Angels Notes: Closer, Moncada, Grissom
The Angels continue to operate without a defined closer, manager Kurt Suzuki tells Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. That comes after Kirby Yates blew a save by surrendering a ninth-inning homer to Jeff McNeil on Wednesday. The A’s would go to win that game by plating the free runner against Chase Silseth in the top of the 10th.
Yates was going for his first save of the season. The 39-year-old missed the first six weeks to right knee inflammation. He’d worked scoreless appearances in three of four outings before the ill-timed longball yesterday.
The Halos have been the worst team in the league, so it’s not a surprise that they have the fewest saves in MLB. That said, it’s remarkable that four of their five saves all year were by the since released Jordan Romano within the first two weeks of the season. They have one save in the last six weeks, which went to Ryan Zeferjahn against the White Sox on May 5.
Aside from Yates, Silseth technically has their only other blown save this month. That came in the sixth inning, so it was more accurately a missed opportunity for a hold. The Halos didn’t have a save opportunity tonight, but they went right back to Yates in a situation typically reserved for a team’s closer — to pitch the top of the ninth in a tied game. The righty worked around a Vaughn Grissom error to toss a scoreless inning.
Grissom got the nod at the hot corner for the third consecutive game. The last two have come against right-handed starters Aaron Civale and Luis Severino. That’s not a coincidence, as Suzuki confirmed to Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register that they’re reducing playing time for scuffling third baseman Yoán Moncada.
Re-signed to a $4MM deal over the offseason, Moncada has hit .189/.308/.297 across 130 plate appearances. Although he has avoided the injured list, the 30-year-old confirmed he’s still dealing with discomfort in his right knee related to the injury that cost him five weeks last summer. The switch-hitter said the knee bothers him when he bats from the right side. The Halos have accordingly limited his exposure to left-handed pitching for a second straight year.
Moncada had been productive from the left side of the dish last season, posting an .815 OPS against righties. That’s down to a .225/.330/.360 line with 34 strikeouts in 104 plate appearances this year — more or less leading to an unofficial benching.
“That’s the route that we’re going to go,” Suzuki told Fletcher. “I talked to him and he knows what he has to do. … Right now, this is where we’re at. I’m not saying it’s going to be like this the rest of the year. It might change. It might not.”
The Angels took a flier on the right-handed hitting Grissom in an offseason deal with Boston. A minor sprain of his left wrist sidelined him for a couple weeks to begin the season. Grissom came out on fire when he was activated, hitting .342 with a homer and four doubles in 13 games through the end of April. His bat has gone ice cold since the calendar flipped, and he’s now hitting .226/.308/.355 over 108 plate appearances. The Halos have used an Oswald Peraza/Adam Frazier platoon at second base but could get Peraza more work at the hot corner if Grissom doesn’t pick back up.
Angels Notes: Pomeranz, Johnson, Peraza, Grissom
The Angels placed left-hander Drew Pomeranz on the 15-day injured list today due to left elbow inflammation. Right-hander Ryan Johnson was reinstated from the IL in a corresponding move.
The Halos haven’t provided many details about the injury to Pomeranz, but it’s notable in light of his history. Ongoing issues with his throwing arm, including multiple surgeries, lead to Pomeranz not pitching in the majors from 2022 to 2024. He had a bounceback season in 2025, posting a 2.17 earned run average over 49 2/3 innings with the Cubs.
That prompted the Halos to sign Pomeranz to a one-year, $4MM deal for the 2026 season. That gambit hasn’t worked out so far, as the 37-year-old has a 7.20 ERA through 15 innings. His 16.7% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate are both significantly worse than last year, when he struck out 28.1% of opponents and only walked 7.4%.
For now, Johnson will apparently take his spot in the bullpen. The Halos have handled Johnson very strangely thus far in his career. He was drafted in the summer of 2024, 74th overall, but didn’t pitch in the minors that year. He then cracked the club’s big league roster to open the 2025 season, despite not having any professional experience. He pitched poorly out of the bullpen for a few weeks before being optioned all the way down to High-A. He finished the year pitching well at that level as a starter.
Here in 2026, he made the big league rotation out of camp but then hit the IL due to a virus after just one start. He recently began a rehab assignment, tossing 3 1/3 innings on May 3rd, followed by five innings on May 8th.
