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Sal Fasano

Angels Sign Travis d’Arnaud To Two-Year Deal

By Darragh McDonald | November 12, 2024 at 11:58pm CDT

The Angels announced that they have signed catcher Travis d’Arnaud to a two-year deal. That pact reportedly comes with a $12MM guarantee for the Wasserman client. Right-hander Guillo Zuñiga has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move. The Halos have also hired Sal Fasano, who was with Atlanta as catching coach until being fired last month, as an assistant pitching coach.

d’Arnaud, 36 in February, has been with Atlanta for the past few years. However, that club declined an $8MM club option to keep him around for the 2025, sending him to the open market last week. The veteran has quickly landed on his feet with a new deal at a slightly lower average annual value but with an additional guaranteed season.

His time with Atlanta has consisted of a series of deals, all with an AAV of $8MM. He signed a two-year, $16MM deal going into 2020, followed by a two-year, $16MM extension signed late in 2021. Midway through 2023, he and the club agreed to a one-year, $8MM extension for 2024 with an $8MM club option for 2025.

During that stretch, he has missed some time due to injury and his offense has been up-and-down, but it’s generally amounted to solid production. He got into 384 games over his five years with the club, hitting 60 home runs and slashing .251/.312/.443 for a 106 wRC+. His defense was generally well regarded, allowing him to produce 9.3 wins above replacement over that time, in the eyes of FanGraphs.

Despite his competent performance, Atlanta decided to move on. Perhaps that was due to budgetary constraints or the emergence of prospect Drake Baldwin, who is knocking on the door. Either way, that club’s catching tandem is shifting. It has been d’Arnaud and Sean Murphy in recent years but Murphy will need a new partner, whether that’s Baldwin or someone else.

The Angels will be hoping that Atlanta’s loss will be their gain. They already have a strong catcher in Logan O’Hoppe, who doesn’t turn 25 years old until February and can be controlled through the 2028 season, but d’Arnaud can act in a veteran/backup role.

The only other backstop on the Angels’ 40-man roster is Matt Thaiss, who is out of options. General manager Perry Minasian said today that they are still figuring out plans with Thaiss, per Sam Blum of The Athletic on X. Perhaps Thaiss will move to another position but the club could also carry three catchers or make Thaiss available in trades. He is eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a salary of $1.3MM. The non-tender deadline is November 22, so perhaps some more clarity on his status will emerge between now and then.

It’s possible that Minasian has been waiting for his opportunity to reconnect with d’Arnaud, as he has quickly gotten a deal done shortly after the veteran became available. Minasian worked as a scout for the Blue Jays from 2009 to 2017. It was during that time that d’Arnaud, still a prospect, was traded to the Jays as part of the December 2009 Roy Halladay blockbuster. He would later be traded to the Mets as part of the December 2012 deal that brought R.A. Dickey to Toronto.

Atlanta’s current general manager Alex Anthopoulos was the GM for the Jays for both of those trades and also seemingly made it a priority to reunite with d’Arnaud a few years back. The overlapping careers of Minasian and Anthopoulos have apparently led to good relations extending into the present, as the two clubs have been frequent trade partners of late. Since Minasian was hired in November of 2020, the two clubs have connected on the August 2022 Raisel Iglesias deal, the December 2023 David Fletcher trade, the Jorge Soler deal from a few weeks ago and some other minor swaps. Angels’ manager Ron Washington was also on Atlanta’s coaching staff before joining the Halos.

Today’s news isn’t a trade but it adds to the track record of interchange between the clubs, with the Angels acquiring both d’Arnaud and Fasano after they had been let go from Atlanta. Fasano started his coaching career in 2009 in the minor league system of the Jays when both Minasian and Anthopoulos were there. In the fall of 2017, around the same time Anthopoulos was hired by Atlanta, Fasano got a job as a catching coach with that organization. He held that job until he was dismissed a few weeks ago, though he and d’Arnaud will be reuniting with Minasian in Anaheim.

The move brings the Angels’ projected payroll to $174MM, per RosterResource. That’s above the $170MM they had to start 2024, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Owner Arte Moreno has said that the payroll will go up next year, though it’s unclear exactly how high they plan to go. For clubs that missed out on d’Arnaud, the free agent market still features Danny Jansen, Kyle Higashioka, Carson Kelly and others.

Zuñiga, 26, was acquired from the Cardinals in February. He has 19 2/3 innings of major league experience with a 5.03 earned run average. In the minors, he has posted some decent strikeout numbers but walks have occasionally been an issue. He has thrown 113 2/3 innings in the minors over the past three years with a 5.62 ERA, 23.9% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate.

He now heads into DFA limbo, which can last a week, as the Angels figure out whether to trade him or put him on waivers. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so a trade would need to come together in the next five days. His fastball averaged 96.9 miles per hour in the big leagues this year and he still has an option season remaining, which could perhaps intrigue other clubs around the league.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first relayed the $12MM guarantee for d’Arnaud (X link). Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register first noted the Zuñiga DFA (X link). Sam Blum of The Athletic relayed the Fasano hire (X link).

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Los Angeles Angels Newsstand Transactions Guillermo Zuniga Matt Thaiss Sal Fasano Travis D'Arnaud

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Braves Fire Hitting Coach Kevin Seitzer

By Darragh McDonald | October 10, 2024 at 3:35pm CDT

The Braves have fired three coaches who were previously under contract through 2025, with David O’Brien of The Athletic among those to relay the news (X links here). The three coaches are hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes and catching coach Sal Fasano. Atlanta will fill the two hitting coach positions but won’t replace Fasano, who was in a role specifically created for him. General manager Alex Anthopoulos had previously said he expected the entire coaching staff to return but O’Brien reports that the club hadn’t yet begun its evaluation process at that time.

