikeout rate puts him in only the sixth percentile of batters.  He is also hitting with far less power, with an Isolated Power metric of only .158 (down from .354 in 2020 and .232 in 2021).  This decline has robbed the Angels of a key bat in their lineup, as Los Angeles has gotten very little from any players besides Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Taylor Ward, and the emerging Luis Rengifo.

Gosselin had enough MLB service time that he can reject an outright assignment to Triple-A, assuming that he clears waivers and the Angels don’t release him.  The Angels claimed Gosselin off waivers from the Braves in mid-July, and the veteran utilityman ended up playing 22 games with Anaheim, mostly as a third baseman.  Unfortunately, Gosselin provided very little offense, with only a .269 OPS over 51 plate appearances.

Gosselin has only sporadically delivered at the plate over his 10 Major League seasons, with a career .254/.305/.349 slash line over 1199 PA.  The 33-year-old has suited up for seven different big league teams, and this is his second stint with the Angels, after playing 104 games with the Halos in 2021.

Ford is in today’s starting lineup as the cleanup hitter, putting Ford on pace to see action for a fourth different Major League team this season.  The first baseman has appeared in 22 games combined with the Giants, Mariners, and Braves, with San Francisco and Seattle ping-ponging him back and forth between their rosters a few times earlier in the season and Atlanta releasing Ford earlier this month.  He signed a new minor league contract with Los Angeles in mid-August, and might now in line for some consistent playing time if Walsh does miss most or all of the remainder of the season.

In 2019, Ford burst onto the scene with 12 home runs and a .909 OPS over 163 PA as a rookie with the Yankees.  Since that initial breakout, however, he has scuffled to a .138/.267/.253 slash line in 206 PA since the start of the 2020 season, and the Yankees dealt him to the Rays in June 2021.  Ford also ended up heading to the Nationals on a waiver claim later in the 2021 season, making it quite a whirlwind of organizational change for the Princeton product in just 14 months’ time.

Angels Notes: Suzuki, Stassi, Canning, Ward

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The Angels have reinstated catcher Kurt Suzuki from the COVID-related injury list.  Austin Romine was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Suzuki on the active roster, while fellow catcher Matt Thaiss will also remain with Triple-A Salt Lake on option after being activated from the minor league version of the IL.

With both Suzuki and Max Stassi sidelined on the COVID list, the Halos found themselves quite shorthanded behind the plate, leading to Romine and Chad Wallach each getting plenty of action over the last 10 days.  Suzuki is returning after a two-week absence, while Stassi hit the IL on May 10 and could himself be close to a return.  Angels athletic trainer Mike Frostad told The Athletic’s Sam Blum (Twitter links), and The Southern California Newsgroup’s J.P. Hoornstra that Stassi will likely play two more minor league rehab games before being activated.

The outlook isn’t as positive for Griffin Canning, as Frostad said the right-hander is considering surgery to address a stress reaction in his lower back.  No decision has been made, as Canning is meeting with a specialist on Monday and will then opt to go with a surgery or a less-invasive treatment.

It’s worrisome news for Canning, as these back problems have kept him from pitching from July 8, 2021 (when Canning last took the mound at Triple-A).  He had worked his way up to the simulated-game stage of his rehab earlier this month, but he continued to feel discomfort after his latest outing.  Depending on the type of procedure or how well Canning responds to rehab, it’s possible the entire 2022 season could now be in jeopardy for the 26-year-old.

A second-round pick in the 2017 draft, Canning has appeared in each of the last three seasons, starting 41 of his 43 MLB games and posting a 4.73 ERA over 209 1/3 innings.  Even without surgery, it’s hard to figure on when Canning might make his 2022 debut, leaving the Angels short an important depth arm for their six-man rotation.  Long a weak spot, the Anaheim rotation has been quite good thus far, but the club also has less margin for error given their need of an extra hurler.  With Canning sidelined and Jose Suarez ineffective, that depth has already been tested, the Halos recently promoted Chase Silseth directly from Double-A to the majors.

The Angels entered today’s action with a strong 24-17 record, despite an ongoing four-game losing streak.  Last night’s 4-2 loss to the Athletics also saw Taylor Ward leave the game in the ninth inning after colliding with the outfield wall following a catch.  Fortunately, Frostad said Ward didn’t suffer a concussion and only had a stinger in his arm after making the play.

Ward isn’t in tonight’s lineup but is only day-to-day, and seems to have avoided any major injury.  It has been a dream start for Ward, who leads the majors in all three slash categories (.370/.481/.713) and has hit nine home runs over his first 131 plate appearances.

