The Angels have designated Jake Lamb for assignment, per a team announcement. The move creates a 40-man roster spot for Victor Mederos, who has officially been selected onto the roster. The Halos also reinstated Anthony Rendon from the 10-day injured list and optioned Andrew Velazquez and Andrew Wantz to Triple-A Salt Lake.
Lamb broke camp after an offseason minor league deal. He didn’t hit well in a limited look, putting up a .216/.259/.353 line over 54 trips to the plate. In mid-May, the Halos optioned him to Salt Lake. As a player with five-plus years of MLB service, Lamb would’ve ordinarily had the right to refuse any minor league assignment. However, his contract reportedly contained a 45-day window in which the Angels could send him down.
The left-handed hitter has spent the past month and a half in Triple-A. He raked at a .317/.453/.492 clip, connecting on five homers and drawing walks in 17.3% of his 150 plate appearances. Even with infield injuries mounting at the MLB level, the Angels decided not to give him another look. They’ll now take him off the roster entirely, likely ending his time in the organization.
Los Angeles has a week to trade the 10-year MLB veteran or place him on waivers. Should he go unclaimed on waivers, he’d have the right to test free agency while retaining the entirety of this year’s salary.
Rendon draws back into the lineup two weeks after bruising his left wrist. He’ll return to the hot corner, hitting cleanup against Arizona left-hander Tommy Henry. With Velazquez going back to the minors, the Angels have an MLB infield of Rendon, Eduardo Escobar, David Fletcher, Mike Moustakas and Brandon Drury.
The Halos also announced that Kevin Padlo has accepted an assignment to Triple-A. The infielder was outrighted off the 40-man roster this afternoon.
Lamb has been within .2 WAR of replacement level since the beginning of the 2018 season. Amazing he’s hung around this long as your prototypical AAAA guy.
He’s barely played more than a full seasons worth of at bats in that time period.
Col: I can’t believe 7 teams have taken him on because he’s a HR hitter. He hit 29 and 30 HR’s in back-to-back seasons for the Dbacks, but hasn’t hit more than 7 in a season in his other 8 years in the majors.
He hasn’t hit that many homers because he hasn’t had much playing time. That’s the truth look it up.
And he hasn’t had much playing time because he hasn’t hit that many homers – nor singles, doubles, or triples. Look it up.
The chicken or the egg?
Rendon vs. Stanton as to who goes back on the IL first.
+/- by July 20th
Will the Muts be 4th or 5th in NL EAST? LMAO!
@aragon: Yes, they will.
I’ll take Rendon..
Rendon all day long
Welcome back, Rendon. Stay strong!
Over under on when Rendon has a stubbed toe or papercut that DL’s him for 4 weeks is 6 games… I pick the under.
That is funny. Lamb is gone. Just goes to show that the Angels put little to no stock in how a player hits in the PCL.
Haha or pitches in AA!
Lamb may not be gone. I’d wager he signs a minor league deal with the Angels and await the inevitable Rendon injury.
Does.this make him the sacrificial Lamb?
That is funny. Lamb is gone. Just goes to show that the Angels put little to no stock in how a player hits in SLC or the PCL.
Word on the street in Bridgeport is that he is headed back to Chicago on a minor league deal. You heard it here first !!
I don’t understand the platooning sometimes. Why isn’t Drury playing 2nd tonight? Or 1st. He’s one of the better hitters in the lineup. And if you have a problem with Moniak cause he’s a lefty Moostakus should be on the bench too. You can play Renfroe or Drury at first. It seems whenever Minasian picks up a player or calls up a player they HAVE to start that new week or two eventhough they could just be the backup.
Oh I see now he “tweaked” a shoulder. I can’t remember a team with so many guys who call off for “tweaking” stuff or “felt something” the game before or during warmup throws. Strange.
I agree, it’s the front office calling the shots. Maddon wasn’t making this up. This club hasn’t had a on field manager since Scioscia.
Yeah and I’m pretty sure Brian Downing and Grich played through some tweaks and strains
I’m pretty sure the club house was full of cocaine, amphetamines & other non prescription medications that helped them play through their tweaks and strains.
