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Touki Toussaint

Angels Outright Touki Toussaint

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The Angels announced that Touki Toussaint cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Salt Lake. He was designated for assignment yesterday when the club called up Héctor Neris and Connor Brogdon. While Toussaint has the right to decline the assignment in favor of free agency, the team did not indicate he planned to do so.

It was a brief big league stint for the 28-year-old righty. The Angels selected his contract on Saturday. He pitched the following day, allowing two runs in as many innings with a trio of strikeouts and one walk. It was Toussaint’s second stint with the Halos. He allowed a 4.62 ERA in 25 1/3 innings for them three years ago.

A former first-round pick by Arizona, Toussaint has pitched in parts of eight big league seasons as a swingman. He owns a 5.42 ERA in 282 1/3 MLB frames. He has recorded a roughly average 23.1% strikeout rate while walking more than 14% of opposing hitters. Toussaint has allowed 4.84 earned runs per nine over parts of seven seasons in Triple-A. He’s worked in long relief this year with Salt Lake, walking 14 of 96 batters faced with a 5.32 ERA.

The Angels have cycled through middle relievers as their bullpen has struggled to the worst results in the league. Entering play Wednesday, only Washington had a higher bullpen ERA than the Angels’ 6.95 mark. They’ve given up an MLB-leading 24 home runs. The Angels don’t have a single reliever who has logged a sub-4.00 earned run average.

Angels Select Héctor Neris, Connor Brogdon

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The Angels announced that they have selected the contracts of right-handers Héctor Neris and Connor Brogdon. Infielder Yoán Moncada was also reinstated from the 10-day injured list. In corresponding moves, right-hander Michael Darrell-Hicks and infielder Niko Kavadas have been optioned to Triple-A, while righty Touki Toussaint has been designated for assignment. The club had one open 40-man vacancy coming into today.

The Angels have been busy swapping in fresh arms to their bullpen lately. After some heavy bullpen usage on Thursday and Friday, Toussaint and Darrell-Hicks were called up on Saturday. On Sunday, the club got torched, losing 13-1 to the Tigers. Both pitchers took on some mop-up duty and have been swapped out for more fresh arms today.

Neris, 36 next month, just signed a minor league deal with the club a couple of months ago. He started the season on a minor league deal with Atlanta and made the Opening Day roster but was bumped off after two bad appearances. He elected free agency and landed a new deal with the Halos. He has since made four Triple-A appearances, allowing two earned runs with eight strikeouts and one walk.

The righty has a lengthy track record of major league success but has been more wobbly in recent years. In 2021, he had a 31.6% strikeout rate but that dropped to 30%, 28.2% and 24.6% in subsequent seasons. He was able to work around that with a 1.17 ERA in 2023 but that jumped to 4.10 last year, which likely led to him settling for a minor league deal with Atlanta coming into 2025.

Brogdon, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Halos in January. He has thrown 14 2/3 Triple-A innings this year, allowing 21 earned runs for an eye-popping 12.89 ERA. His 25.3% strikeout rate is actually pretty good and his 9.6% walk rate passable but he has allowed six home runs already in that span.

He was a solid major leaguer as of a few years ago but has been struggling more recently. He tossed 113 innings for the Phillies over the 2020 to 2022 seasons with a 3.42 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. But in 2023, his ERA jumped to 4.03, with a 20.5% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate. Last year was mostly lost due to injuries, with plantar fasciitis being the main culprit. The Angels presumably hoped to get him back on track but the Triple-A results so far this year have been mixed, to say the least.

As mentioned earlier, Toussaint gets bumped off the roster just a few days after being added. He tossed two innings in his lone appearance, allowing two earned runs on four hits and a walk while striking out three.

He should be placed on waivers in the coming days. Once a notable prospect, he has never been able to rein in his control enough to find success. In 282 1/3 major league innings, he has a 5.42 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate and 47.6% ground ball rate but a big 14.1% walk rate.

Photo courtesy of Denis Poroy, Imagn Images

Angels Select Touki Toussaint

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The Angels announced a series of roster moves this evening, highlighted by the club’s decision to select the contract of right-hander Touki Toussaint. They also recalled right-hander Michael Darrell-Hicks to the majors. In corresponding moves, southpaw Jake Eder was optioned to Triple-A and left-hander Garrett McDaniels was placed on the 15-day injured list with left biceps tendinitis.

