Angels Acquire LaMonte Wade Jr.
The Angels and Giants swung a trade this evening, as San Francisco sent first baseman and outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. to Anaheim in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. The Giants are sending cash to Anaheim as part of the deal alongside Wade. The Angels designated right-hander Michael Darrell-Hicks for assignment to make room for Wade on the 40-man roster.
Wade, 31, was designated for assignment by San Francisco last week. A ninth-round pick by Minnesota back in 2015, he appeared in 42 games for the Twins across the 2019 and 2020 seasons before being dealt to the Giants prior to the 2021 campaign. Wade immediately became a fixture of the Giants lineup, slashing .253/.326/.482 in 109 games for San Francisco in his first year with the club. Injuries limited him to just 77 games in 2022, but he bounced back in 2023 and ’24 to slash a combined .258/.376/.401 (120 wRC+) in 252 games for the Giants where he primarily played first base but also got occasional looks in the outfield corners and at DH.
In his final year ahead of free agency, Wade seemed likely to once again serve as a solid left-handed bat for the Giants who could be trusted to hold things down at first base while the club waited for the arrival of top prospect Bryce Eldridge. Unfortunately, that’s not how things played out. Wade failed to hit much at all in 50 games for the Giants this season, posting a putrid .167/.275/.271 slash line (59 wRC+). At least some of those struggles can be attributed to poor fortune on batted balls, as Wade’s .211 BABIP is down nearly 90 points relatively to what it had been during his previous four seasons with the Giants. With that being said, Wade was hitting for less power than ever before in his career, and even his .287 xwOBA was well below average. With San Francisco in the thick of the Wild Card race this year, they couldn’t justify continuing to wait around for Wade to get right and pulled the plug on him last week in order to bring veteran first baseman Dominic Smith into the fold.
For the Angels, the addition of Wade is an interesting one. The club already has a left-handed first baseman entrenched in an everyday job with Nolan Schanuel, who has done quite well for himself with a 119 wRC+ in his age-23 season so far. Notably, Anaheim’s announcement of the move referred to Wade as an outfielder, hinting that he might primarily find use in the corner outfield mix for the Halos going forward. That would be a sensible use for the veteran, given that the club’s current outfield group of Jorge Soler, Taylor Ward, Jo Adell, and Mike Trout hit exclusively from the right side. Wade could serve as a lefty complement to Ward in left field and Soler at DH once Trout resumes playing right field on a regular basis. In the short term, Wade can also provide the Angels with some additional coverage in the outfield in the event that Soler needs to head to the injured list due to a nagging groin issue he’s been struggling with in recent days.
Wade has always been best suited for a platoon role, as he’s a career .193/.288/.250 hitter against fellow lefties and has not collected a hit against a left-handed pitcher this year. Even the club’s depth and bench outfield options like Chris Taylor, Matthew Lugo, and Scott Kingery bat right-handed, which should give Wade a niche on the club’s roster. That should be a fairly safe environment for Wade to try and bounce back, as he can be more or less completely platoon protected. It remains to be seen if Wade can resume generating enough power to get his production anywhere close to the 115 wRC+ he posted with the Giants from 2021-24, but one encouraging sign is that his strikeout (20.9%) and walk (12.7%) rates from that timeframe are almost identical to his 20.7% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate this year.
That suggests that his skills haven’t regressed at least from a discipline perspective, and even if his power doesn’t bounce back it’s not impossible to imagine Wade being a roughly league average bat against righties going forward. That’s enough to make him a useful bench piece for a team with a heavily right-handed lineup like Anaheim, and they clearly though bringing him into the fold was worth absorbing at least a portion of $5MM salary Wade is making this year. It’s not yet clear exactly how much cash the Giants sent to Anaheim to offset that financial blow, but shedding even a portion of the first baseman’s salary is a win for San Francisco given that Wade would’ve been able to elect free agency and leave them on the hook for the full deal had he cleared waivers.
Departing the Angels’ roster to make room for Wade is Darrell-Hicks. The 27-year-old made his big league debut with Anaheim earlier this year and made six appearances, where he surrendered eight runs on ten hits while walking four and striking out six in 7 2/3 innings of work. That lackluster performance is fairly representative of his work at Triple-A Salt Lake this year as well, where he has an 8.87 ERA in 22 1/3 frames. That said, he’s just one season removed from posting a dominant season split between Double- and Triple-A, with a 2.60 ERA in 62 1/3 innings of work across 40 appearances. The Angels will have one week to either work out a trade involving Darrell-Hicks or else place him on waivers. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, Anaheim will have the option to outright him to the minor leagues as non-roster depth for the remainder of the year.