Angels Move Matt Thaiss To Catcher

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Former first-round pick Matt Thaiss was a catcher in college but was drafted more for his bat than his defensive skills. Upon selecting him with the No. 16 overall pick in 2016, the Angels immediately converted Thaiss to a corner infielder. However, manager Joe Maddon tells reporters that Thaiss, who moved back behind the plate in Triple-A this season, will now be considered a full-time catcher (Twitter link via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). Thaiss was recalled from Triple-A today, with righty Janson Junk being optioned to Salt Lake in his place.

It’s a notable development for the Angels, who’ll likely entrust Max Stassi with the bulk of the catching workload in 2022 but will also see veteran Kurt Suzuki become a free agent this winter. For now, Thaiss gives the Halos an option to perhaps see some time as a backup next year. However, if he proves to be a passable option behind the dish and can carry over any of his minor league production to the big leagues, Thaiss would give the Angels a potential long-term option at catcher.

That’s a tall order for a player who didn’t receive great reviews for his defense at catcher even dating back to his college days at the University of Virginia. Baseball America noted in 2016, when ranking Thaiss as the No. 28 prospect in the draft, that he had “more than enough arm for the position, but many scouts aren’t sold on his receiving and blocking skills despite the work he’s put into both.” He was regarded as a polished hitter but one who was best-suited for a position change. The Angels clearly agreed, as Thaiss didn’t catch a single game in their system until earlier this year.

Thaiss has yet to provide much offense in the big leagues, although he hasn’t had much of a look — just 196 plate appearances in that three-year span. He’s walked in 11.2 percent of those plate appearances, connected on nine homers and struck out at a 31.1 percent clip. The overall .201/.291/.397 slash isn’t good, but there’s some obvious power and a knack for drawing walks with Thaiss. His small sample of MLB work paints the portrait of a three-true-outcomes slugger, but strikeouts haven’t been a major issue for Thaiss in the upper minors. He’s fanned in 18.3 percent of his Triple-A plate appearances over three seasons and, this year, is slashing a very solid .280/.383/.496 with 17 long balls in 449 trips to the plate.

The move to catcher, in some ways, is partly out of necessity. The presence of Jared Walsh, Shohei Ohtani and (until he was released in May) Albert Pujols cut into any available at-bats at first base or designated hitter. The signing of Anthony Rendon nixed any chances of Thaiss becoming a long-term option at the hot corner. Thaiss could’ve conceivably been a fill-in at third this season, given Rendon’s injuries, but he’s instead been honing his catching skills down in Triple-A. It’s a small sample of just 54 games, but Baseball Prospectus gives Thaiss solid marks both in framing and blocking. He’s thwarted just 20 percent of stolen base attempts (12 of 60). It’s a work in progress.

Thaiss’ defensive development (or lack thereof) as a catcher carries some long-term implications. While the incumbent Stassi has enjoyed a quietly hit .256/.340/.463 with 20 homers in 415 plate appearances since Opening Day 2020 — a breakout that should really garner more attention than it has — he’s also on pace to be a free agent after the 2022 campaign. There’s an opportunity for Thaiss to make the necessary improvements and position himself as a plausible successor to Stassi, so it’s well worth keeping an eye on his progress behind the dish over the next year. If he’s unable to make the adjustment, he’d be out of minor league options by the time 2023 rolls around, clouding his outlook with the Halos.

Angels Option Jo Adell To Minors

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The Angels announced a series of Spring Training cuts tonight, as outfielder Jo Adell, infielder Matt Thaiss, southpaw Jose Suarez, and right-hander Kyle Keller were all optioned.

None of the cuts were unexpected, though it is noteworthy that Adell put in a very strong showing at the plate, posting an 1.072 OPS over 25 Cactus League plate appearances.  It would’ve likely taken an even bigger spring to convince the Angels to include Adell (who turns 22 in April) on the Opening Day roster, given how he missed an entire year of minor league development in 2020.

Adell didn’t hit well (.264/.321/.355) over 131 Triple-A plate appearances in 2019, his only taste of action at the highest minor league level.  In a normal 2020, Adell would have gotten some more Triple-A experience under his belt and then received a promotion to the big league club, though the cancellation of the minor league season meant that Adell’s development was shifted to the Angels’ alternate training site.  Adell did end up making his MLB debut, but with lackluster results — he hit just .161/.212/.266 with a whopping 55 strikeouts in 132 PA, and also didn’t look good in the outfield.