Atlanta undoubtedly had a disappointing year, including on offense. The club came into the season with championship aspirations but just barely snuck into the playoffs and then were quickly eliminated. The club’s hitters posted a collective line of .243/.309/.415, leading to a league-average wRC+ of 100. That was a big drop from last year when Atlanta collectively hit .276/.344/.501 for a league-leading 125 wRC+.

How much credit or blame the hitting coach deserves for such a swing is a matter of debate. Seitzer has been the club’s hitting coach since October of 2014 and overseen plenty of good clubs since then, as Atlanta has the playoffs in each of the last seven years and won the 2021 World Series. While the 2024 club didn’t meet expectations, injuries undoubtedly played a role there, with Ronald Acuña Jr., Austin Riley, Michael Harris II, Ozzie Albies, Sean Murphy and others missing significant time. Regardless, the club has decided that a change is necessary, so they will be looking for a new hitting coach for the first time in a decade.

Seitzer played in the majors from 1986 to 1997, suiting up for Kansas City, Milwaukee, Oakland and Cleveland. The Diamondbacks hired him as their hitting coach going into the 2007 season and he later had the same job with the Royals and Blue Jays before coming to Atlanta. Magallanes was a minor leaguer in the ’90s but never made it to the show. He became a minor league coach early in this century and was able to get up to the majors with Atlanta for the 2021 season.

Fasano played in the bigs from 1996 to 2008, playing for nine different teams. He quickly began coaching in the minors, getting hired by the Blue Jays in late 2009, around the same time Anthopoulos became the GM of that club. In late 2017, Anthopoulos became GM in Atlanta and Fasano was hired by the club as a catching instructor that same month.

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Atlanta Braves Kevin Seitzer Sal Fasano

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Braves Notes: Melancon, Morton, Leaks, Chemistry, And Culture

By TC Zencka | November 28, 2020 at 11:45am CDT

The Braves pulled off a somewhat surprising pair of moves early this postseason by nabbing starters Drew Smyly and Charlie Morton on one-year deals. That the deals were surprising, however, was not surprising. The Braves keep their internal conversations about players internal, according to the Athletic’s David O’Brien, who writes, “Atlanta is as leak-free as any organization in sports regarding rumors of potential trades and free-agent signings, and if the player and his agent are equally private, which is how the Braves like it and something that agents are aware of, there could and often are discussions and deals completed before anything is leaked.”

Hence, the dearth of news about re-signing, say, Mark Melancon, O’Brien notes, doesn’t equate to a lack of movement or interest. Simply, if the Braves do bring Melancon back, the public isn’t likely to hear about it until the deal is done.

In the meantime, Braves’ fans can content themselves with the additions they’ve already made this winter. After all, while neither the Smyly nor Morton contracts were big deals financially, they are big deals in terms of potential impact. The Morton acquisition bumped Fangraphs’ valuation of Atlanta’s rotation from the 16th-ranked rotation in the game to 11th, writes Jay Jaffe. Morton brings 1.5 more projected WAR than the Braves’ in-house alternative, per Steamer.

But for Morton, the decision to sign on the dotted line had as much to do with the personalities involved as it did the strength of the rotation. Familiarity with catching coach Sal Fasano, pitching coach Rick Kranitz, and catcher Travis d’Arnaud helped Morton commit to the switch from Tampa to Atlanta, according to a piece by O’Brien from just before Thanksgiving.

The already-established clubhouse culture in Atlanta also made the Braves an intriguing destination. Chemistry may not be the metric du jour for statisticians, but it was a consideration for Morton. Per O’Brien, Morton said, “Most good teams, they can outplay their talent level just by being close and having good attitudes and having fun. From everything that I know and what I’ve seen, the Braves have both. It looks like they’re really loose, fun-loving, but they’re also really talented. So I’m looking forward to being part of a group where you’re looking forward to getting to the park every day and you just want to hang out, being excited to play together.”

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Atlanta Braves Notes Charlie Morton Mark Melancon Rick Kranitz Sal Fasano

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Tigers Interview Dave Clark, Sal Fasano, Mark Kotsay

By Connor Byrne | October 28, 2020 at 12:18pm CDT

TODAY: The Tigers have another internal candidate in first base coach Dave Clark, as Chris McCosky of the Detroit News reports (via Twitter) that Clark interviewed for the manager’s job last month.

OCTOBER 26, 5:44pm: Athletics quality control coach Mark Kotsay has also interviewed for the job in Detroit, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

5:32pm: The Tigers have discussed their managerial vacancy with Braves catching instructor Sal Fasano, Jason Beck of MLB.com tweets.

Now 49 years old, Fasano played for an array of teams during a major league career that spanned from 1996-2008. He finished his playing career as a .221/.275/.392 hitter before moving into the coaching ranks. Prior to joining the Braves’ staff, Fasano garnered managerial experience at multiple levels in the minors with the Blue Jays and Angels organizations. He earned Manager of the Year honors with the Jays’ Double-A affiliate in 2011.

Now, Fasano is among a slew of candidates who could succeed the retired Ron Gardenhire in Detroit. MLBTR’s 2021 Managerial Search Tracker has the complete list of names.

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Atlanta Braves Detroit Tigers Oakland Athletics Dave Clark Mark Kotsay Sal Fasano

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