Touissant, 29 next month, signed a minor league deal with the Angels just before Opening Day. Once a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport with Atlanta after being selected in the first round of the 2014 draft by the Diamondbacks, Toussaint showed some promise in 2018 with a a 4.03 ERA and 3.78 FIP in his first 29-inning cup of coffee. In the six years since then, things have only gone downhill for Toussaint. The right-hander has spent his twenties bouncing between the Braves, Angels, Guardians, and White Sox organizations with well below average results at every stop along the way.

Since the end of that solid rookie season, he’s pitched to a lackluster 5.55 ERA with a 5.34 FIP. He’s struck out 22.7% of batters faced during that time but has combined that decent strikeout rate with a brutal 13.8% walk rate. More advanced metrics are equally skeptical of Toussaint’s abilities as a big leaguer, as shown by his career 4.88 SIERA. His most recent stint in the majors came last season with the White Sox, for whom Toussaint posted an eye-popping 7.43 ERA while walking 15.4% of his opponents. His stint in Chicago last year wound up lasting only 23 innings, but now he’s poised to return to the majors for a second stint in Anaheim.

Toussaint’s return to the majors comes at a time when the Angels have lost 15 of their last 19 games, skidding from a promising start early in the season to the second-worst record in the American League. Much of those struggles can be attributed to the pitching staff, which is bottom-three in ERA (5.22) and dead last in FIP (5.09). Toussaint figures to be tasked with helping out in a long relief capacity. While the right-hander has been lackluster all throughout his major league career, improving on the Halos’ current 6.60 bullpen ERA should be a fairly easy task for Toussaint to accomplish.

He’ll be joined in that effort by Darrell-Hicks, a 27-year-old who made his MLB debut with the Angels earlier this year. Darrell-Hicks already has a 6.75 ERA in 5 2/3 innings of work from his first five-appearance cup of coffee with the club in April. That actually matches his 6.75 ERA in 10 2/3 frames at Triple-A this year. Despite his lackluster performance in 2025, Darrell-Hicks turned in a fantastic season between Double- and Triple-A last year, with a 2.60 ERA and a 26.4% strikeout rate across 62 1/3 innings. The right-hander could be more of an asset in his latest call-up if he can pitch more like he did last season, though that’s of course no guarantee.

Departing the roster to make room for the new additions are Eder and McDaniels. Eder, once a well-regarded prospect in the Marlins system who went on to get traded to the White Sox in the Jake Burger deal before being dealt to Anaheim for cash, has a 7.71 ERA in three appearances for the Angels this year. McDaniels, meanwhile, made his MLB debut earlier this year and so far has a 5.91 ERA in ten appearances. McDaniels will be down for at least the next two weeks, while Eder heads to the minors to wait for his next big league opportunity.

34 Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.

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White Sox Outright Touki Toussaint

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The White Sox sent right-hander Touki Toussaint outright to Triple-A Charlotte, the team announced (relayed on X by Scott Merkin of MLB.com). Chicago designated him for assignment on Tuesday.

Toussaint made it into the MLB bullpen just before the trade deadline. He pitched 11 times and ate 23 innings with a 7.43 ERA. He struck out 22.2% of opponents while issuing walks at a massive 15.4% clip. That’s more or less the same profile that the former first-round pick has shown over his seven seasons in the big leagues. While Toussaint misses bats at a roughly league average rate, he has always had well below-average control.

This was the second straight season in which the 28-year-old pitched for the Sox. Chicago claimed him off waivers from the Guardians last summer. He started 15 of 19 appearances down the stretch, posting an ERA a hair under 5.00. Toussaint held his 40-man roster spot until the end of Spring Training. The Sox outrighted him to Charlotte just before Opening Day. He pitched to a 5.15 ERA in 50 2/3 innings there before being called back up.

Toussaint has multiple career outrights, giving him the right to elect free agency. There may not be enough runway for him to catch on anywhere else this season, so it seems likelier he’ll report to Charlotte and try to return to the Chicago bullpen over the next couple weeks. He’ll be a minor league free agent in the offseason unless the White Sox call him back up.

White Sox Designate Touki Toussaint For Assignment

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The White Sox announced they have designated right-hander Touki Toussaint for assignment. The move will give Chicago another 40-man vacancy, as they’re filling his spot by recalling righty Matt Foster, who’s already on the 40-man. Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times reported the moves prior to the official announcement.