It appears that Johnson is now available out of the big league bullpen. “I see him as a guy that can do both,” manager Kurt Suzuki said to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. “I think if we need him as a starter, we can keep him as a starter. If we need him in the bullpen, he can do that. I think the luxury of having RJ is he can do everything.”
From the outside, it appears to be a bizarrely unconventional approach, something that has cropped up with other pitchers to lesser degrees. Alek Manoah began the season on the IL due to a finger issue. He made one official rehab appearances of 4 1/3 innings at the beginning of May. He was quickly added to the big league roster. His first appearance for the Halos was a single-inning relief outing. The next time out, he tossed five innings of long relief. Grayson Rodriguez, who began the season on the IL due to shoulder inflammation, has made two rehab appearances recently. The first was five innings and the second 4 2/3. He may be quickly reinstated at the big league level for his next appearance.
Those all feel like fairly hasty rehab assignments and activations. If a club were breaking convention and had a strong reputation for being on the cutting edge of analytics, that would be intriguing. The Angels have the opposite reputation, so it feels like they’re just winging things. Considering Manoah and Rodriguez both have extensive injury histories, that doesn’t seem like a prudent approach. The Halos haven’t been good for a while and currently have the worst record in baseball at 16-28, so perhaps they are trying to do anything they can to stop the bleeding.
Yusei Kikuchi is currently on the injured list and will be shut down for a few more weeks. José Soriano is firmly entrenched at the front of the rotation. Reid Detmers, Jack Kochanowicz and Walbert Ureña should have spots behind Soriano for now. Perhaps some combination of Manoah, Rodriguez and Johnson will cover the final spot.
Turning to the position player group, a separate column from Fletcher notes that Vaughn Grissom has been getting some work in left field, with Oswald Peraza to soon join him. Both infielders are hitting well while outfielder Josh Lowe has been struggling. Lowe has a .160/.211/.283 line on the season so far. Some of that is due to a .188 batting average on balls in play but his 5.2% walk rate and 29.6% strikeout rate are also below league average and his own career stats.
Grissom is currently sporting a .264/.353/.431 line while Peraza has a .279/.344/.477 slash. The Angels have Zach Neto at shortstop most days, with Yoán Moncada at third and Nolan Schanuel at first. That leaves Grissom and Peraza battling for playing time at second base, in addition to occasionally spelling the other infielders. Neither player has any professional outfield experience, apart from some brief winter ball action for Grissom. If one or both of them can take to left field, it could provide Suzuki some extra flexibility in setting his ideal lineup.
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images
Angels Designate Jeimer Candelario For Assignment
The Angels announced that infielder Jeimer Candelario has been designated for assignment. The move creates roster space for fellow infielder Vaughn Grissom, who has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list.
Candelario signed a minor league contract with Los Angeles during the offseason, and earned himself a spot on the Opening Day roster due to a few factors. The veteran’s big Spring Training numbers helped him stand out from some other infield candidates like Christian Moore and Kyren Paris, and Grissom was also lost to a wrist sprain. Unfortunately, Candelario couldn’t keep his Cactus League performance going into the regular season, as he hit only .111/.200/.222 over 20 plate appearances.
The cold start continues the downward slide that began after Candelario signed a three-year, $45MM free agent deal with the Reds prior to the 2024 season. Candelario hit only .225/.279/.429 over 463 PA in the first season of his contract, and Cincinnati released him last June after he batted .113/.198/.213 in his first 91 PA of the 2025 campaign. Injuries such as knee tendinitis and a lumbar spine strain certainly contributed to that falloff over the last two seasons, but Candelario was thought to be healthy heading into 2026.
The Yankees signed Candelario after his release from the Reds but didn’t use him at the MLB level, and his struggles didn’t stop the Angels from taking a flier on the 32-year-old this past winter. Another team may feel Candelario still has something in the tank, and he would cost only a prorated Major League minimum salary for any time spent on a team’s active roster, as the Reds are still responsible for the $15MM still owed on his contract.
Even if another club has interest in Candelario, however, they might not be willing to devote a 40-man roster spot to him, so it seems likely that the infielder will clear waivers. He has enough MLB service time to reject an outright assignment and then elect free agency, so Candelario can test the market again for another minor league contract.
