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Samuel Aldegheri

Angels Place Yoán Moncada, Robert Stephenson On Injured List

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The Angels announced today that infielder Yoán Moncada has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to right knee inflammation. Right-hander Robert Stephenson landed on the 15-day IL due to right biceps inflammation, retroactive to May 31st. The Halos didn’t provide any information about how long either player is expected to be out of action. Outfielder Matthew Lugo and righty Sam Aldegheri were recalled to take the two vacated active roster spots.

Moncada, 30, signed with the Halos this offseason on a one-year deal which pays him $5MM. He has been excellent when he’s been on the field. He has stepped to the plate 113 times over 30 games. His 28.3% strikeout rate is high but he has six home runs and has drawn walks at a strong 11.5% clip. His .237/.336/.505 batting line translates to a 135 wRC+, indicating he’s been 35% better than league average at the plate overall.

But as has often been the case with Moncada, injuries have gotten in the way. He hasn’t played more than 104 games in a season since 2021 due to various ailments. He only got into 12 contests last year due to an adductor strain. He already missed almost a month this year due to a thumb sprain and now this knee issue has him on the shelf again.

It’s a bit of a double blow for the Halos, who are struggling to hang in the American League playoff race. They are 26-32, ahead of just three American League clubs and five games back of the final Wild Card spot. Losing Moncada will hurt their ability to stay in the race. Shortstop Zach Neto is the only position player on the team with a higher wins above replacement tally this year, in the eyes of FanGraphs. If they fall back in the race, Moncada would be one of their more interesting trade chips, though each injury compounds his injury-prone reputation and hurts his trade value.

With Moncada ailing in recent days, the Halos have had Luis Rengifo move from second to third with Scott Kingery taking over the keystone. That could perhaps be their regular alignment while Moncada is out, with Kevin Newman and Chris Taylor also on hand.

For Stephenson, it’s a frustrating setback. He signed a three-year, $33MM deal going into 2024 but required Tommy John surgery in April of last year, before he even got a chance to throw a pitch for the Angels. He recovered from that surgery and was reinstated from the IL a few days ago. But in his second appearance, which was on Friday, he departed after just three pitches with an apparent injury.

The Angels’ bullpen has a collective 6.04 earned run average, worse than every club in the majors except for the Athletics. Ideally, Stephenson’s return would have strengthened the group. In the second half of 2023, he was one of the best relievers on the planet. With the Rays, he threw 38 1/3 innings with a 2.35 ERA, 42.9% strikeout rate and 5.7% walk rate. That prompted the Angels to give him a hefty deal but he hasn’t been able to give them a return on that investment yet and that won’t change for a few more weeks at least.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

Angels Designate Nick Robertson For Assignment

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The Angels announced a series of roster moves today, highlighted by the return of right-hander Carson Fulmer from the 15-day injured list. To make room for Fulmer on the active roster, left-hander Samuel Aldegheri was placed on the 15-day IL retroactive to September 14 with a blister on his left middle finger. Meanwhile, outfielder Bryce Teodosio was placed on the 10-day injured list with a fractured right middle finger. Outfielder Gustavo Campero has his contract selected to replace Teodosio on the roster, and right-hander Nick Robertson was designated for assignment to make room for Campero on the 40-man roster. Additionally, manager Ron Washington told reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register) that right-hander Ben Joyce will not pitch again in 2024 due to shoulder inflammation.

Fulmer, 30, is a former top ten overall pick in the draft but has never quite managed to stick in the big leagues. After struggling through four seasons with the White Sox to a 6.56 ERA in 94 2/3 innings of work across 44 appearances (15 starts). Since then, he’s bounced between the Tigers, Orioles, Reds, and Angels organizations but has never gotten an extended shot in the majors until this year, when the Halos began using him as a swing man. He’s performed solidly in the role, with a 4.15 ERA (103 ERA+) and 4.56 FIP in 80 1/3 innings split between eight starts and 24 relief outings. The right-hander went on the IL at the end of August with elbow inflammation, but now will get the opportunity to finish the year strong and prove himself healthy ahead of the offseason, when he’ll be eligible for arbitration for the first time in his career.

Making room for Fulmer on the roster is Aldegheri, who will celebrate his 23rd birthday later this week. The youngster will be eligible to return to the big league roster in time for the final game of the regular season if the club wants to see the lefty make one more start before the offseason, though it’s also possible he’s made his last appearance of the 2024 campaign. Aldegheri has made three starts for Anaheim this year after being acquired from the Phillies in the Carlos Estevez trade back in July, though this stint in the big leagues hasn’t gone especially well as he’s surrendered a 4.85 ERA with a 6.40 FIP in 13 frames since being promoted to the majors.