Toussaint, 28, has pitched in 11 games and tallied 23 innings for the ChiSox this season, but the results haven’t been pretty. The former first-rounder and top prospect has been tagged for a 7.43 ERA, thanks in no small part to a bloated 15.4% walk rate. Toussaint has unequivocally had some poor fortune on balls in play, evidence by a mammoth .464 BABIP, and the White Sox’ porous defense surely hasn’t done him any favors in that regard.

All the same, Toussaint’s hefty walk rate and average strikeout rate (22.2%) aren’t conducive to success even with a more typical average on balls in play. He’s had a particularly rough go of it lately, with 11 runs yielded over his past 9 1/3 innings. Now that he’s been designated for assignment, Toussaint will head to waivers. He’ll likely clear, at which point he’ll have the right to elect free agency (both by virtue of his major league service time and prior outright assignments).

Foster, 29, has pitched well in Triple-A and in the majors this season in what’s been his first year back from Tommy John surgery performed in April 2023. The right-hander’s velocity (91.6 mph average fastball) is down two miles per hour from his pre-surgery days, though that could build back up as he gets more work in. To this point, he’s only pitched 18 minor league frames and another three in the majors. In 115 2/3 innings, Foster owns a 4.28 ERA with a 23.6% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate. The Sox can control him via arbitration through the 2026 season.

White Sox Select Touki Toussaint

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The White Sox selected Touki Toussaint onto the MLB roster on Monday evening. Chicago had a pair of vacancies on their 40-man roster.

Toussaint is up for the first time this season. Chicago had outrighted him off the roster at the end of Spring Training. He has worked in a swing role with Triple-A Charlotte, starting eight of 17 outings. In 50 2/3 innings, he owns a 5.15 ERA with a modest 20.4% strikeout rate and an alarming 16.3% walk percentage.

A former D-Backs first-round pick, Toussaint owns a 5.21 ERA across parts of six big league campaigns. He has pitched for four teams, including a brief stint with the ChiSox late last season. While his Triple-A production this year is lackluster, he can work in long relief for a team that already dealt Michael Kopech and will probably move another reliever or two by Tuesday’s deadline.

White Sox Outright Touki Toussaint

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The White Sox announced that right-hander Touki Toussaint cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Charlotte. The righty had been designated for assignment on the weekend when the club signed outfielder Kevin Pillar.

Toussaint, 28 in June, was claimed off waivers from the Guardians in June of last year. The Sox traded away many of their best pitchers last summer, with the trades of Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito creating two holes in the rotation. Toussaint helped fill in those gaps, tossing 83 1/3 innings for the Sox last year with a 4.97 earned run average.

Even though that was a fairly competent performance, Toussaint’s lack of control was a red flag, as it has been throughout his career. He was once a first-round draft pick, getting selected 16th overall by the Diamondbacks in 2014, and also a top 100 prospect as a minor leaguer. But his consistently high walk rates have prevented him from truly securing a big league job for any meaningful stretch of time.

With the Sox last year, his 22.7% strikeout rate and 49.5% ground ball rate were both pretty close to league average, but he gave free passes to 14.2% of batters that came to the plate. The average walk rate for major league starters was 7.9% last year, so Toussaint was almost double that. He’s walked 14% of batters faced in his career overall, which has played a large part in him not establishing himself in the bigs. He had never previously logged more than 50 innings in a season until he got to 87 last year.

He came into camp with a White Sox club that had a lot of question marks on its pitching staff, but he didn’t do much to take a step forward and answer those questions. He tossed 7 2/3 innings over six appearances, issuing an eye-popping 11 walks while striking out just two batters and getting charged with 11 earned runs.

Since he’s out of options, the Sox had to either keep him on the active roster or remove him from the 40-man entirely. They decided for the latter and no other club was willing to give him a roster spot either.

Toussaint can technically reject this outright assignment but it’s unlikely he will. A player with at least three years of major league service time can reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency but requires five years of service to both elect free agency and retain their salary. Toussaint is at three years and 71 days, meaning he would have to walk away from his salary in order to hit the open market.

He and the club avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1.3MM salary for this year, so he’ll likely want to hang onto that. Assuming he accepts his assignment, he’ll report to the Knights and look to work his way back to the majors.