I’m pretty sure the advancement in sports medicine science, equipment, trainers more than make up for it. He can fricken afford a personal massuesue and trainer working on him around the clock on his own time if he wana.
Like it still isn’t? Even better stuff now a days.
Probably 3/4 of the people who post comments have no clue who those two players are !!
What Minasian doesn’t seem to undestand is starters and backups. especially infielders.
Moniak is hitting a solid .000 vs LHP. He will only start against RHP like he did tonight. Moustakas is at least hitting .250 off LHP.
Nevin said Drury is DTD in the post game. The team has 30% more throwing errors in games Drury played 1B than their season average. 2B is where he should be starting when healthy.
Renfroe played at 1B again tonight and didn’t look good. He was not in position and then couldn’t catch the offline throw from Rendon and a run scored. Rather see him playing RF.
Best case scenario is Walsh returning soon and hitting like he did before catching COVID.
Makes no sense to call guys up to sit on the bench. Get them into the game, see what they have, and let the coaching start asap. The coaches your team has in the majors are supposed to be the best in your system, so let them start working with the kids asap.
I hadn’t seen Moostakas play in a while but I barely recognized him. He’s put on a few from his prime years. And he struck out 3 times that night!
Another thing I don’t understand is Fletcher can play 2nd and Rengifo Short. Last year they made Fletcher primarily a 2nd baseman this year they play him primarily at short. So he’s used to 2nd, but this year they stick him at short only. Why not both!? I’ve never seen a team that says OK this year you’re at Short. Next year we’re gonna move you to a different position. And they do this w corner OF too so they disregard the experience from the year before!
Lamb and Jarrod Walsh are the same guy… No need to keep two left handed punch and Judy first basemen. Good luck in Korea Jake.
Raise your hand if you remembered Jake Lamb was on the roster.
He actually won a game for us this season against St Louis at their ballpark with a pinch hit home run. He didn’t get any credit for that.
That was huge.
He’s just slipped completely off the radar.
I read a California assembly speaker named Anthony Rendon stepped down , I thought hmmm someone should take a hint ?
It is said the Lamb will lay down with the lion. But the Lamb won’t get a lot of sleep…
Halos need to cut bait with Rendon
And Menassian and Nevin and Wise and Loup and 5 other nameless bullpen arms currently on the 26 man, and Anderson and Ward and Rengifo and Velasquez and… Well most of the organization is terrible. The fish stinks from the head down. Ohtani is just counting the days until he’s on a decent team with any shot at all of a WS.
Can they just cut bait with you? Winning teams don’t stink.
fwiw, Rengifo is also a part of the infield mix.
After Shohei, the 2nd most valuable player for the Angels is Zach Neto. The Halos need him back quickly out they will fall out of the race. Put him at leadoff and keep him their for the rest of the season.
*there
You seem to be forgetting Trout. Neto is very valuable, but not more so than Trout.
Lamb to the slaughter
The only thing consistent about the Angels is their inconsistency. We take three steps forward and then five steps back. We won 3 of 4 from the first place Rangers, then lose a series to KC and split with the W-Sox, two of the worst teams in baseball.
Through all the smoke and mirrors, we still need better pitching, both starter and bull pen. The staff as it stands will never pitch through the first round of the playoffs, if they even manage to make it there. I still predict a 78-84 record at season’s end.
I agree 100%. And this is the fault of ownership and the front office. This team has needed starting pitching for over a decade and instead they keep signing past their prime former sluggers, which all fail… I’ll spare you the long list of names you already know. Point being, they do not and have not valued pitching since Disney owned the team.
On pace for 88, so you are talking about a complete collapse in the 2nd half.
That’s a 10 game difference so not a complete collapse. We’ve already seen a mini collapse in the last 2 weeks. Serious teams will get better by August 1st. The Angels will add a washed up veteran pitcher who is hoping for a bounce back and say they are serious about winning. I hope my prediction is wrong but history supports me.
Correction – We lost the series to the Rockies, not KC.