While some contractual considerations were undoubtedly at play considering Adell already had 153 days of Major League service time, an argument can certainly be made that Adell needs a bit more seasoning before his next appearance in an Angels uniform.  Los Angeles has a pair of veterans (Justin Upton and Dexter Fowler) looking for bounce-back years in the corner outfield, with Taylor Ward, Jared Walsh, and minor league signings Jon Jay, Scott Schebler, and Juan Lagares all providing further depth and platoon opportunities on the grass.  Adell and fellow top prospect Brandon Marsh are both expected to be called up at some point in 2021.

Angels Notes: Boras, Moreno, Trades, First Base

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The latest on the Angels, who could be one of baseball’s busiest teams this winter…

  • There have long been rumors of animosity between Angels owner Arte Moreno and agent Scott Boras, stemming from the Angels’ fruitless pursuit of Mark Teixeira (a Boras client) in the 2008-09 offseason.  Any hard feelings seem to have either been exaggerated or a thing of the past, however, as Boras told the Los Angeles Times’ Maria Torres and other reporters that he had recently had lunch with Moreno, and has kept up a good working relationship with the owner.  “I sit down with the guy every year. I see him all the time. We have a common restaurant that we run into one another. So I wouldn’t read much into it,” Boras said.  With the Halos in need of pitching, keeping up relations with the agent would seemingly be a necessary step this winter, as such top arms as Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, Hyun-Jin Ryu, and Dallas Keuchel (not to mention position players like Anthony Rendon, Nicholas Castellanos, and Mike Moustakas) are all Boras Corporation clients.
  • Rather than free agents, Angels GM Billy Eppler also indicated that his team could be active on the trade front, noting the several young and controllable players both on the big league roster and in the upper levels of the farm system.  “We have probably the most valuable type of players you can trade,” Eppler told reporters, including the Orange County Register’s Jeff Fletcher.  “They are 0-to-3 (service time) players that we’ve stripped out a lot of the risk because they are pretty much there.…I think we can match up in deals, just about any deal.  If clubs are willing to engage, we can engage.”  As Fletcher notes, the odds of the team trading top prospect Jo Adell seems very unlikely, though players like Griffin Canning, Patrick Sandoval, Jose Suarez, Jaime Barria, Dillon Peters and Felix Pena, David Fletcher, Luis Rengifo, Taylor Ward, Matt Thaiss, or Jared Walsh could all be potential trade chips.
  • Of course, several of those same names could play important roles for Los Angeles in 2020.  For instance, since Albert Pujols will see more DH time on days that Shohei Ohtani is pitching, Eppler said Walsh or Thaiss could help fill the void at first base.  The rookie duo “had some pretty good moments and showed that they were taking that first step and competing…I’d like to see how those guys respond to more at-bats and see how they go from there,” Eppler said.  Thaiss, the 16th overall pick of the 2016 draft, has the higher pedigree of the two and also has spent a lot of time at third base, while Walsh has crushed minor league pitching over his five pro seasons.  Both are left-handed hitters, making either solid fits to partner with the right-handed hitting Pujols.  Of course, it could certainly be argued that the Angels should seek out a more established first baseman given how Thaiss and Walsh both lack experience, and Pujols is no longer a consistent offensive threat.

Angels’ Tommy La Stella Likely Out Eight To Ten Weeks

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Angels infielder Tommy La Stella has been diagnosed with a fractured tibia in his right leg, the team announced today. He’s expected to miss the next eight to ten weeks of action. The injury, sustained last night when fouling a ball into his shin, will cause La Stella to miss the All-Star Game. Meanwhile, outfielder Brian Goodwin, who exited last night’s game after being hit by a pitch, has been diagnosed with a contusion. Both have been placed on the 10-day injured list.

In a pair of corresponding roster moves, the Angels have selected the contracts of corner infield prospect Matt Thaiss (as had been previously reported) and former Giants outfielder Jarrett Parker. Additionally, right-hander Jaime Barria is up from Triple-A Salt Lake to start tonight’s game.

The loss of La Stella stings both for the team and for La Stella himself. A longtime reserve infielder who at one point was undecided as to whether he wanted to continue his career, La Stella has thrived in a near-regular role in 2019, hitting at a .300/.353/.495 clip in 312 plate appearances. La Stella’s 16 home runs are more than he had in his entire career (947 plate appearances) heading into the season, and his brilliant showing drew enough fan recognition to earn the 30-year-old a starting nod in the aforementioned All-Star Game.