White Sox Re-Sign Kevin Pillar To Major League Deal

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The White Sox are have reunited with outfielder Kevin Pillar just days after the veteran was released by the club, as first reported by Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun Times. The club has since announced the deal, which is a major league contract. Right-hander Touki Toussaint was designated for assignment in order to make room for Pillar on the 40-man roster. Van Schouwen also reports that right-hander Jordan Leasure is set to make the club’s Opening Day roster as a member of the bullpen. Leasure is not yet on the 40-man roster, meaning the club will need to select his contract prior to Opening Day.

Pillar, 35, is a veteran of 11 MLB seasons who spent the 2023 campaign as a member of the Braves. He appeared in 81 games as a reserve outfielder and pinch hitter for the club, though he struggled at the plate en route to a .228/.248/.416 slash line across 206 trips to the plate. Once one of the game’s best defenders in center field, the shine has worn off of Pillar’s glovework in recent years, relegating him to corner outfield work in more recent seasons. That being said, the veteran is a career .278/.308/.461 hitter against left-handed pitching and makes plenty of sense as a righty complement to the lefty-hitting corner outfield duo of Andrew Benintendi and Dominic Fletcher in Chicago.

Pillar’s return to the organization comes at the expense of Toussaint, who the club acquired off waivers from the Guardians back in June. He made 19 appearances down the stretch with Chicago, 15 of them starts, and posted a 4.97 ERA with a 4.95 FIP in 83 1/3 innings of work. Toussaint struck out a decent 22.7% of batters faced during his time with the club, but walked opponents at a concerning 14.2% clip. The mediocre results and concerning peripherals didn’t stop the White Sox from retaining the righty this winter, but the club now appears ready to move on from Toussaint after a disastrous Spring Training that saw him post a 17.47 ERA in 5 2/3 innings of work that saw him walk a whopping 11 batters while striking out just two. The White Sox will have one week to either trade, release, or pass Toussaint through waivers.

Set to make the club’s Opening Day roster alongside Pillar is Leasure, a 25-year-old right-hander who came to the White Sox as part of the return in the deal that sent Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly to the Dodgers back in July. A 14th-round pick by the Dodgers in the 2021 draft, Leasure enjoyed a strong 2022 season with L.A. as he pitched to a 3.38 ERA in 58 2/3 innings of work between the High-A and Double-A levels, striking out an impressive 34.9% of batters faced during that time. Leasure returned to Double-A to begin the 2023 season and continued to dominate with a 3.09 ERA and a 39.7% strikeout rate in 35 innings, but began to struggle upon being traded to Chicago, with whom he was promoted to Triple-A.

Leasure struggled to a 6.08 ERA in his 15 appearances at Triple-A Charlotte last year, though his strikeout rate remained above 35% even as he struggled. Despite those difficulties, Leasure went on to dominate in the Arizona Fall League back in October as he punched out 44.8% of batters faced and posted a sparkling 1.08 ERA. The right-hander’s bounceback continued this spring as he’s posted 8 1/3 scoreless innings across nine appearances with the White Sox during camp. Those strong results since the end of last season appear to have earned Leasure his first taste of big league action, where he’ll factor into the club’s bullpen mix as another right-handed option alongside Steven Wilson, John Brebbia, Deivi Garcia, and Michael Kopech.

White Sox Claim Touki Toussaint From Guardians

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The White Sox have claimed right-hander Touki Toussaint off waivers from the Guardians, per announcements from both clubs. He had been designated for assignment by the Guards on the weekend. The Sox already had a vacancy on their 40-man and won’t need to make a corresponding move at this time.

The waiver claim serves as something of a birthday present for Toussaint, who turns 27 today. Once a first-round draft pick of the Diamondbacks and top 100 prospect during his time in the minors, he has yet to put it all together in the big leagues. He has a 5.33 ERA in 174 innings dating back to the 2018 season. His strikeout and ground ball numbers have been solid but control has been a frequent issue, with Toussaint walking 13.9% of batters faced in his career.

He qualified for arbitration for the first time as a Super Two player at the end of last season, but the Angels non-tendered him instead. He signed a minor league deal with the Guardians and has been pitching in relief in Triple-A. He posted a 4.06 ERA over 20 appearances, striking out 30.2% of opponents but walking 14.5% of them. He got called up to the big leagues a few days ago to serve as an emergency starter in place of Triston McKenzie. Toussaint tossed 3 2/3 innings, allowing just two earned runs despite surrendering three hits and five walks.

The Sox have decided to use their open 40-man slot to take a shot on Toussaint despite the ongoing control problems. Since Toussaint is out of options, they will need to make a corresponding move to get him onto the active roster whenever he reports to the team.

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