Grissom is now set to make his Angels debut, and get his first big league action of any kind since the 2024 season. Grissom has yet to live up to the promise of his impressive 2022 rookie season with the Braves, as he struggled in 2023 and then was a bust with the Red Sox after being dealt for Chris Sale during the 2023-24 offseason. While Sale resurrected his career in Atlanta, Grissom didn’t hit in Boston, battled injuries, and soon found himself supplanted by several other up-and-coming infield prospects.
Angels Announce 11 Roster Moves
The Angels announced nearly a dozen roster moves as they prepare their Opening Day lineup. The team confirmed the signing of lefty reliever Joey Lucchesi to a one-year free agent deal. They also selected veteran infielders Adam Frazier and Jeimer Candelario onto the big league roster.
Vaughn Grissom lands on the 10-day injured list with a sprained left wrist. Pitchers Ben Joyce (shoulder inflammation), Alek Manoah (middle finger contusion), Kirby Yates (left knee inflammation), and Grayson Rodriguez (shoulder inflammation) all land on the 15-day injured list. Those five placements are retroactive to March 22.
The Angels needed to open three spots on the 40-man roster for Lucchesi, Frazier and Candelario. Two of those are procedural moves, as Anthony Rendon and Robert Stephenson have been placed on the 60-day injured list. The one roster casualty of the whole series of transactions is left-handed reliever Jayvien Sandridge, who was designated for assignment.
Most of these transactions had either been announced or strongly telegraphed by prior moves. Frazier and Candelario were each expected to break camp after offseason minor league contracts. The former is ticketed for the majority of the playing time at second base. Frazier’s left-handed bat and plus contact skills make him a rarity in a heavily right-handed lineup. He hit .281 with a .452 on-base percentage this spring but has been a below-average hitter in four consecutive seasons. Frazier ran a .267/.319/.365 slash in 459 plate appearances between the Pirates and Royals a year ago.
Candelario, 32, returns to the majors after finishing last season in Triple-A in the Yankees system. The switch-hitter turned in a meager .207/.265/.394 line while battling various injuries over a season and a half with the Reds. He popped four homers this spring but struck out 17 times in 56 plate appearances.
Primarily a corner infielder, Candelario has also gotten acclimated to second base in camp. He’ll work as a backup infielder alongside the out-of-options Oswald Peraza behind Frazier and third baseman Yoán Moncada. The Angels will only pay him the $780K league minimum while he’s on the roster. The Reds are still covering the rest of his $13MM salary after releasing him last June.
Of the injured list assignments, only the Yates move comes as a surprise. The 39-year-old righty signed a $5MM free agent deal over the winter. That was the biggest investment the Halos made in a quiet offseason. Yates was one of a handful of reclamation fliers who’ll slot into the bullpen. He had been expected to share closing work with Jordan Romano and Drew Pomeranz. That’ll be on hold for at least the first 12 days of the regular season. Yates pitched four times this spring, allowing one earned run over four innings.
Joyce is still building back from last May’s shoulder procedure. He’s throwing but didn’t get into any games this spring. He’s not ready for MLB game action but should be back relatively early in the year. It’s an encouraging sign for his health that the Angels opted to designate someone for assignment rather than place Joyce on the 60-day IL.
Grissom is out of minor league options. His injury buys the Halos a little bit of time to determine whether they want to keep him on the roster or designate him for assignment. Rodriguez and Manoah entered camp as the projected fourth and fifth starters. Their continued injury issues will draw Jack Kochanowicz and Ryan Johnson into the final two rotation spots instead.
Sandridge came over from the Yankees in a cash trade in January. The 27-year-old southpaw pitched twice before being optioned early in camp. He allowed five runs over two innings. Sandridge gave up two runs while recording two outs in his lone major league appearance, which came as a Yankee last July. In Triple-A, he posted a 4.55 ERA with huge strikeout stuff (33.1%) but too many walks (12%). The Angels have five days to trade him or try to run him through waivers.
Angels Release Chris Taylor
TODAY: The Angels officially announced Taylor’s release.
MARCH 20: Veteran infielder/outfielder Chris Taylor was in camp with the Angels on a minor league deal. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Taylor has opted out of his deal and has been informed that he will not make the club. He’ll be a free agent whenever he is officially released. He was one of several veterans who could opt out of minor league deals this week.
