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Ron Washington Taking Indefinite Break From Managing Angels Due To Health Concern

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Ron Washington will not manage the Angels for an indefinite period of time due to a health concern, reports Sam Blum of The Athletic. He will attend tonight’s game against the Astros and will watch from the suite. Bench coach Ray Montgomery will manage for however long Washington is unavailable.

Shortly before reporting the news on Washington, Blum noted that the Angels were holding a players-only meeting. GM Perry Minasian is expected to address the media shortly. Mike DiGiovanna relayed a comment from Minasian that Washington has not felt well for the past few days.

Washington, 73, is in his second season leading the Halos. They lost a franchise-record 99 games a year ago but have been far more competitive this season. They’re taking a 36-38 record into this weekend’s set against Houston. They’re in third place in the AL West, 6.5 games back of the Astros. They’re only two games out in what remains a jumbled Wild Card picture. Their -60 run differential is fourth-worst in the American League, but only the White Sox and A’s seem firmly out of the race in the AL.

Montgomery has been the Halos’ bench coach since 2022. He has held the position under each of Joe Maddon, Phil Nevin and Washington. Montgomery spent some time as acting manager during the ’22 campaign when Nevin was suspended for 10 games for his role in a benches-clearing brawl against the Mariners. The 55-year-old has never held a full managerial position but has been mentioned as a candidate in the past — including during the 2023 hiring process that eventually led to Washington. MLBTR sends best wishes to Wash on a speedy recovery.

Angels Re-Sign Shaun Anderson To Minor League Contract

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The Angels brought back righty Shaun Anderson on another minor league contract, as reflected on the MiLB.com transaction log. The tracker also indicates that the Halos released Buck Farmer and Andrew Vasquez from their minor league deals. Anderson will head to Triple-A Salt Lake.

Anderson has signed three separate minor league deals with the Halos this year. They’ve called him up twice but needed to designate him for assignment to take him off the active roster, as he’s out of options. Anderson elected free agency both times and has returned to the organization on new minor league pacts.

Around the transactions, the 30-year-old Anderson has made six big league relief appearances. He has surrendered nine runs on 16 hits (including a trio of homers) in 10 2/3 innings. He’s been pitching out of the rotation in Salt Lake, allowing 5.74 earned runs per nine through 42 1/3 innings. Anderson has an ERA just under 4.00 in seven Triple-A campaigns but has allowed a 6.20 ERA through 162 2/3 MLB frames.

Farmer and Vasquez each signed with the Angels last month. Farmer allowed 12 earned runs in as many innings for the Bees. Vasquez allowed nine earned across 13 frames with 10 strikeouts and five walks. Neither pitcher has logged any MLB action this year.

Shaun Anderson Elects Free Agency

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TODAY: Anderson cleared waivers and elected free agency over an outright assignment to Triple-A, the Angels announced.

JUNE 13: The Angels announced today that they have selected the contract of infield prospect Christian Moore and recalled right-hander Sam Bachman. In corresponding moves, outfielder Matthew Lugo has been optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake and righty Shaun Anderson has been designated for assignment. MLBTR covered the Moore/Lugo swap yesterday. Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reported today’s full slate of moves prior to the official club announcement.

Anderson, 30, has been on and off the Angels’ roster this year. He signed a minor league deal in the offseason and was called up in early May. He was designated for assignment later that month, cleared waivers, elected free agency, re-signed with the club and was added back to the roster a few days ago. Around those transactions, he has logged 10 2/3 innings over six appearances. He allowed nine earned runs on 16 hits, giving out three walks while striking out ten opponents.

Broadly speaking, Anderson has usually been able to put up decent Triple-A numbers that haven’t translated to the big leagues. He made his major league debut in 2019 and now has 162 2/3 innings under his belt with a 6.20 earned run average. In that same time frame, he has a 3.93 ERA in 307 Triple-A frames. He also spent a season in Korea and put up a 3.76 ERA there.

Since he’s out of options, he can’t be easily sent back down to the minors. The last time he lost his roster spot with the Halos, he cleared waivers and circled back to them, so it’s possible that same sequence will play out in the coming days.