Of course, Aldegheri’s struggles come with the context of the youngster being just 22 years old and having been called up directly from Double-A not long after changing organizations for the first time in his career, so it’s not necessarily shocking the the southpaw has struggled. Looking ahead to 2025, he’ll surely figure into the club’s big league pitching staff in at least some capacity, though it’s not yet clear what his role will be at this point. Washington told reporters (including Fletcher) today that lefty Jose Suarez will replace Aldgheri in the rotation for the time being.

Joining Aldgheri on the IL is Teodosio, a 25-year-old rookie who signed with the club back in 2021 as an undrafted free agent. In 114 games at the Triple-A level this season, Teodosio has slashed .276/.339/.418 with an 89 wRC+ with an excellent 40-for-44 record on the basepaths. Teodosio got the call to the majors last week when Jo Adell and Kevin Pillar were placed on the injured list but struggled in his first taste of big league action, going 1-for-12 with five strikeouts in five games. Teodosio will be replaced on the roster by Campero, a 26-year-old who converted to the outfield after beginning his pro career as a catcher. He’s split his 2024 campaign between the Double- and Triple-A levels, with a .279/.392/.472 slash line in 107 games this year. He’s now set to join Mickey Moniak, Taylor Ward, and Jordyn Adams in the club’s outfield mix going forward.

Robertson departs to make room for Campero on the 40-man roster, just a month after he was claimed off waivers from the Cardinals. The 26-year-old is a product of the Dodgers organization who made his big league debut with the club last year but struggled to a 6.04 ERA in 22 1/3 innings of work between the Dodgers and Red Sox organizations, although he did show some signs of promise with a 3.88 FIP and a 24.5% strikeout rate. Robertson was dealt by the Red Sox to the Cardinals over the winter in the deal that brought Tyler O’Neill to Boston but ultimately appeared in just eight games for St. Louis with a decent 4.38 ERA and 4.55 FIP in 12 1/3 frames. In addition to his time in the majors this year, Robertson has struggled badly in 34 2/3 innings of work at Triple-A this year between the Cardinals and Angels organizations with a 7.27 ERA in 31 appearances.

As for Joyce, the right-hander has been on the 15-day IL for a few days now due to a shoulder issue that the club described yesterday as an impingement (as noted by MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger). Joyce was scheduled to undergo an MRI this weekend and while the results came back showing only inflammation today (as noted by Fletcher), Washington suggested that the hard-throwing righty was “too important” to the club’s long-term plans to risk further injury in the final weeks of a season where the club has been eliminated from playoff contention. Joyce wraps up his 2024 campaign with a sterling 2.08 ERA and 3.20 FIP in 34 2/3 innings and figures to be a key piece of the club’s late-inning mix in 2025.

Angels Designate Johnny Cueto For Assignment

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The Angels announced they’ve designated Johnny Cueto for assignment. Los Angeles also placed reliever Carson Fulmer on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to August 27) with elbow inflammation. The moves create active roster spots for the previously reported promotions of Caden Dana and Samuel Aldegheri. The Halos transferred José Marte to the 60-day IL to clear the second 40-man spot.

Los Angeles called Cueto up last week. They gave him two starts, in which he surrendered nine runs over 11 1/3 innings. Cueto struck out six, walked three and gave up four home runs. He managed a quality start against the Royals in his team debut (three ER in 6 1/3 frames) before the Tigers tagged him for six runs on Tuesday.

The Angels then decided to take their first look at Dana and Aldegheri, two of the top pitching prospects in the organization. That’s a better use of the final month of a lost season than continuing to turn to a 38-year-old impending free agent. Cueto’s tenure with the Halos certainly wasn’t the most memorable, but it did mark his 17th straight year logging some amount of MLB action. Los Angeles will place Cueto on waivers in the next few days. He’ll almost certainly clear and become a free agent.

As for the injured players, Fulmer told the Halos beat that he’s headed for an MRI (X link via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com). The 30-year-old righty expressed confidence there’s nothing structurally awry. Marte has been on the injured list for a few weeks with a viral infection. Manager Ron Washington told reporters earlier in the week that the righty experienced shoulder soreness once he resumed a throwing program (link via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). The severity of the injury isn’t clear, but his season is over.