Taylor, 35, spent many years with the Dodgers as the league’s top super utility guy. From 2017 to 2023, he hit .256/.336/.444 while stealing 76 bases and playing every position outside of first base and the battery. But he hit just .202/.298/.300 in 2024 and was worse in 2025, getting released. He ended up with the Angels but finished the season with a combined .186/.256/.301 line.
He returned to the Angels this offseason but had to settle for a minor league deal. He had a good showing in camp, putting up a .231/.388/.410 line in 49 plate appearances, but it appears the Angels are putting more stock in his larger sample of regular season work over the past two years.
The Halos have had an open battle for their second base job this spring and the decisions appear to be coming into focus. Christian Moore was optioned a few days ago. Vaughn Grissom has a left hand injury and may start the season on the injured list.
With Taylor now out, that seemingly leaves Adam Frazier to get the job. He has hit .310/.429/.414 this spring and his left-handed bat would help to balance a lineup that otherwise skews to the right. Oswald Peraza has had a nice spring and seemingly earned a job on the bench. Switch-hitter Jeimer Candelario could also get a roster spot if Grissom does indeed hit the IL.
If Frazier and Candelario both make the team, they would need spots on the 40-man roster. One spot can easily be opened by placing Anthony Rendon on the 60-day IL, since he’s not expected to play this year. Robert Stephenson could be another 60-day IL candidate since he may have damage in the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow.
Taylor will head to the open market and to see what opportunities await him. He won’t be helped by his performance in 2024 and 2025 but his defensive versatility could help him fit with many clubs and his bat looked a bit better in camp just now, for whatever that’s worth.
Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images
Latest On Angels’ Second Base Competition
One of the Angels’ biggest camp storylines is who they’ll tab as the starting second baseman. They narrowed the field over the weekend, optioning Christian Moore and Kyren Paris. They’re each going to open the year at Triple-A Salt Lake.
Moore seemed like a slight favorite for the job entering Spring Training. He was certainly the most exciting of the in-house options as a 2024 top ten pick who has hit well in the minors. Moore really struggled following an aggressive big league promotion last season, though. He struck out more than a third of the time while hitting .198/.284/.370 through 184 trips to the plate.
The Angels would have loved for Moore to seize the job in Spring Training. That’s not what happened, as he hit .175 with just one extra-base hit (a homer) in 40 at-bats. Moore will look to address some of the swing-and-miss concerns at Salt Lake to put himself in the running for a midseason promotion.
Paris is a career .157/.244/.290 hitter. He wasn’t going to win the second base job and probably needed a monster spring to put himself in consideration for a bench spot. He hit well on the surface (.333/.419/.556) but struck out nine times in 31 plate appearances. Paris has raw power but has held back by whiff concerns throughout his career. This will be his final minor league option year, assuming he spends at least 20 days there over the course of the season.
With Moore out of the mix, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com writes that non-roster invitee Adam Frazier is the favorite for the second base role. The lefty hitter has made a strong impression in camp, batting .348 while striking out just four times in 23 at-bats. Frazier’s profile is well established. He puts balls in play with minimal power and has been a below-average hitter since his 2021 All-Star season. He carries a .241/.302/.343 batting line in more than 1800 plate appearances between four teams over the last four years.
Manager Kurt Suzuki tells Bollinger he’s open to a platoon arrangement that’d pair Frazier with a righty bat. The 34-year-old is a career .200/.273/.333 hitter against southpaws, so it’s natural they’d keep away from lefty pitching if he breaks camp.
The Halos have a few right-handed infielders vying for one or two roster spots. Oswald Peraza and Vaughn Grissom are out-of-options former prospects who haven’t performed at the big league level. Chris Taylor and the switch-hitting Jeimer Candelario are in camp on minor league deals.
Peraza offers the most defensive value and has stepped up during Spring Training, hitting .351 with a pair of homers in 13 games. Grissom, acquired from the Red Sox in an offseason trade, is batting .185 despite only striking out twice all camp. Candelario and Taylor have each shown well in exhibition play but haven’t hit much in the regular season over the last two years.
The Angels would need to create 40-man roster space for any of Frazier, Candelario or Taylor. They have a pair of obvious 60-day injured list candidates in Robert Stephenson and Anthony Rendon. That essentially gives them two free roster spots with which to play.
Poll: Who Will Play Second Base For The Angels?
