The Angels selected the contract of 36-year-old Junior Guerra today, the team announced. By adding him to their 40-man roster, their roster is now full. This likely means that Guerra will make the opening day roster.
Manager Joe Maddon has a reputation for his outside-the-box thinking, but he can be fairly traditional in the way he leans on veteran contributors out of the bullpen. He knows Guerra well, having both made the NL Central home from 2016 to 2019. Guerra spent those seasons with the Brewers, for whom he moved back and forth from the rotation to the pen before finally becoming a full-time pen arm in 2019. He made 25 appearances covering 23 2/3 innings for the Diamondbacks last year with a 3.04 ERA/4.12 FIP and better-than-usual 50.8 percent groundball rate. Some of the underlying metrics don’t love Guerra’s work, as he finished with a below-average 20.4 percent strikeout rate and well-below-average 14.6 percent walk rate.
The Angels also optioned outfielder Brandon Marsh to the minors. The 23-year-old is a promising outfield prospect, but he has yet to play above Double-A, and he has dealt with a minor arm injury this spring. Furthermore, the Angels don’t have a ton of room to spare in the outfield with veterans Mike Trout, Justin Upton, and Dexter Fowler populating the roster and top prospect Jo Adell knocking on the door. Juan Lagares also remains in contention for a roster spot, while Jared Walsh or David Fletcher could see time in the outfield if need be.
Marsh will be a good one.
“The Angels also optioned outfielder Brandon Marsh to the minors. By doing so today, they do not have to burn one of Marsh’s option years.”
How does that work?
I’m assuming because Marsh has never been on the 40-man and that “optioned” in this instance means “reassigned.”
Not sure though.
No, Marsh is on the Angels’ 40-man roster.
Whelp, then I have no idea.
Here’s my guess: because Marsh needed Rule 5 protection this offseason, Rule 6 now applies to him. Which states that those players can’t be optioned to the minors any earlier than 20 days prior to Opening Day, and injured players can only be optioned in the 20-15 day window. Today is the last day of that window, so if Marsh suffered an injury in ST they’d have to burn an option year to send him down?
That’s all I got. Hopefully one of the MLBTR writers can clarify this.
pretty sure you are right.
That makes sense. Thanks!
Steve just answered my question in today’s chat and said it might just be an error in the article. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This is oversimplified, but as I understand it… when a player who has plays at the major league level gets sent down to the minors, it’s called being “optioned” to the minors leagues. You can only “option” a player so many times (I believe it is five). After that, they can be claimed by another team. However, if a player is sent to the minors during spring training, it does not count as his being optioned. But – that has to be done by a certain day, or it counts as an option.
Would like to see Marsh later in the season.. Guerra has some decent numbers, could be useful.
Jo Adell is still considered a prospect !! lol from Angels fans
He is almost 22? As some have noted, obviously, if you don’t make it by 22, you’re a bust.
Adell has a 500 OBP this spring with a 1.250 OPS+. Just saying.
Fowler OPS is less than half of that. It’s less than 600.
I think Adell will be the Angels RF by the beginning of Summer.
I hope you’re right about Adell, but I have doubts. Whether his major league meltdown last year was due to the pressure of high expectations or if he’s just not as good as advertised will have to be determined. It’s not uncommon to see highly hyped rookies struggle at the plate… but on defense he looked closer to Jose Canseco than Mike Trout… and that’s concerning.
Concerned about his defense as well. But he’ll be a better defender than Bo Jackson. Which is a very low bar. I watched every one of his ABs. He didn’t chase. He’s working on a new swing and I’m as concerned as most people are. He didn’t look overmatched. He look like a guy who couldn’t get his barrel to the where he thought the ball was. Which makes sense if he was working on a new swing.
Can the Halos go two for two on Orioles pitching reclamation projects? The Angels have had some mighty swings and misses in scrap-heap pitchers,,, but Bundy has worked out nivcely, and Cobb has been looking strong in spring training. Maybe their numbers in Baltmore have more to do with something going on in Baltimore than anything else.
I was thinking about how soon we fans throw these kids as busts or stars way to soon. I mean Adell is the same age or younger than pretty much the entire 2020 draft class that went to college. At the same time I’ve seen where people have called Casey Mize a bust already. He might very well be but he had 1 full minor league season then no milb season last year. Did he look overmatched, yeah. But I’d rather see him get a start on his career at the MLB level than stay at the team camp all season.
Not every kid makes it to the Majors like Acuna & Soto. These kids sign at 16 yrs old but have been developing for several yrs in their country. While here in the states our youngest get drafted after high school w the rare exception (Bryce Harper).
There are some clowns on this board who have called Ohtani a bust.
I haven’t read anyone call Casey Mize a bust yet. However, I myself think people are expecting too much from him. In truth, he may be at his greatest value before he plays because of those lofty expectations.
Neither move is a surprise. The Angels have a bunch of starters who don’t go deep into games. Long relief will be very key this season. Pena going down yesterday (hopefully not for long) hurt that depth.
A huge key to the Angels bullpen and roster construction hinges on Barria having an option or not.
Neither is a surprise. Guerra was almost a lock.
Injuries and Options not withstanding And it’s been this way for a while.
Iglesias.
Mayers
Buttrey
Pena
Claudio
Barria
Guerra
and Rivera??????
Rivera is the Angels 11th or 12th best prospect, and I wouldn’t trade him one-for-one for at least half these guys.
The Angels need a decision on Barria.
That decision on Barria is huge.
Bundy, Heaney, Canning, Quintana, Cobb is 5
Ohtani as a 2 way is 6
Starting 8 in the line up gets us to 14
Suzuki, Pujols, utility infielder, 4th outfielder is 18. And that’s a very slim bench, so probably one more guy like Ward makes the cut to get to 19.
That leaves 7 bullpen spots. Will one be Barria or will he be depth? Or do we go with a slim bench and carry Barria as part of an 8 man bullpen?
JJ you are 100 percent right. It’s incredibly huge. The last couple spots in a pen are usually used to exchange AAA pitchers. The Angels can’t do that. That extra spot is huge.
What’s Junior Guerra’s WHIP? It doesn’t say. Terrible stat analysis without it. Hahaha… I’ll never let these guys down for it….. Let’s all try and reinvent the perfectly good wheel here.
Guerra is a decent pitcher. The long ball was always his big flaw and he avoided them in 2020.
What happened to Thaisis?
The Angels are going all the way this year, right to third place! Thank you Arte!!!