Angels Sign Ben Gamel To Minor League Deal
The Angels have signed outfielder Ben Gamel to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Gamel’s MLB.com profile page. Gamel was subsequently assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake. Gamel had previously been at Triple-A with the Tigers on a minor league deal, but last appeared in a game with the club back in April and was granted his release by the organization late last month.
Gamel, 33, is a veteran of nine MLB seasons who has yet to appear in the majors in 2025. He made his big league debut with the Yankees all the way back in 2016, though he was almost immediately traded to the Mariners. He didn’t hit much that first year across 33 games, but he fashioned himself into a roughly average regular for Seattle over the next two years. Gamel hit .274/.335/.398 (102 wRC+) during that time but departed for the Brewers in the deal that sent Domingo Santana to Seattle. His two years in Milwaukee did not go over nearly as well, however, as he was a below average hitter overall and ended up non-tendered by the club during the 2020-21 offseason.
The outfielder has become something of a journeyman in the years since then, bouncing around the league and appearing for five teams in the past four years. With 281 games in the majors under his belt split between Cleveland, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Queens, and Houston since the start of the 2021 campaign, Gamel has hit a roughly league average .239/.338/.372 (98 wRC+) while primarily playing the outfield corners but making occasional appearances in center field and at first base. His most successful stop during that stretch was with the Astros last year, for whom he posted a 117 wRC+ in 20 games down the stretch before suffering a fibula fracture that sidelined him in mid September. Despite that injury cutting Gamel’s time with the club short, the Astros re-signed him to a big league deal during Spring Training but ultimately cut him loose when they opted to put top prospect Cam Smith on the Opening Day roster as their regular right fielder.
Gamel signed his aforementioned minor league deal with Detroit shortly thereafter, but went on the injured list after just 17 games and was later released. Now that he’s signed with the Angels, it seems likely the Gamel will return to minor league games in the near future as he looks to earn an opportunity in Anaheim’s outfield mix. A heavily right-handed outfield should work in Gamel’s favor in terms of earning a big league opportunity, although the Angels swinging a trade for LaMonte Wade Jr. earlier today might complicate his fit on the big league roster somewhat. Even so, Gamel has been a consistent, roughly league average performer in the majors for nearly a decade now and seems likely to fight his way back to the majors in some capacity before the season is up, so long as he’s healthy and able to resume playing.
Angels Notes: Soler, Trout, Stephenson
Slugger Jorge Soler exited today’s Angels game in the second inning, and the Angels later announced that it was due to groin tightness. Soler was already known to be day-to-day due to the groin issue in recent days, but evidently it flared up during this evening’s game against the Mariners. An update on Soler’s status will likely be available after the game, but the issue is made a bit more complicated than it would be otherwise due to the status of Mike Trout.
Soler has typically served as Anaheim’s DH this season, although he’s hit a lackluster .217/.291/.377 (88 wRC+) to this point in the year. In more recent weeks, however, Soler has become the club’s everyday right fielder while Trout returns to the lineup as the everyday DH. As noted by Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register earlier today, Trout is working his way back towards a return to the outfield by doing some drills on the grass. Manager Ron Washington relayed that Trout was feeling good after those drills, but they’ve still been “minimal” and haven’t “really challenged” the veteran star. That would seem to indicate Trout is still at least a few days away from returning to right field on a regular basis in games.
A return to DH’ing on a regular basis would surely be less strenuous on Soler’s ailing groin, but that won’t be possible until Trout returns to the outfield. The three-time MVP is 10-for-25 with three walks, a double, and a homer since returning from the injured list and clearly won’t be sitting in deference to Soler. If Soler isn’t healthy enough to play the field, that could leave the Angels with little choice but to place him on the injured list. Should that come to pass, some combination of Matthew Lugo, Chris Taylor, and perhaps Scott Kingery could see time in the outfield, assuming the Angels don’t call up another outfield option like Kyren Paris.
In other news around the club, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger writes that right-hander Robert Stephenson has undergone two MRI exams since being placed on the injured list due to inflammation in his right biceps. Bollinger notes that those exams revealed no structural damage, and relays that Stephenson told reporters that he’s dealing with a stretched nerve, which he described as a “freak injury.” The unusual nature of Stephenson’s injury means that he has no clear timetable for return, and the right-hander added that there’s no treatment for the issue other than rest.