Photo courtesy of Cary Edmondson, Imagn Images

Angels Return Rule 5 Pick Garrett McDaniels To Dodgers

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The Angels announced that left-hander Garrett McDaniels has been returned to the Dodgers, as per his status as a Rule 5 Draft pick.  McDaniels was designated for assignment earlier this week, and since he went unclaimed on waivers, the Angels were required to offer him back to the Dodgers for $50K (teams that select players away in the R5 give a $100K fee to the club losing the player).

Rule 5 picks must spend an entire season on their new team’s active roster before the new team can fully obtain their rights, and McDaniels’ stint in Anaheim ended after 10 relief appearances and an IL stint for biceps tendinitis that lasted over a month.  McDaniels posted a 5.91 ERA over his first 10 2/3 career innings as a big leaguer, as he had never pitched above the Double-A level before making his MLB debut this season.  In fact, even McDaniels’ Double-A resume consisted of only two appearances and three innings with the Dodgers’ Tulsa affiliate in 2024.

A 30th-round pick for the Marlins in the 2018 draft, McDaniels chose to attend Coastal Carolina instead of starting his pro career out of high school, and a subsequent Tommy John surgery limited his college ball experience.  He went undrafted entirely and didn’t join the Dodgers until May 2022, but then made a relatively quick climb up their minor league ladder.  McDaniels has a 3.43 ERA in 99 2/3 career minor league innings, and he recorded a good number of strikeouts while working mostly as a reliever, though he made a handful of starts in A-ball.

This was enough to get the Angels’ attention in the Rule 5 Draft, but McDaniels didn’t quite seem ready for the majors.  He’ll now return to the Dodgers’ farm system to continue his development, and another trip back to the big leagues might not be out of the question in 2025 given how the injury-plagued Dodgers are constantly churning through arms.

Pirates Claim Michael Darrell-Hicks

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TODAY: After a consultation with Dr. Neal ElAttrache, Rodriguez will get a PRP injection next week and then be shut down for the next four weeks, Pirates manager Don Kelly told reporters (including MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf).

JUNE 13: The Pirates announced that they have claimed right-hander Michael Darrell-Hicks off waivers from the Angels and optioned him to Triple-A Indianapolis. He had been designated for assignment by the Halos a few days ago. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, catcher Endy Rodríguez has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Darrell-Hicks, 27, was an undrafted free agent signing from 2022. The Angels moved him from a starting role to the bullpen going into the 2024 season. He logged 62 1/3 innings combined between Double-A and Triple-A last year, allowing 2.60 earned runs per nine. He struck out 26.4% of batters faced, limited walks to a 5% clip and got grounders on 48.8% of balls in play. FanGraphs ranked him as the #21 prospect in the system going into this year.

The Angels added him to their roster in early April and he has been shuttled between Triple-A and the majors since then. In his 7 2/3 big league innings, he has allowed eight earned runs while striking out six and giving out four walks. In his 22 1/3 Triple-A innings, he has an 8.87 ERA but a lot of that is likely luck, as his .386 batting average on balls in play and 59.5% strand rate are both on the unfortunate side. His 21.3% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate and 46.7% ground ball rate are all decent numbers.

He still has a full slate of options and just a handful of service days, so he can potentially be a long-term depth arm for the Pirates if he continues to hang onto his 40-man roster spot. For now, he’ll head to Indianapolis and await his next big league opportunity.

As for Rodríguez, his status isn’t clear but the transfer to the 60-day IL is a bit ominous. He was only placed on the 10-day IL a few days ago due to right elbow inflammation. Based on today’s move, the Bucs don’t expect him back until August at the earliest. He missed the entire 2024 season due to UCL surgery on that elbow.

More information should be forthcoming on his status in the coming days or weeks. For the time being, he won’t factor into the club’s catching mix. Henry Davis and Brett Sullivan are the active backstops. Joey Bart is on the concussion-related IL but should be back in the mix soon since he has already begun a rehab assignment.

Photo courtesy of Raymond Carlin III, Imagn Images

Angels To Promote Christian Moore

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The Angels are calling up second base prospect Christian Moore, as first reported by @kat_wrld and confirmed by multiple outlets. The Halos optioned rookie outfielder Matthew Lugo during today’s off day, according to the MLB.com transaction log. They will need to make a 40-man roster move tomorrow.

