Outfielder Juan Lagares has elected free agency after clearing waivers and being designated for assignment by the Angels last week, per the organization. With more than five years of service time under his belt the 33-year-old Lagares had the right to reject his outright assignment to the minors and head to the free agent market instead.
The Halos signed Lagares to a minor league pact in May, the second consecutive offseason deal Lagares agreed to with the team. In a brief taste of Triple-A at-bats this season the centerfielder hit .308/.379/.462, but since being called up in late May he has hit just .183/.210/.250 (31 OPS+) as part of a strong Angels outfield.
With souring (but still league average-ish) defensive metrics and speed, the former Met farmhand is best suited for fourth outfielder duty at this stage in his career. With center field playability on his side it seems likely another organization will take a flyer on Lagares as bench or upper minors depth in the coming days.
Yeah, good luck with that. Don’t hold any ill will toward him but he’s clearly not an MLB caliber player at this stage.
Good luck with that. The only team that would sign you is one going thru a heat wave, And they need those swing and misses from your bat to cool down the fans.
Time for the Mexican league, KBO or Japan
Can he even hit .250 in those leagues?
No he can’t. He is worthless to foreign leagues, especially at his age.
Edit. not like he should care. Hopefully this dude realized after a year or two into his Mets contract that it was the only deal he’d get and was smart with his money.
His ops this season in AAA was 840. I’m sure he could hack it in any league other than MLB.
I don’t follow a lot of minor league ball. Are the ballparks that much easier to hit or is there just a lot of garbage there because I see a lot of guys especially past their prime guys go and hit in the minors but can’t hit in majors
Seems that some guys whomever become major league talent sometimes somehow figure out AAA.
Many of the PCL parks are at pretty high altitude. The Angels AAA team is in Salt Lake City, for example.
Pitches break less and batted balls travel further and faster. The combination makes it a very hitter friendly league.
It made sense to release Justin Upton and play musical chairs in the OF with the wonderful talent pool that the Angels have at their disposal.
Regards, Nobody
You lost nothing when you said goodbye to Upton.
We had Tyler Wade in center field for a nationally televised game. Tyler Wade. This after having Jose Rojas in right on opening weekend.
Perry’s poor roster construction has played a big part in this season.
Upton should’ve been kept until Ward came back.
I mean, did you think Upton would be much better in CF?
Veteran leadership, a warm body who actually can play OF, and most importantly, $28 million is what was lost on the release of Upton.
If Ward was to get the starting job, which was clearly the case with Maddon (he loved Ward), then you have the battle for LF between Marsh and Adell. The loser of the battle goes back to AAA for more experience. You still need a 4th OF! And Tyler Wade, Jose Rojas, and Juan Lagarus are not close to Upton. And let’s not forget the injury woes we’ve had over the years (including Trout).
I don’t get the releases of Upton and Maddon…at all. The current circus is proof.
They didn’t lose 28 million by releasing Upton. That’s not remotely accurate. They lost nothing that couldn’t be replaced by another, well, replacement level player. And Upton is actually BELOW replacement level.
It’s almost as if the people who wanted Upton to stay never watched him play in an angels uniform. He was horrible and doing worse in Seattle. And he blames Seattle for not letting him warm up long enough in AAA. He’s horrible…and he has never been much better than mediocre his whole career.
The problem with your argument is that you’re saying it’s ok for the club to carry another guy (upton) with a wRC+ of under 50 and bad defense. What I don’t get is why is this so difficult to understand.
Your argument would make more sense if the Angels actually had a suitable replacement. Upton was healthy for once and was tearing it up in Spring Training. Either way, you’re paying the guy $28 million. I don’t understand how people are trying to argue that eating the $28M and playing a subpar guy like Juan Lagarus (and paying more money) is a good move for the club.
Upton in CF would have been worse than Lagares in CF. Upton is terrible. Move on.
They should’ve stuck w La Stella and could’ve gotten Joc P. MacKinnen, Harrison, Silseth, Wade, Duffy’ Adell, Lagares and all Triple A they shuffle in are pretty much Replacement Level baseline.
Good bye and good riddance. His defense was average and offense has been horrible. Next up to go should be Wade. Thaiss finally got called up because they had no choice. Now they just need to bring up Stefanic.