Angels To Promote Caden Dana, Samuel Aldegheri

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The Angels announced that pitching prospect Caden Dana is scheduled to start Sunday’s game against the Mariners. The club will need to make corresponding moves to get him onto both the active and 40-man rosters. Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reported the news on on X prior to the official announcement. The club will also promote left-hander Samuel Aldegheri, per Jeff Passan of ESPN on X, with Aldegheri expected to pitch Friday. Like Dana, Aldegheri is not on the 40-man roster and the club will have to make corresponding moves for him.

Dana, now 20, went to Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey, New Jersey. Baseball America ranked him as the #76 player available in the 2022 draft. Even though he had not yet turned 19 years old at the time, BA noted that his fastball was already hitting the mid-90s. They suggested he could be off the board in the first two rounds but he lingered unsigned far later than that due to signability concerns related to his commitment to Kentucky.

The Angels eventually took him in the 11th round, 328th overall. They gave him a signing bonus of $1,497,500, which was a record for a player taken after the 10th round, per MLB.com. They were able to do so by giving below-slot deals to other players they drafted, saving some of their allotted bonus pool.

Dana made a brief professional debut in the months following that draft selection but got a more proper debut in 2023. He made 14 starts last year between Single-A and High-A, tossing 68 1/3 innings while allowing 3.56 earned runs per nine. His 10.7% walk rate was a bit on the high side but he also struck out 31.7% of batters faced. Here in 2024, he has 23 Double-A starts, throwing 135 2/3 innings with a 2.52 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate.

Those strong results have vaulted him onto top prospect lists. BA currently has him in the #92 spot overall while MLB Pipeline has him 74th. FanGraphs lists him just outside the top 100. All outlets lists his slider as his best secondary pitch, followed by his curveball and then his changeup. Now the Halos will launch him up to the big leagues, skipping over the Triple-A level entirely.

The Angels have arguably been the most aggressive club in terms of promoting prospects in recent years and this is yet another data point in favor of that assessment. The first-round and third-round picks in 2022 were shortstop Zach Neto and right-hander Ben Joyce, both of whom were promoted to the big leagues by May of 2023. Last year’s top pick was first baseman Nolan Schanuel, who was in the bigs just over a month later. Reid Detmers and Chase Silseth were also called up the year after their draft selection. The gap from draft to debut is slightly wider with Dana, but he was selected out of high school, whereas all those other were taken out of college.

It’s also an aggressive promotion with Aldegheri, a 22-year-old, though his path to the majors far been far less traditional. He was born and raised in Verona, Italy and Matt Gelb of The Athletic profiled his unusual path to the majors back in the spring.

The Phillies signed him as part of their 2019 international class, giving him a bonus of $210K. Since then, he has continued to put up strong numbers and put himself on the prospect map, and the Angels liked him enough to acquire him in the deadline trade that sent Carlos Estévez the other way.

Between the two clubs, Aldegheri has made 19 starts this year between High-A and Double-A. He has thrown 95 1/3 innings with a 3.59 ERA, 33.5% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate. He’s not as highly regarded as Dana but has raised his stock. BA currently lists him #6 in the Angels’ system, noting that his fastball sits in the low 90s but has cutting and riding action. He complements it with a slider, curveball and changeup. FanGraphs provided a similar profile in putting him at #5 in the system, while MLB Pipeline has him in the #8 slot.

The Angels are out of contention this year and will use the final few weeks of the season to get a look at a couple of pitchers they hope will be a part of their future pitching staffs, which could perhaps impact their offseason. Next year’s rotation projects to include Tyler Anderson and Griffin Canning, though both are slated for free agency after 2025. Youngsters like Detmers, Silseth, Jack Kochanowicz, José Soriano and others should be in the mix. Patrick Sandoval underwent UCL surgery this summer but could be a factor by late 2025.

Dana and Aldegheri will be able to get their feet wet at the major league level but neither will exhaust rookie status this year. There are less than 45 days remaining in the schedule and the club will surely not allow them to pitch 50 innings. By keeping them in the rookie bucket going into 2025, the club will be able to have prospect promotion incentives on the table.

To combat service time manipulation, the collective bargaining agreement provides incentives for clubs to promote their top prospects. If a player has less than 60 days of service time and is on two of three top 100 lists at BA, ESPN or MLB Pipeline, the are PPI-eligible if they are promoted early enough in a season to get a full service year. If the player goes on to win Rookie of the Year, or finish in the top three in MVP or Cy Young voting during their pre-arbitration years, the club gets an extra draft pick just after the first round.

That will be more of a factor with Dana, who is already on two of those three lists, though it’s at least theoretically possible for Aldegheri to sneak on, especially if he pitches well in the next few weeks. There’s also the theoretical possibility that he spends all of 2025 on optional assignment and is still a rookie going into 2026.