This kind of aggressive promotion for top prospects is par for the course for the Angels. They skew extremely towards the college side in the draft and push their most talented minor leaguers as quickly as any organization. Each of the Halos’ past three first-round picks (Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel and Moore) were college hitters who were in the majors within the opening half of their first full professional season. Neto was drafted in 2022 and promoted the following April. Schanuel went from Florida Atlantic to the big leagues within two months during the ’23 season.

While Moore took the longest of the three, he’s now slated for his MLB debut around 11 months after being selected. A Tennessee product, he impressed amateur scouts by hitting .375 with 34 homers during his junior season with the Vols. Evaluators have had concerns about his defense, but he has a chance to provide rare power from an up-the-middle position.

The Halos almost immediately pushed Moore to Double-A, where he hit .322 with five homers in 23 games during his draft year. That established him as the top offensive player in a weak Halos farm system. He ranked among the sport’s top 100 talents over the winter at each of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline and ESPN.

Moore returned to Double-A to open this season. He got out to a rough start in a pitcher-friendly environment. The righty hitter only managed one homer while striking out at a 27.4% clip through 146 plate appearances. The Angels nevertheless moved him to Triple-A Salt Lake on May 13. Moore has thrived in the much more favorable Pacific Coast League, collecting four homers while hitting .350 in 20 games. He has posted consecutive multi-hit games with a home run in each of his two most recent outings.

It’s a tiny sample, but it was enough to convince the ever-aggressive Halos front office to bring him up. There’s a relatively low bar to clear to upgrade the second base position. Chris Taylor went on the injured list on Tuesday with a broken left hand. Luis Rengifo has mostly been filling in at third base for the injured Yoán Moncada. The Halos have given Scott Kingery three of the past four starts at second base. He has had a monster season in Salt Lake but has played seven MLB games since the start of the 2022 campaign.

The Angels have hung around .500 through the season’s first few months. They’ve been outscored by 50 runs, but they’re coming off a sweep of the A’s that pulled them back into second place in the AL West. They’ll hope for Moore to provide an offensive spark. He joins Jac Caglianone, Nick Kurtz and Cam Smith as members of last year’s first round to reach the big leagues. He’s the second member of the Halos’ 2024 class to get there. Second-rounder Ryan Johnson broke camp in the bullpen before being optioned to High-A last month.

Moore meets the eligibility for the Prospect Promotion Incentive. He’d earn a full year of service time if he manages a long shot top two finish in Rookie of the Year balloting. (The Angels would not receive a pick in that scenario.) Moore would otherwise remain under club control for at least a full six seasons after this one. That timeline could be delayed if he requires any more time in the minors after his first look at MLB pitching.

Image courtesy of Imagn Images.

Angels Sign Chad Wallach To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have signed catcher Chad Wallach to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had previously been with the Rangers on a minor league deal but was released a few days ago.

Wallach, 33, is a known commodity for the Halos. He got into 77 games for them over the 2022 and 2023 seasons. He also spent last year at Triple-A Salt Lake on a minor league deal but didn’t get called up.

He pivoted over to the Rangers at the start of this year and got into 28 games for Triple-A Round Rock. He struck out 27.2% of the time but also walked at a strong 11.4% clip and hit four home runs. That added up to a .245/.333/.408 line and 89 wRC+.

Wallach faced a steep path to playing time in Texas, where Jonah Heim and Kyle Higashioka are the primary catching duo. Even when Higashioka went on the injured list earlier this year, it was Tucker Barnhart who got the call to cover for him. Higashioka subsequently returned from the IL and Barnhart was bumped off the roster but quickly re-signed on a new minor league deal.

The Angels have Logan O’Hoppe and Travis d’Arnaud at the big league level. For much of the season, they had Chuckie Robinson at Salt Lake on an optional assignment, but he was lost to the Dodgers via waivers a couple of weeks ago. Though Wallach is not on the roster, he essentially replaces Robinson as the top option to get called up if either O’Hoppe or d’Arnaud suffers an injury.

Including his time with the Angels, Wallach has also suited up for the Reds and Marlins. He has 155 big league games under his belt over seven separate seasons. He has a .198/.263/.328 batting line but solid defensive grades.

Image courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

Angels Select Shaun Anderson, Designate Garrett McDaniels For Assignment

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The Angels announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Shaun Anderson.  Fellow righty José Fermín has been optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake as the corresponding active roster move.  To open a 40-man spot, left-hander Garrett McDaniels has been reinstated from the injured list and designated for assignment.

