The Angels announced that they have selected the contract of righty reliever Ryan Zeferjahn. In a corresponding roster move, fellow reliever Mike Baumann has been designated for assignment.
Baumann has ridden the DFA carousel throughout the season. The righty is out of options, so teams need to continue taking him off the 40-man roster if they nudge him out of the bullpen. No club has successfully gotten Baumann through waivers. He has gone from the Orioles to the Mariners, Giants and Halos via DFA resolutions throughout the year.
The 28-year-old hasn’t pitched especially well at any of those stops. He owns a cumulative 5.24 ERA through 44 2/3 innings. The Jacksonville product’s 19.5% strikeout percentage, 10.2% walk rate and 1.61 home runs per nine are all subpar. A few teams have nevertheless been intrigued by his still above-average velocity (96.4 MPH on the fastball) and last year’s decent results. He’s a season removed from a 3.76 ERA across 64 2/3 innings with Baltimore.
Baumann will land back on waivers in the next couple days. Any claiming team would need to keep him in the MLB bullpen. He surpassed the two-year service threshold this season and will play on a pre-arbitration salary for another year.
Zeferjahn, a University of Kansas product, steps into the vacated bullpen spot. The 6’5″ righty is a former third-round pick of the Red Sox. Command issues quickly pushed him to the bullpen, where Zeferjahn has shown strikeout stuff. He has fanned more than 28% of opponents in his five-year minor league career. That’s up to nearly 31% this season between the top two minor league levels. Zeferjahn carries a 3.33 earned run average across 46 innings on the season.
The Angels acquired him as part of a four-player return for reliever Luis García at the deadline. Three of them — Zeferjahn, outfielder Matthew Lugo and first baseman Niko Kavadas — were in the high minors at the time. Kavadas debuted last week. Los Angeles would have needed to add Zeferjahn to the 40-man this offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. They’ll give him his first big league opportunity a few weeks earlier than that as he tries to carve out a middle relief role going into next season.
