The Angels have signed catcher Caleb Hamilton to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com.
It’s a bit of an early birthday present for Hamilton, who will turn 29 on Monday. The backstop has 26 games of major league experience, 22 with the 2022 Twins and four more with the Red Sox last year. His 29 plate appearances resulted in five walks but also 19 strikeouts.
That’s a tiny sample and difficult to draw conclusions from, but it’s not terribly dissimilar from his minor league work. His 480 Triple-A plate appearances have featured 148 strikeouts, a 30.8% rate. But he’s also drawn 64 walks at that level, a 13.3% clip. He also hit 17 home runs in that time, leading to an uneven slash line of .199/.308/.369. Defensively, Baseball Prospectus has generally given him solid grades for his framing and blocking, both in the majors and minors.
He was outrighted by the Red Sox in July and was able to elect free agency at the end of the season. He’ll now join the Angels and jump onto their depth chart. The Halos only have two backstops on their 40-man roster at the moment in Logan O’Hoppe and Matt Thaiss. Francisco Mejía and Chad Wallach have signed minor league deals to give them some non-roster depth, with Hamilton now joining them.
Hamilton can also play a little bit the infield corners, which could appeal to the Angels. They have Nolan Schanuel set to be their first baseman even though he was just drafted last summer. At third, Anthony Rendon is going into his age-34 season and hasn’t played 60 games in a season since 2019. Players like Brandon Drury and Luis Rengifo give them some cover but there’s no harm in a little extra depth. If Hamilton is added to the roster at any point, he has a couple of options remaining.
A signing!
Cool that his sole career RBI thus far is a home run.
What Shenanigans are the Angels up to now?
Collecting more minor league catchers
Matt Thais trade in the works. Perhaps Taylor Ward included. I’m going to say for a lefty middle of the order bat.
Who?
What….???
Yeah, we’re all set for 2024.
More competition is always a good thing
I rather have them pick up Mondesí need some minor depth for a utility guy, atleast he can run.
And this guy is competition? Maybe if this was the Pony League.
someone’s grumpy today
Will Trout be our F/T DH?
Probably not, he’s still a good fielder most of his injuries have come from fouling balls off. I’m sure he will dh some, and he’s said several times that he wants to play center.
19 strikeouts in 29 at bats. Is that good?
Look at it this way. 19 of his 22 career outs have been whiffs, or 86.4%. I didn’t realize he was 0-for-5 with 5 strikeouts in ’23.
Caleb batted .185 in…COLLEGE. How he got drafted in the first place, let alone get promoted to the majors, is baffling to me.
But, good for him.
If this guy ever sees the major league field the season has gone horribly wrong.
The bees are going to have 6 first baseman’s and 4 catchers.
Now that’s what I call a shift!
I would have been more excited with a backstop duo of O’Hoppe and Quero for 2024. I think one of the problems with the Angels is they like a rookie and anoint them the starter for the next few years. And then they give up on drafting that position or just improving that position if possible through trade or free agency.
Quero needs to develop defensively, probably atleast a year away, he’s only 20. I would say perry is more balanced. It was the gms prior eppler just went for five tool outfielders, and dipoto went for 1st baseman/ catchers to convert.
Quero isn’t ready. But they shouldn’t have traded him. What a waste. And not just him– we must have traded at least 10 prospects if not more to add Grichuk, Cron, Moustakis, Lopez, Giolito, Escobar and whoever else I can’t remember. This is the only team I’ve ever seen trade everyone away and then release everyone they just traded for a few weeks later- and got nothing in return. This is moronic. And how many of these guys are people lining up to sign?
Everyone else wasn’t major prospects just the white Sox trade, but my guess is that Arte told him to go all in, and to sell off to get under the tax if they fell out of contention.
@Rex – They may not have traded any top #100 prospects like Quero, but they certainly traded several promising and intriguing prospects (i.e., Ky Bush, Mason Albright, Coleman Crow, Landon Marceaux, Jeremiah Jackson) that will likely contribute in the future.
The Mets already flipped Crow to the Brewers for 2 veterans (SP Adrian Houser, OF Tyrone Taylor) receiving more in value for him than Perry Minasian was able to.
@orange didn’t know they traded Jeremiah Jackson. Have a feeling this deadline they will be able to make up for the losses.
The last time the Angels signed a player with the last name of Hamilton, it did not go well.
Oh boy.