From a team standpoint, it’s another disheartening setback in what has become one of the most difficult seasons in franchise history. The Angels were (and are) still reeling from the gut-wrenching death of left-hander Tyler Skaggs when La Stella had to be helped off the field. Watching La Stella suit up for the All-Star Game could’ve served as a brief respite from the unyielding grief felt in the Angels’ clubhouse, but La Stella himself will now be a spectator for the Midsummer Classic.

In his absence, the Halos will get their first look at Thaiss, a 2016 first-rounder who has begun to tap into his power since reaching Triple-A in 2018. Thaiss was a catcher at the time of his draft but widely expected to move to first base in pro ball. He’s done just that, for the most part, but Thaiss has played more third base (391 innings) than first base (191) in 2019. The Angels could potentially shift David Fletcher over to second base and continue the Thaiss experiment at the hot corner, thus adding a left-handed bat to help replace La Stella. In 372 plate appearances in Salt Lake, Thaiss was hitting .274/.390/.477 with 14 home runs.

As for Parker, the 30-year-old will return to the big leagues for the first time since 2017 with today’s promotion. He spent parts of the 2015-17 seasons in San Francisco, hitting a combined .257/.335/.456 with 15 homers in 382 plate appearances. Most of his production came early in his MLB tenure, though, and he mustered a lackluster .247/.294/.416 slash through a career-high 177 plate appearances in his final season on the MLB roster. So far in 2019, Parker has turned in a terrific .296/.424/.604 slash with 19 home runs in just 283 plate appearances. He’s fanned at a fairly high 27.2 percent clip but helped to offset those whiffs with a 17.3 percent walk rate.

Angels To Promote Matt Thaiss

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The Angels are set to promote corner infield prospect Matt Thaiss for his MLB debut. Halos Prospects first reported on Twitter that Thaiss was “expected” to be called up today, and Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets that Thaiss is indeed getting the call. Corresponding moves aren’t yet clear, though Tommy La Stella did sustain a painful-looking leg injury last night upon fouling a ball into his shin and has since been replaced on the All-Star roster. Brian Goodwin also exited last night’s game after being hit by a pitch.

Matt Thaiss | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Thaiss, 24, was the Angels’ top pick (No. 16 overall) back in 2016. A catcher at the University of Virginia, Thaiss was widely expected to move to first base in pro ball but was a first-round pick all the same due to his offensive upside. While he has indeed moved out from behind the plate, he’s spent considerably more time at third base than at first base so far in 2019. At the plate, Thaiss is enjoying a solid .274/.390/.477 slash with 14 home runs, 17 doubles and two triples in 372 plate appearances. Long touted for his terrific plate discipline, Thaiss has walked at 15.9 percent clip against a 17.2 percent strikeout rate.

Entering the season, MLB.com ranked Thaiss sixth among Angels prospects and ninth among all first base prospects in baseball. Fangraphs tabbed him as the Halos’ No. 9 prospect, praising a swing change in 2018 that finally allowed Thaiss to tap into some in-game power. He doesn’t have off-the-charts power, drawing more average scouting marks in that regard. Combined with his strong on-base skills, an ability to work counts, passable defense at first base and his recent exposure at the hot corner, that could be enough to make Thaiss a solid contributor for the foreseeable future.

Angels Sign First-Rounder Matt Thaiss

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10:15pm: Thaiss will receive a $2.15MM bonus, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. That leaves just over $500K in added funds for the club to dedicate to other draftees.

9:51pm: The Angels have signed first-round pick Matt Thaiss, the backstop himself tweeted. His bonus remains unknown, but the 16th overall selection came with an assigned value of $2.661MM.

Likewise, the Halos have an agreement in place with third-rounder Nolan Williams, with MLB.com’s Jim Callis reporting (via Twitter) that he’ll earn $950K. The shortstop was taken 96th, which had an assigned $620,100 slot amount.

A catcher at the University of Virginia, the smooth-swinging Thaiss may move around defensively as a professional. Halos amateur scouting director Ric Wilson suggested that his team’s top selection isn’t tied to the position, and many evaluators question whether he’ll be able to stick behind the dish.

Certainly, his bat is good enough that it could play elsewhere. Thaiss has impeccable command of the strike zone, which led ESPN.com’s Keith Law to rank him 21st among eligible prospects. Placing him in the 28th slot, Baseball America noted that he delivers above-average, line-drive pop. MLB.com listed Thaiss 36th on its board.

It’ll be interesting to see where the bonus landed for Thaiss. The Halos went on to select high schoolers with its next three selections, including Williams, though it’s not yet clear just how much extra cash will be needed to round out the team’s draft class.

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