That will be a secondary concern. The main goal for the Angels is getting their pitchers acclimated to the big leagues and seeing how their stuff plays against major league hitters. The club’s lack of starting pitching has been an ongoing concern, partially due to a lack of development but also due to a lack of spending. Other than Anderson, the club hasn’t signed a free agent starting pitcher to a multi-year deal since Joe Blanton’s two-year pact in 2012. If Dana or Aldegheri, or both, can turn into viable big league starters, it could be a big boost to the club in the years to come.

As mentioned, it also continues a pattern of aggressive promotions. That made a lot of sense when the club had both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani on the roster, as it appeared they were trying to explore all avenues to put a winning team around that duo when they had the chance. Ohtani is now gone but perhaps the club is still trying to make the most of the Trout era. He has missed significant time in recent years due to injuries and is now 33 years old, but he is under contract through 2030. Perhaps this is a sign the club still wants to take a shot at contending before Trout gets even older, though that may also depend on how the young players perform, how the offseason plays out, and other factors.

Phillies Acquire Carlos Estevez

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The Phillies are acquiring right-hander Carlos Estevez from the Angels, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the Phillies are sending pitching prospects George Klassen and Samuel Aldegheri to Anaheim in return for Estevez. Both teams have since announced the trade.

Estevez, 31, first joined the Angels on a two-year deal prior to the 2023 season on the heels of a breakout season with the Rockies where he posted a 3.47 ERA despite playing half his games at Coors Field. It’s a deal that’s gone quite well for Anaheim, as the righty was an All-Star in 2023 with a sterling 1.80 ERA in the first half last year. Estevez’s overall season numbers took a dive after he struggled badly to a 6.59 ERA with a 4.46 FIP in 27 1/3 innings of work after the All-Star break last year, but he’s rebounded in a big way in 2023 to become one of the most attractive rental relief arms on the market.

This year, Estevez has collected 20 saves as the Angels’ closer in 34 innings of work while posting a strong 2.38 ERA in that time. While his 25.8% strikeout rate actually comes in a tad below his 27.8% figure from last year, he’s taken a major step forward in terms of command this year. After walking 11% of batters faced last season and entering the 2024 campaign having offered free passes to 9.3% of opponents in his career, Estevez has cut his walk rate to a clip of just 4% this year.

In conjunction with just three home runs allowed this season, it’s left the right-hander with a strong 2.85 FIP, a 2.67 xERA, and a 3.35 SIERA that all indicate he’s been one of the league’s best late-inning relief arms.

In trading for Estevez, the Phillies have not only replaced right-hander Seranthony Dominguez in their bullpen after shipping him to Baltimore yesterday in order to acquire outfielder Austin Hays, but they’ve found a bonafide closer to pitch the ninth inning after the struggles of southpaw Jose Alvarado left him replaced by right-hander Jeff Hoffman in recent weeks. The addition of Estevez should allow Alvarado, Hoffman, and lefty Matt Strahm to pitch in leverage spots earlier in games, deepening a bullpen that has posted a middling 3.96 ERA (16th in the majors) this year as the club gears up for a playoff run.

In return for Estevez’s services, the Phillies are sending a pair of pitching prospects to the Angels. Both rank within the top ten of the Philly system as of Baseball America’s most recent update, with Klassen ranked fifth in the system while Aldeghri currently ranks seventh. Klassen in particular was highlighted by BA’s Josh Norris earlier this month as a notable riser in the club’s system following his promotion to High-A earlier this year. The club’s sixth-round pick in the 2023 draft, the 22-year-old dominated Single-A pitching to the tune of a 0.71 ERA in nine starts prior to his promotion. While he’s struggled a bit more following his move to the next level with a 4.22 ERA in five starts, he’s still striking out an impressive 35.2% of batters faced even in High-A. A 10% walk rate raises some mild control concerns, but it’s easy to imagine the righty moving quickly through an Angels organization that tends to be aggressive in promoting youngsters.

As for Aldegheri, the lefty signed out of Italy with the Phillies back in 2019 but has raised his stock somewhat this year in 78 innings split between the High-A and Double-A levels. The 22-year-old sports a 3.23 ERA on the year with an excellent 34% strikeout rate against a 10% walk rate across fifteen starts. While BA suggests that the lefty lacks an obvious plus pitch, solid command and a five-pitch mix could nonetheless make him a viable starter in the big leagues. The pitching-heavy return for Estevez should be helpful for an Angels club that lacks much certainty in the rotation going forward, especially if veteran southpaw Tyler Anderson is also dealt before the deadline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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