2026 looks likely to be another year of the Angels more or less spinning their wheels. With minimal changes to the roster coming off a 90 loss season (even in spite of a relatively healthy season for Mike Trout), the Halos will need a lot to go their way if they’re going to have any hope of being competitive this year.
One of the first things that the team will need to decide is who’s going to play second base. Luis Rengifo walked in free agency, leaving a hole at the keystone. Rather than bring in a more surefire addition like Gleyber Torres or Brandon Lowe, the Angels settled on having a number of players battle for the job this spring. In all, there are half a dozen candidates for reps still in camp. The Halos are surely hoping that one of those names will rise above the pack and run with the job, but who might that be?
Christian Moore is a former top-10 pick in the draft and top-100 prospect in the sport. He made it to the majors last year after rocketing through the minors in a speedy fashion that’s become typical for Halos prospects in recent years. He seemed to hit a wall once he reached the big leagues. In 53 games as a major leaguer, he hit just .198/.284/.370 with a wRC+ of 82. That first stint in the majors was far from a disaster, especially for a player who played all of last year at 22 years old. But a 33.7% strikeout rate suggests he might not be quite ready for the show yet, and his difficult spring (.175/.233/.250 in 40 at-bats) certainly isn’t helping matters. While Moore undoubtedly remains a big part of the club’s plans, it would not be a shock if the team decided he needs more time to develop in the minors.
Pivoting away from Moore would open the door to a cadre of non-roster veterans and out of options pieces on the 40-man roster bubble. Oswald Peraza and Vaughn Grissom must either be carried on the roster or be designated for assignment and exposed to waivers. Peraza is regarded as a better defender than Grissom, capable of handling not only second base but also the hot corner and shortstop if needed. While Peraza hasn’t hit much in his career and is coming off a putrid .164/.223/.250 showing, Grissom has a below average hitter (82 wRC+) for his career and didn’t crack the majors last season as he posted middling numbers in Triple-A for the Red Sox. What’s more, Peraza is having a very strong camp with a .324/.378/.647 slash line in 37 trips to he plate. Grissom is carrying a .185/.333/.269 line across 33 plate appearances.
While Peraza appears to be a real threat to make the roster, it’s possible the Angels would prefer to keep him in a utility role given his ability to back up Zach Neto at shortstop and Yoan Moncada at third base. If that’s the case, they could turn towards their group of non-roster veterans. Nick Madrigal, Adam Frazier, and Chris Taylor all have ample experience at the keystone and are in camp on minor league deals. Taylor hasn’t hit much at all in either of the past two years, however, and while he’s had a solid camp (.241/.389/.483 in 36 plate appearances), he might be better suited for a bench role given his trademark versatility.
Frazier is in a similar boat as a player who has hit an excellent .353/.476/.412 in ten spring games. He could be an interesting choice if the team wants to add another lefty bat to their heavily right-handed lineup, but he could also be tapped to serve as a lefty bench bat with relative ease given his ability to play both second base and the outfield. As for Madrigal, he’s coming off a lost season due to injury. The former top prospect can play decent defense at either second or third base. While he’s a career .274/.323/.344 (88 wRC+) hitter in the majors, he brings an unique proclivity for contact to the table as evidenced by his career strikeout rate of just 9.0%. In 23 spring plate appearances, he’s hit a solid .333/.391/.429.
One wild card in the second base mix could be veteran infielder Jeimer Candelario. Candelario has played almost his whole career on the infield corners, with his pro experience at the keystone limited to just two innings of work in the Dominican Winter League over half a decade ago. That would make the 32-year-old an unorthodox choice to take over at second, especially given that he hit just .113/.198/.213 (10 wRC+) in 80 plate appearances with the Reds last year. Despite those question marks, Candelario’s solid camp (.267/.353/.567 in 32 plate appearances) has seemingly impressed Angels brass enough to give him a look at the position to see if he can be squeezed onto the roster. Whether the team will feel confident enough in Candelario’s ability to handle second base to actually give him regular reps at the position remains to be seen, however.
How do MLBTR readers think the Angels will settle their second base battle. Will they give the keys to Moore for another extended run right out of the gate? Or will they pivot to another option like Peraza, Frazier, or Madrigal? Could they roll the dice on Candelario despite his lack of experience? Have your say in the poll below:
Who will win the second base job for the Angels this year?
