The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve signed left-handed reliever Jose Quijada to a one-year contract with a club option for the 2026 season, avoiding arbitration in the process. Quijada, a client of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, will be paid $1.075MM this coming season, per the team. (The Angels are one of just a few major league teams that publicly announce financial details of their transactions.) The 2026 option is valued at $3.75MM.
Quijada had filed for a $1.14MM salary in his second trip through the arb process. He was recovering from Tommy John surgery during his first trip through arbitration and thus landed on an $840K salary that wasn’t too far north of last year’s $740K minimum. The Halos countered with a $975K proposal.
Today’s agreement checks in north of the midpoint between those two sums. Because it includes a club option, it won’t be considered a true “one-year deal” for the Angels or other clubs leaguewide; that’s important with regard to arbitration specifically, as arb negotiations are based on comps for prior one-year deals for players in the same service class. Even if the Angels decline the club option, Quijada would remain under their control for 2026 and would simply be arbitration-eligible once again.
The 29-year-old Quijada finished up his recovery from that 2023 Tommy John procedure in late July. He returned to the Halos and appeared in 22 games in the season’s final nine weeks, logging 19 1/3 innings with a tidy 3.26 ERA. He set down a hearty 28.6% of his opponents on strikes but also issued walks at an alarming 20.2% clip. Command has been a long-running issue for Quijada but not to that extent; in 108 2/3 prior big league innings, he’d walked 13.8% of batters faced.
Even with that problematic command, Quijada comes at an affordable rate and brings some clearly tantalizing traits to the table. He logged a big 14% swinging-strike rate this past season, in part due to an uncanny knack for missing bats within the strike zone. Opponents made contact at just a 78.8% clip on in-zone pitches offered by Quijada — well shy of the 85.2% league average. The lefty’s velocity also strengthened over the course of his return; he averaged 93.5 mph on his heater through his first two weeks off the injured list but sat 94 mph on average thereafter. With a bit more time to continue building up, he may well have returned to the 94.5 mph average he posted in his last full, healthy season in 2022.
With Quijada’s case now resolved, the Angels have cleared up one of three pending cases. Infielder Luis Rengifo filed for a $5.95MM salary. The team countered at $5.8MM. Outfielder Mickey Moniak filed at $2MM to the team’s $1.5MM. You can read more about the reasons for teams and players go to battle over ostensibly trivial sums like this in this 2015 piece I wrote after chatting with several general managers and assistant GMs around the league.
Ive been to the future and Arte Moreno will announce he is in the process of selling the Angels on August 19 2026.
Also, short General Electric stock.
If Quijada would learn the Roger Beshens football slider he could easily become the next Tyler Chatwood. Can’t wrap my head around why players refuse opportunities to improve
Dude looks really good for a stretch then implodes. I know relievers are volatile but with a little consistency I think he can be good.
Quijada needs another WBC to revitalize his career trajectory.
As a big Angels fan, we did make a few quick deals out of the gate, but in the wrong direction with the trade for Jorge solar, we sure didn’t need a DH when Mike Trout could have spend time there as the DH but now the Angels and Arte Moreno are in hibernation all these free agents the Angels were connected to are all coming off the board to other teams. I will not step in Anaheim Stadium until Arte Moreno sells the Team more fans. Need to stay home watch the games on cable. The Oakland A’s franchise now moving to Las Vegas, have leapfrogged over the Angels we are no longer the Dodgers little brother we are orphans. looking for new parents.
We have more playoff appearances under Arte than all other owners combined. Angels got their business done early. Trout has gotten hurt more swinging than playing the field. So being DH might not be the best. And Soler will helps if Trout gets hurt or provides protection. U get on Arte for not spending then mention the A’s whose largest contract is like 67mil
@jmac, please tell me your take is not to defend Arte Moreno. Those early successes were the effects of the Stoneman-Scioscia era and were based on baseball decisions such as acquiring Vladimir and Bartolo. Then Arte got the taste of selling jerseys and the sweet TV deal, then started making marketing, not baseball, decisions (Hamilton, Pujols, Rendon).
He gutted his scouting staffs and limited media communications / exposure. This organization is a joke until he and his yes-men clown show are gone.
Jmac70 in do all respect
After 2002, the Los Angeles Angels made the playoffs 10
2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2017
Don’t forget Arte Moreno road in on Disney’s coattails for 4 to 5 years from 2004 to 2008 the Angels team was assembled by the Disney corporation the likes of Darren Erstad, Tim Salmon Garrett Anderson Troy Glaus AdamKennedy, Ed Spiezio David Ecksteinthe whole pitching staff I do give Moreno for signing Bartolo colon JC Wilson Vladimir Guerrero ok since then Arte Moreno micromanage the team as owner and general manager with his hand picked selections players like Josh Hamilton Albert Pujols Anthony Rendon Arte hasn’t invested in player development and scouting, in the last four years the Angels are signing older free agents to a one year contract. The Angels are like a revolving door. Who do you blame?
Quijada desperately needs to learn a second pitch to become a decent reliever. Otherwise, he’s a one-trick pony.
@johnny bravo. Trout doesn’t like being a DH. This was the first year he was willing to move off centerfield. 13 million for soler is the difference from Drury leaving, and we don’t have calhoun or sano taking a spot in the lineup. We can all just write off rendon, and keep him on the bench for 40 games. We probably need something in the infield or a marisnick type centerfielder. I’m hoping they wait out the market could get something good before spring training. Probably need another arm in the bullpen and maybe a flyer minor league deal.
This year will be a year for the Angels major league roster to stay healthy. With Veterans like Trout, and the young core to see what they can do for a full season. At worst they end up with a .500 record, and a shopping list for 2026. At best they get hot in the second half of the season and become a playoff caliber team. They need to continue building depth in the minor leagues and be a team with many options where they don’t have to depend on overpriced, and overage free-agents. Being able to trade from an over abundance of depth is how the Angels got Adam Kennedy.