Anderson has a 6.30 ERA over 10 relief innings for the Halos this season, with most of that damage caused by three home runs allowed during that small sample of work. Los Angeles signed Anderson to a minors contract in February and selected him to the active roster for the first time a month ago, but designated the righty for assignment in the wake of his struggles.

The home run ball has long been an issue for Anderson, who has a 6.11 career ERA in the majors over 162 innings with eight different teams. Despite his lack of production at the big league level, Anderson has consistently kept drawing interest due to his ability to work as a swingman, though he hasn’t gotten much consistent work as a starter since the 2019 season when he pitched for the Giants. There is also a bit of a “quad-A” air to the righty’s career, as Anderson has pitched decently well at the Triple-A level and during a brief stint overseas in the KBO League in 2023.

Anderson will now get a chance to cover some innings and see if he can stick in the L.A. bullpen, with McDaniels the odd man out on the 40-man roster.  McDaniels was a Rule 5 Draft pick out of the Dodgers organization back in December, and his debut season in the majors saw the southpaw post a 5.91 ERA over 10 2/3 relief innings, with more walks allowed (eight) than strikeouts (six).  In fairness to McDaniels, he had only two games of Double-A experience on his resume before being exposed to MLB hitters this season, and he didn’t make his Triple-A debut until this year, while rehabbing from biceps tendinitis.

McDaniels’ Rule 5 status would carry over if another team acquired him via claim or trade during the DFA period, so this new club would also have to carry McDaniels on its active roster for the entire roster in order to fully obtain his rights.  If McDaniels clears waivers, the Angels would have to offer him back to the Dodgers for $50K (i.e. half of the original $100K fee the Angels paid the Dodgers for making the Rule 5 selection).

Angels Acquire LaMonte Wade Jr.

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The Angels and Giants swung a trade this evening, as San Francisco sent first baseman and outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. to Anaheim in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. The Giants are sending cash to Anaheim as part of the deal alongside Wade. The Angels designated right-hander Michael Darrell-Hicks for assignment to make room for Wade on the 40-man roster.

Wade, 31, was designated for assignment by San Francisco last week. A ninth-round pick by Minnesota back in 2015, he appeared in 42 games for the Twins across the 2019 and 2020 seasons before being dealt to the Giants prior to the 2021 campaign. Wade immediately became a fixture of the Giants lineup, slashing .253/.326/.482 in 109 games for San Francisco in his first year with the club. Injuries limited him to just 77 games in 2022, but he bounced back in 2023 and ’24 to slash a combined .258/.376/.401 (120 wRC+) in 252 games for the Giants where he primarily played first base but also got occasional looks in the outfield corners and at DH.

In his final year ahead of free agency, Wade seemed likely to once again serve as a solid left-handed bat for the Giants who could be trusted to hold things down at first base while the club waited for the arrival of top prospect Bryce Eldridge. Unfortunately, that’s not how things played out. Wade failed to hit much at all in 50 games for the Giants this season, posting a putrid .167/.275/.271 slash line (59 wRC+). At least some of those struggles can be attributed to poor fortune on batted balls, as Wade’s .211 BABIP is down nearly 90 points relatively to what it had been during his previous four seasons with the Giants. With that being said, Wade was hitting for less power than ever before in his career, and even his .287 xwOBA was well below average. With San Francisco in the thick of the Wild Card race this year, they couldn’t justify continuing to wait around for Wade to get right and pulled the plug on him last week in order to bring veteran first baseman Dominic Smith into the fold.

For the Angels, the addition of Wade is an interesting one. The club already has a left-handed first baseman entrenched in an everyday job with Nolan Schanuel, who has done quite well for himself with a 119 wRC+ in his age-23 season so far. Notably, Anaheim’s announcement of the move referred to Wade as an outfielder, hinting that he might primarily find use in the corner outfield mix for the Halos going forward. That would be a sensible use for the veteran, given that the club’s current outfield group of Jorge Soler, Taylor Ward, Jo Adell, and Mike Trout hit exclusively from the right side. Wade could serve as a lefty complement to Ward in left field and Soler at DH once Trout resumes playing right field on a regular basis. In the short term, Wade can also provide the Angels with some additional coverage in the outfield in the event that Soler needs to head to the injured list due to a nagging groin issue he’s been struggling with in recent days.

