Angels Recall Walbert Ureña, Option Sam Aldegheri
The Angels have announced that they’ve recalled right-hander Walbert Ureña from Triple-A. Lefty Sam Aldegheri is being optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move.
Ureña returns to the big leagues after making two appearances during the club’s season-opening series against the Astros. That was the 22-year-old’s first big-league experience. Though he didn’t allow an earned run in 1 2/3 innings, he surrendered five hits and six unearned runs while also giving up three unintentional walks. He was optioned to Triple-A on March 29 and has since made two starts with a 6.48 ERA. He spent most of 2025 at the Double-A level, where he posted a 4.39 ERA in 27 starts along with an impressive 58.5% groundball rate.
The right-hander was signed as an amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2021. He currently ranks as the Halos’ No. 18 prospect according to MLB.com, although his inconsistent command has kept him from becoming a top prospect. Ureña has posted walk rates around 12% in the upper levels of the minors. While his scouting report lauds him for his plus fastball, his secondary pitches haven’t developed to the point where a long-term future as a starter seems possible. Still, he is very young and just debuted this year, so he has plenty of time to prove himself. Whatever his long-term role, Ureña’s success hinges on his ability to keep racking up groundballs while improving his secondary pitches enough to achieve an average strikeout rate.
Aldegheri’s demotion comes after just one appearance for the big-league club this season. He threw 33 pitches in Thursday’s win over the Yankees, striking out two while allowing one run on a solo homer. Since debuting in 2024, the 24-year-old has made a total of eight appearances (five starts) without much success. His 16.2% career strikeout rate puts him right around Ureña’s minor-league numbers, while his 14.2% walk rate is untenable against big-league hitters. Aldegheri had a 3.72 ERA in 23 starts at Double-A last year, but he hasn’t been able to put it together yet at Triple-A or in the majors.
Despite their struggles, both Ureña and Aldegheri should get their share of opportunities with the big-league club this year. The Angels’ bullpen ranks as a bottom-10 unit in the league by fWAR (-0.1) through April 17. The group’s 4.46 ERA ranks 18th in the league, and their 4.72 FIP suggests they’ve been somewhat lucky to achieve that performance. Brent Suter and Sam Bachman have done well, and Ryan Zeferjahn has made up for a subpar 4.82 ERA with stronger peripherals, including a 32.5% strikeout rate. The rest of the arms, including veterans Shaun Anderson and Drew Pomeranz, have struggled. Despite their 11-10 start, the Angels are still in a place where they will prioritize opportunities for young players over immediate contention.
Photo courtesy of Thomas Shea, Imagn Images
Grayson Rodriguez To Begin Season On Injured List
TODAY: Suzuki told reporters (including Jack Janes) today that Rodriguez will indeed be placed on the IL. This sets Kochanowicz and Johnson up as rotation members, and Walbert Urena will also make the team in a long relief role. The 22-year-old Urena will be making his big league debut whenever he makes his first appearance for the Halos.
MARCH 19: Angels right-hander Grayson Rodriguez may begin the season on the injured list. Manager Kurt Suzuki told reporters, including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register and Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com, that Rodriguez has a “dead arm” and will be slowed down. With Opening Day now just a week away, that makes it possible Rodriguez starts the season on the 15-day injured list, depending on how things progress in the coming days.
At this point, it doesn’t appear to be a major issue. Rodriguez isn’t even being shut down, with Fletcher noting that he still threw today, but it’s concerning nonetheless. Injuries have been in the spotlight for Rodriguez in recent years. He made 43 starts for the Orioles in 2023 and the first half of the 2024 season. He hasn’t made an official start since July of 2024, primarily due to shoulder issues.
He underwent elbow debridement surgery in August of last year. He was flipped to the Angels early this offseason in a one-for-one-trade for outfielder Taylor Ward. After that deal, Rodriguez spoke about his health and seemed optimistic. He said that he had been dealing with bone spurs in his elbow for three or four years. He believed this was adding stress to his shoulder and causing his numerous problems with that part of his arm.
For Rodriguez to now be dealing with arm problems once again is less than ideal. Perhaps it will remain a fairly minor issue but the Angels don’t have a lot of margin for error. They came into camp with a rotation projected to include José Soriano, Yusei Kikuchi, Reid Detmers, Alek Manoah and Rodriguez. Soriano and Kikuchi are fine but the group is fairly questionable after that.
Detmers had a 3.96 ERA in relief last year but a 6.70 ERA as a starter the year prior. He has a 7.27 ERA in spring training so far. Like Rodriguez, Manoah is looking to bounce back after a lengthy injury absence, but he has a 9.39 ERA this spring.
If Manoah gets optioned or Rodriguez needs to spend some time on the IL, that could open a spot for Jack Kochanowicz. He’s having a good spring but posted a 6.81 ERA in the big leagues last year. Fletcher suggested yesterday that Ryan Johnson has a chance to earn a spot, getting an aggressive Opening Day nod yet again. The Angels gave him a spot in their bullpen to begin last season even though he hadn’t yet played a game as a professional. He posted a 7.36 ERA through early May, at which point he was optioned down to High-A.
It’s worth reiterating that there’s still nothing to indicate Rodriguez is dealing with any kind of major issue. He may still avoid the IL if he feels better in the coming days. Even if he lands on the shelf, Opening Day IL stints can be backdated three days, so he could be back in less than two weeks.
But the Angels are going into a season where they hope to contend but need a lot of things to go right in order to that to be possible. They went 72-90 last year and didn’t make strong moves to upgrade the roster this winter. The Playoff Odds at FanGraphs give them just a 4.9% chance of cracking the postseason. The PECOTA Standings at Baseball Prospectus are even more pessimistic, giving the Halos just a 0.1% chance.
A minor setback for a club’s fourth starter wouldn’t always be a cause for worry but it looms larger for the Angels than with other clubs since any setback can further diminish already-slim those odds.
Photo courtesy of Allan Henry, Imagn Images
Angels Select Walbert Ureña
The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Walbert Ureña. He’s now on the 40-man roster and ineligible to be selected by another club in next month’s Rule 5 Draft. His addition bumps the Angels’ 40-man roster count up to 35 players.
Ureña, 21, signed as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic back in 2021 and just split the 2025 season between Anaheim’s Double-A (135 1/3 innings) and Triple-A (5 2/3 innings) affiliates. He pitched to a combined 4.34 ERA in his 141 innings, fanning 20.7% of his opponents against a 12.1% walk rate. He sits mid-90s with a hard sinker that can climb as high as 100 mph. That power offering helped him post a superlative 57.6% ground-ball rate in the minors this year.
As things stand, this is the Angels’ lone 40-man addition of the day. Nothing is stopping them from making further moves to protect additional players, but the bulk of the top-ranked prospects in their thin farm system are either already on the 40-man roster or aren’t eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 Draft until 2026 or 2027. Righties Joel Hurtado and Samy Natera Jr. are notable exceptions, though both are coming off so-so seasons in the minors; Hurtado posted a bleak 15.5% strikeout rate as a 24-year-old in Double-A, while Natera walked 17% of his opponents out of the bullpen between Double-A and Triple-A.