Nov. 15: Kingery will earn $770K this season, tweets Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register — just $10K north of the league minimum.
Nov. 14: The Angels reached agreement with Scott Kingery on a one-year deal to avoid arbitration, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network (X link). Salary terms have not been reported. Kingery is under arbitration control through the 2027 season.
Kingery just landed with the Halos a few weeks ago. Los Angeles acquired the infielder from the Phillies in a small trade. They added him to their 40-man roster to keep him from hitting minor league free agency. Kingery has more than three years of service time from his stint with the Phils, so he immediately became eligible for arbitration when the Angels put him on the roster. MLBTR did not project a salary for Kingery because he was not on a 40-man at the time of our arbitration projections (courtesy of Matt Swartz). It’d be a surprise if he’s in for a salary much above the league minimum.
In any case, the Arizona product has a clear path back to the majors. Kingery, who signed a $24MM extension before making his debut in 2018, has played in all of one big league game in the last three years. That came as a defensive substitute in 2022. He hasn’t reached 40 games in an MLB season since 2019. Kingery didn’t make much of an impact in Philadelphia, running a .229/.280/.387 line in more than 1100 plate appearances.
The Phillies kept him in Triple-A after outrighting him off the roster. Kingery didn’t have the ability to test minor league free agency without forfeiting the remainder of his extension, which expired last winter. He has essentially spent the last three seasons in the upper minors, turning in roughly league average results. The former second-rounder hit .268/.316/.488 with 25 homers and stolen bases apiece in a hitter-friendly setting this year.
While he came up as a second base prospect, Kingery spent most of this past season at shortstop. He can cover both middle infield spots and move around the outfield. The Angels could be without Zach Neto to begin the season after his recent shoulder procedure. The Halos just signed Kevin Newman as their expected fill-in at shortstop. Kingery can bounce around the diamond in a bench role.
A Klentak mistake that seemed like a reasonable gamble at the time. Now get it over with Arte and send Trout home we’ll take either Reid Detmers or Ben Joyce, your choice – and all you gotta do is take back Taijuan Walker. And we’ll take on the entirety of the $212mil. Clean break and you also got Mick Abel to experiment with in the deal and California Cal (Stevenson).
“WE” you got a mouse in your pocket?
Hopefully that opposed to a Hamster elsewhere….
Alas, poor Lemmiwinks…
LMAO!! Bass to Mouth…
lol
Only thing 609collectibles seems to be collecting is lead paint fumes. If we did decide to trade Perry would fleece you again. Thanks for Ohoppe, enjoy your 34 year old catcher.
So he got his extension money while still being eligible for arbitration?
Yeah he signed a 6 year contract before ever playing. Had he been on the MLB roster the whole time, he would’ve never had arbitration. 6 years service, then FA.
But since he was outrighted off the MLB roster after half the contract, he played out the final 3 years of the contract in the minors, meaning he didn’t accrue service time.
Now the 6-yr contract is over, he’s back on a new 40-man stint with 3 years service… which triggers arbitration.
Google is your friend. Try it.
You don’t see too many guys that have made 24 million, never accomplished anything and are still arbitration eligible. Rather unique situation.
The Angels are owning the month of November.
One of my favorite things about baseball is the crazy comebacks that some players are able to make that would never happen in any other sport. No way did I ever think he would have a chance to re-surface in the majors again.
They are making a documentary about him it’s called Touched by an Angel. Or maybe it’s called Angels in the Infield.
Well it is the Angels.
We love to give players one last payday.
With his talent there is some potential here. It seems kind of redundant with recent signing of Newman. But just seems odd timing as this outcome was already in motion before Newman.
I’d be surprised by any dynamic breakthrough here. Only time he really produced at MLB level was 2019. To me if 2019 #s jump out I view it as a red flag not a sign of hope. The juiced ball had a profound impact on #s.
He hasn’t, yet. Being on the 40-man roster in November is not the same as being on the MLB 26-man roster in April.
Dude traded playing 3 yrs in the minors and 24 mil for a chance to be a fringe guy in the show. We’d all do it. Now he starts over almost back from where he was when he got the bag. Chance to be a fringe guy in the bigs at league minimum. Screw the dream for 3 yrs, get that bag kid.
These are the non-major league players I’m sick of seeing playing in Anaheim.
It was nice that the Angels added a couple major league players this week. And I don’t mean Hendricks.
Like Sano last year, who got way too many AB’s.
@halo11fan. Kingery is worth a shot. He didn’t play because of his contract could be a late bloomer. The worst case scenario is he’s like the 16 guys perry signed last year. He should be the last guy off the bench.
@rexhudker86
I agree. All you have to do is look at Taylor Ward, age 28 season things seemed to click for him.
He is a step up from the parade of utility players used throughout last year.
It seems these players are always worth a shot, then they fall on their faces.
I’m sick of these “worth a shot” players.
@Halo11 No idea why you are OK with crappy starting pitchers but critical of depth pieces. We have all seen the Hendricks types in Anaheim for years, Matt Harvey, Juilo Teheran, Trevor Cahill, etc. None of them have ever been remotely successful. If you are good with bad starters, you may as well be OK with bad back up players.
@Halo11
Who else are you going to sign as a depth piece with this young corp? It makes no sense to chase Adames or the likes.
The Angels need pitching, so taking a chance on Kingery, someone who can play all over the field isn’t a terrible thing.
After that big deal before he was even in the majors, now Kingery is to set to get paid a little over MLB minimum to play in Salt Lake.
This would be hilarious if he finally lives up to the hype with the Angels
Hype? Do tell.
You honestly don’t remember Phillies fans touting this kid and treating him like the next star? They ruined him, in my opinion, because he was a young player when teams were looking for the next Ben Zobrist, and they moved him around incessantly. Not saying he would have been good, but a lot of young players need the stability of sticking to a position.
So, you’re saying the Phillips ‘ruined’ Kingery, but you’re also not saying he would have been good. What’s closer to reality is Kingery was an overrated prospect that was unfortunately miscast as a super utility player. The Phillies didn’t ruin Kingery. It would’ve been to their benefit if succeeded. He was overpaid, and lucky.
Kingery was projected to be the Phillies second baseman/utility player and got covid in spring training of March of 2020. He apparently had long covid symptoms and really struggled for years to get back what he lost. He seemed to recover a good bit last year. I fully think he’s capable of starting 1-2 games a week and being a decent bench piece. The Phillies were stocked with IF pieces last year so he didn’t get a call up since OF depth was their main issue. I wish him luck.
Kingerys dad was a player.
Sign snell
Sign more relief pitcher
Then you can call it a day
He has made multi generational money (including the 770K) for almost zero production.