Wade has always been best suited for a platoon role, as he’s a career .193/.288/.250 hitter against fellow lefties and has not collected a hit against a left-handed pitcher this year. Even the club’s depth and bench outfield options like Chris Taylor, Matthew Lugo, and Scott Kingery bat right-handed, which should give Wade a niche on the club’s roster. That should be a fairly safe environment for Wade to try and bounce back, as he can be more or less completely platoon protected. It remains to be seen if Wade can resume generating enough power to get his production anywhere close to the 115 wRC+ he posted with the Giants from 2021-24, but one encouraging sign is that his strikeout (20.9%) and walk (12.7%) rates from that timeframe are almost identical to his 20.7% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate this year.

That suggests that his skills haven’t regressed at least from a discipline perspective, and even if his power doesn’t bounce back it’s not impossible to imagine Wade being a roughly league average bat against righties going forward. That’s enough to make him a useful bench piece for a team with a heavily right-handed lineup like Anaheim, and they clearly though bringing him into the fold was worth absorbing at least a portion of $5MM salary Wade is making this year. It’s not yet clear exactly how much cash the Giants sent to Anaheim to offset that financial blow, but shedding even a portion of the first baseman’s salary is a win for San Francisco given that Wade would’ve been able to elect free agency and leave them on the hook for the full deal had he cleared waivers.

Departing the Angels’ roster to make room for Wade is Darrell-Hicks. The 27-year-old made his big league debut with Anaheim earlier this year and made six appearances, where he surrendered eight runs on ten hits while walking four and striking out six in 7 2/3 innings of work. That lackluster performance is fairly representative of his work at Triple-A Salt Lake this year as well, where he has an 8.87 ERA in 22 1/3 frames. That said, he’s just one season removed from posting a dominant season split between Double- and Triple-A, with a 2.60 ERA in 62 1/3 innings of work across 40 appearances. The Angels will have one week to either work out a trade involving Darrell-Hicks or else place him on waivers. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, Anaheim will have the option to outright him to the minor leagues as non-roster depth for the remainder of the year.

Angels Sign Ben Gamel To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have signed outfielder Ben Gamel to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Gamel’s MLB.com profile page. Gamel was subsequently assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake. Gamel had previously been at Triple-A with the Tigers on a minor league deal, but last appeared in a game with the club back in April and was granted his release by the organization late last month.

Gamel, 33, is a veteran of nine MLB seasons who has yet to appear in the majors in 2025. He made his big league debut with the Yankees all the way back in 2016, though he was almost immediately traded to the Mariners. He didn’t hit much that first year across 33 games, but he fashioned himself into a roughly average regular for Seattle over the next two years. Gamel hit .274/.335/.398 (102 wRC+) during that time but departed for the Brewers in the deal that sent Domingo Santana to Seattle. His two years in Milwaukee did not go over nearly as well, however, as he was a below average hitter overall and ended up non-tendered by the club during the 2020-21 offseason.

The outfielder has become something of a journeyman in the years since then, bouncing around the league and appearing for five teams in the past four years. With 281 games in the majors under his belt split between Cleveland, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Queens, and Houston since the start of the 2021 campaign, Gamel has hit a roughly league average .239/.338/.372 (98 wRC+) while primarily playing the outfield corners but making occasional appearances in center field and at first base. His most successful stop during that stretch was with the Astros last year, for whom he posted a 117 wRC+ in 20 games down the stretch before suffering a fibula fracture that sidelined him in mid September. Despite that injury cutting Gamel’s time with the club short, the Astros re-signed him to a big league deal during Spring Training but ultimately cut him loose when they opted to put top prospect Cam Smith on the Opening Day roster as their regular right fielder.

Gamel signed his aforementioned minor league deal with Detroit shortly thereafter, but went on the injured list after just 17 games and was later released. Now that he’s signed with the Angels, it seems likely the Gamel will return to minor league games in the near future as he looks to earn an opportunity in Anaheim’s outfield mix. A heavily right-handed outfield should work in Gamel’s favor in terms of earning a big league opportunity, although the Angels swinging a trade for LaMonte Wade Jr. earlier today might complicate his fit on the big league roster somewhat. Even so, Gamel has been a consistent, roughly league average performer in the majors for nearly a decade now and seems likely to fight his way back to the majors in some capacity before the season is up, so long as he’s healthy and able to resume playing.

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