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Christian Moore 29% (682)
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Adam Frazier 23% (537)
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Vaughn Grissom 13% (296)
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Oswald Peraza 12% (290)
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Jeimer Candelario 9% (215)
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Nick Madrigal 9% (212)
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Chris Taylor 4% (103)
Total votes: 2,335
Looking At The Angels’ Internal Infield Options
The Angels have had a quiet offseason. It can be argued their biggest move was restructuring Anthony Rendon‘s final year under contract, with the two parties deferring his $38MM salary over five years. In terms of adding to the roster, the club signed Jordan Romano, Drew Pomeranz, Kirby Yates, and recently Brent Suter for the bullpen. They’ve also bought low on Alek Manoah, Grayson Rodriguez, and Josh Lowe (the latter two by trade) and re-signed Yoan Moncada to play third base.
With Moncada being a returning player, the Angels’ infield hasn’t seen much of an upgrade. Perhaps that’s due to financial uncertainty. The club recently terminated its contract with Main Street Sports and may consider turning over their broadcasts to MLB – generally a less-lucrative arrangement. Whatever the reason, the team’s infield still has some question marks, especially at second base. What options do the Angels have at present? Let’s take a look at the possibilities:
Moore is the incumbent at the keystone after Luis Rengifo, who led Angels second basemen with 260 plate appearances last year, became a free agent. He was the club’s first-round draft pick in 2024 and will get plenty of opportunities on that basis alone. That said, Moore struggled mightily at the plate in his debut season in 2025. In 184 PA across 53 games, he batted .198/.284/.370 and graded out 18% below average by wRC+. His 10.3% walk rate was a positive, but that was outweighed by a 33.7% strikeout rate. Moore also has room for improvement on defense, with Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average both taking a negative view of his work at the keystone. The key for him in 2026 will be making more consistent contact and getting on base so he can take advantage of his 78th-percentile speed.
Grissom was acquired from the Red Sox two months ago. He owns a career line of .255/.309/.346 with an 82 wRC+ in 350 PA for the Braves and Red Sox from 2022-24. Unfortunately, he didn’t play at all in the majors in 2025, instead spending the year at Triple-A. While he was above-average there and posted good strikeout and walk numbers, time is running out for him to prove himself at the big-league level. Grissom’s defense at second base is on par with Moore’s (-3 DRS and -8 OAA in 613 innings), so he’ll need to outhit Moore to compete with the recent draftee for playing time. Grissom is out of options and comes with five additional years of team control.
Peraza is a former Yankees prospect who has yet to make an impression in the majors outside of a late-season callup in 2022. In 524 PA from 2022-25, Peraza has batted just .189/.260/.282 with a 54 wRC+. He has also struck out at a 27.1% clip in his career, including 34.7% of the time in 95 PA with the Angels in 2025. He has only played 205 career innings at second base, although DRS and OAA both see him as slightly above average. Apart from his range, Peraza also has 81st-percentile arm strength, so the Angels might take advantage by playing him across the infield. Of course, he’ll need to cut back on the strikeouts and get on base more frequently to justify a bigger role than “defensive replacement.”
Guzman was an international signing in 2021 and made his big-league debut at the end of last year, albeit for just 43 PA. He batted .247/.343/.426 with a 119 wRC+ across Double-A and Triple-A in 2025, showing decent power with 17 home runs. Paris was the Angels’ second-round draft pick in 2019 and has made 245 PA in the majors from 2023-25. He is a steady defender but hasn’t shown anything with the bat, with a career wRC+ of 50 and an extremely high 42.1% strikeout rate in 140 PA last year. Even as depth pieces, Guzman and Paris are lower on the pecking order than Grissom and Peraza. Both have at least one option remaining, so they’re likely ticketed for Triple-A.
Minor-League Signings
Trey Mancini and Jeimer Candelario are in the organization on minor-league deals and will likely attend big-league Spring Training. Both are veterans with minimal track records in recent years. Mancini was out of baseball entirely in 2024 and spent 2025 with the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate, hitting 10% better than average by wRC+ in 335 PA. His last productive big-league season was in 2022 (105 wRC+). Candelario was released by the Reds mid-way through last year after seeing his offense crater compared to the heights of his 2023 campaign. In 554 PA since the start of 2024, he owns a wRC+ of just 76 and has struggled badly to get on base. Candelario is limited to the infield corners and Mancini to just first base, so their ceilings are essentially as backups if Moncada or Nolan Schanuel get injured.
Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images
Angels Acquire Vaughn Grissom
The Angels have acquired infielder Vaughn Grissom from the Red Sox in exchange for minor league outfielder Isaiah Jackson, according to announcements from both clubs. Prior to the official announcement, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the Grissom portion and Chris Cotillo of MassLive the Jackson part. The move drops Boston’s 40-man count to 39, perhaps allowing them to make a selection in tomorrow’s Rule 5 draft. The Halos’ 40-man count goes from 34 to 35.
If there’s a consistent theme in how the Angels are attacking this offseason, it is buying low on former top prospects. Their two biggest moves of the winter so far have been to sign Alek Manoah and acquire Grayson Rodriguez from the Orioles. Manoah and Rodriguez are both former first-round picks who are coming off a few years of injury struggles.
The situation with Grissom is somewhat analogous, though he is not a pitcher and didn’t have quite the same prospect pedigree. Atlanta took him in the 11th round of the 2019 draft but he put up huge numbers on his way up the minor league ladder. By the summer of 2022, he had become a top 100 prospect. He slashed .322/.411/.480 on the farm over the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Atlanta called him up in August of 2023, skipping him over the Triple-A level. He put up a big .291/.353/.440 line in his first 156 big league plate appearances.
Going into 2023, Atlanta let Dansby Swanson depart via free agency, signing with the Cubs. Grissom seemed to have a good shot at being the long-term answer there. There were questions about his defense but the bat seemed legit. Ron Washington, then on Atlanta’s coaching staff, worked with Grissom on his defense throughout the winter. At the end of spring training, Atlanta surprisingly decided to give Orlando Arcia the shortstop job. Grissom was optioned to Triple-A.
Atlanta called up Grissom a few times that year but he hit just .280/.313/.347 for a 79 wRC+ in his 80 plate appearances. But he still showed his offensive potential in the minors, as he hit .330/.419/.501 for a 138 wRC+ in Triple-A.
Going into 2024, Atlanta flipped Grissom to the Red Sox for Chris Sale. At the time, it seemed like a coup for the Red Sox. Sale had barely pitched from 2020 to 2022 due to injuries. He had made 20 starts in 2023 but with a 4.30 earned run average. Since he was going into his age-35 season, the final guaranteed season of his contract, the expectations weren’t high for him going forward.
That deal turned into a big bust for Boston. Sale posted a 2.38 ERA in 2024 and won the National League Cy Young award. Grissom, meanwhile, has mostly been stuck in Triple-A since being traded. Boston gave him 114 big league plate appearances in 2024 but he hit just .190/.246/.219 in those. He has still been putting up decent Triple-A numbers, but not quite as gaudy as before. Since the start of 2024, he has a .266/.357/.417 line and 106 wRC+ at the Triple-A level. He played all four infield spots during his time with Triple-A Worcester. He finished the 2025 season on the injured list due to plantar fasciitis.
Grissom exhausted his final option season in 2025, meaning he will be out of options going forward. The Sox have an uncertain infield picture at the moment but will likely address it with further moves this offseason. Since they just made the playoffs, they will be looking to compete again and surely didn’t want to rely on Grissom after a couple of uninspiring years.
For the Halos, they have been mired in mediocrity for a while now, having last made the playoffs over a decade ago. They need a lot to go right if they’re going to break that streak. They will probably make some more clear-cut upgrades at some point this winter but have thus far been taking chances on low-certainty upside plays.
Their infield has a couple of openings at the moment. They have Zach Neto locked in at shortstop and Nolan Schanuel at first base. Second and third base are up for grabs. At the hot corner, Anthony Rendon is technically signed for another season but is probably going to retire. The Angels gave Christian Moore a chance to grab the second base job in 2025 but he didn’t take advantage of that opportunity. Denzer Guzmán, Oswald Peraza and Kyren Paris are also on the roster but no one in that group has a track record of major league success.
There’s a path for Grissom to perhaps earn some playing time at second or third, or perhaps as a bench/utility guy. It’s possible those paths get blocked with future moves but they are there for now. Grissom still has less than two years of service time. If he can thrive as an Angel, they can retain him for five full seasons before he would be slated for free agency. He is only 24 years old, turning 25 in January.
To get that shot on Grissom, they are giving up an outfielder from deep in their system. Jackson was just selected in the eighth round of the draft this summer. He has ten games of experience as a professional, which came at High-A, where he hit .219 /.324/.344. He turns 22 in May. For the Sox, they are likely happy to get any kind of return at all for a guy who was getting pushed off the roster anyway.
Photos courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Dale Zanine, Imagn Images
Red Sox Promote Connelly Early, Place Dustin May On Injured List
5:50pm: Early’s promotion is official. May lands on the 15-day IL, retroactive to September 6, with elbow neuritis. Boston created the necessary 40-man spot by recalling infielder Vaughn Grissom from Triple-A and placing him on the 60-day injured list. Grissom’s season is over due to plantar fasciitis.
10:46 am: The Red Sox will promote pitching prospect Connelly Early to make his major league debut tonight versus the A’s, as first reported by Foul Territory. Katie Morrison-O’Day of MassLive.com noted earlier in this week that Early, a 2023 fifth-round pick, was scratched from his start at Triple-A Worcester because the Sox wanted him to be ready if the big league club had a need this week. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo wrote yesterday that Early was “very much in play” to make his MLB debut within the next couple of days.
Early isn’t on the 40-man roster, so Boston will need to make corresponding transactions to open space on both the active and 40-man rosters. Righty Dustin May will head to the injured list to open an active roster spot, per Foul Territory and Cotillo.
The 23-year-old Early has thrived in both Double-A and Triple-A this season, combining for 100 1/3 innings with a 2.60 earned run average, a huge 31.9% strikeout rate and a 9.7% walk rate. The 6’3″, 195-pound lefty is sitting 93.4 mph on his four-seamer, complementing the pitch with a deep variety of secondary offerings including a slider, changeup, sinker, cutter and curveball (listed in descending order of usage rate). He’s kept the ball on the ground at a strong 50% clip and has thus far posted an excellent 14.3% swinging-strike between Double-A and Triple-A.
Early entered the season ranked tenth among Boston prospects at Baseball America but has climbed to sixth, even after the draft added several new entrants to the top tiers of every system in the sport. Scouting reports at BA, FanGraphs and MLB.com tout Early’s changeup as a plus offering. There’s a wider range of opinions on his slider, but the general consensus is that it at least has the potential to be an above-average, if not plus offering. The Virginia product will join fellow rookie Payton Tolle as a fairly high-profile September addition who could not only help into and throughout the postseason but could very well be auditioning for a 2026 rotation spot.
Although Early wasn’t on the 40-man roster on Sept. 1, he’ll still be eligible for postseason play. Players only need to be in the organization to have eligibility. The Sox will technically need to petition to have Early added to their postseason roster as an injury replacement, but teams do that every year. Depending on May’s timetable, he could simply be added as a replacement for the same pitcher he’s replacing on the active roster today.
There was at least one scenario where the Red Sox wouldn’t have had Early as an option to call up. When speaking with the Diamondbacks about Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen prior to the trade deadline, Early was of interest to Arizona’s front office, Alex Speier and Tim Healey of the Boston Globe report. The Sox were willing to discuss lefty Brandon Clarke but deemed Early too steep a price to pay in those talks, per the Globe duo. Kelly went to the Rangers for a package of three pitching prospects. Gallen stayed in Arizona and will likely receive a qualifying offer.
As for May, it’s not yet clear exactly what type of injury he’s facing. Boston acquired him from the Dodgers at the trade deadline, sending 2024 first-round pick James Tibbs III (whom they’d acquired from the Giants for Rafael Devers) back to Los Angeles in return.
That trade hasn’t gone at all as the Red Sox hoped. May has made six appearances, five of them starts, and pitched to an ugly 5.40 ERA with a lower strikeout rate (19.5%) and higher walk rate (9.8%) than he’d logged in what was already a shaky season with Los Angeles (4.85 ERA). He’s a free agent at season’s end and doesn’t necessarily have a spot on the postseason roster set in stone, so if May needs even three weeks on the injured list, it’s at least feasible that his Red Sox tenure is effectively over. Certainly, both he and the organization will hope he can get back in minimal time and pitch his way into postseason consideration, but time will tell whether that’s plausible.