That suggests he could be unable to throw for quite a while, which would be an incredibly frustrating turn of events for a pitcher who missed the entire 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery and made it back to pitch just one inning before he once again hit the shelf. The 32-year-old turned in 38 1/3 dominant innings for the Rays during his most recent healthy campaign in 2023, pitching to a 2.35 ERA and striking out a whopping 42.9% of opponents faced. That showing was impressive enough that the Angels awarded him a three-year, $33MM deal that offseason, though they’ve yet to get much of anything out of it due to Stephenson’s injury woes.
Angels, Carson Fulmer Agree To Minor League Deal
Right-hander Carson Fulmer is headed back to the Angels organization. Fulmer, who’d been with the Pirates on a minor league deal, was released by Pittsburgh earlier this week and has quickly signed a minor league deal to return to the Halos, per the MiLB.com transaction log. The Icon Sports client spent the 2023-24 seasons pitching between Triple-A Salt Lake and Anaheim as well.
A former first-round pick and top prospect, Fulmer never found his footing with the White Sox (his original club) or in subsequent stints with the Tigers, Orioles and Reds. He had a decent two-year run with the Halos, however, tossing a combined 96 2/3 innings with a 4.00 ERA, a 20.8% strikeout rate and a 10.5% walk rate from 2023-24. The bulk of that work came just last season, when he pitched a career-high 86 2/3 innings for Ron Washington’s club (29 relief outings, eight starts).
So far in 2025, Fulmer has worked 42 2/3 innings for the Pirates’ Triple-A club in Indianapolis and recorded a 4.64 ERA. He opened the season as a member of Indy’s rotation but struggled badly, yielding 17 runs in 28 2/3 innings. Since moving back to the bullpen on May 7, he’s pitched 14 innings with a 3.21 ERA and 12-to-5 K/BB ratio. Fulmer has pitched two or more innings in six of his seven bullpen appearances.
The Angels have spent much of the year scooping up pitching depth of all varieties as they try to piece together a passable staff. It hasn’t worked so far. Angels starters rank 22nd in the majors with a 4.33 ERA but are 28th in FIP, 29th in strikeout rate, 29th in walk rate and 30th in SIERA. Their bullpen has been even less effective, logging a 28th-ranked 5.75 ERA and issuing walks at the third-highest clip of any team in MLB. Fulmer is the latest in a growing line of veteran arms signed in-season on minor league deals, joining Hector Neris, Hunter Strickland, Buck Farmer, Andrew Vasquez and Sammy Peralta in that regard.
Angels Place Yoán Moncada, Robert Stephenson On Injured List
The Angels announced today that infielder Yoán Moncada has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to right knee inflammation. Right-hander Robert Stephenson landed on the 15-day IL due to right biceps inflammation, retroactive to May 31st. The Halos didn’t provide any information about how long either player is expected to be out of action. Outfielder Matthew Lugo and righty Sam Aldegheri were recalled to take the two vacated active roster spots.
Moncada, 30, signed with the Halos this offseason on a one-year deal which pays him $5MM. He has been excellent when he’s been on the field. He has stepped to the plate 113 times over 30 games. His 28.3% strikeout rate is high but he has six home runs and has drawn walks at a strong 11.5% clip. His .237/.336/.505 batting line translates to a 135 wRC+, indicating he’s been 35% better than league average at the plate overall.
But as has often been the case with Moncada, injuries have gotten in the way. He hasn’t played more than 104 games in a season since 2021 due to various ailments. He only got into 12 contests last year due to an adductor strain. He already missed almost a month this year due to a thumb sprain and now this knee issue has him on the shelf again.
It’s a bit of a double blow for the Halos, who are struggling to hang in the American League playoff race. They are 26-32, ahead of just three American League clubs and five games back of the final Wild Card spot. Losing Moncada will hurt their ability to stay in the race. Shortstop Zach Neto is the only position player on the team with a higher wins above replacement tally this year, in the eyes of FanGraphs. If they fall back in the race, Moncada would be one of their more interesting trade chips, though each injury compounds his injury-prone reputation and hurts his trade value.
With Moncada ailing in recent days, the Halos have had Luis Rengifo move from second to third with Scott Kingery taking over the keystone. That could perhaps be their regular alignment while Moncada is out, with Kevin Newman and Chris Taylor also on hand.
For Stephenson, it’s a frustrating setback. He signed a three-year, $33MM deal going into 2024 but required Tommy John surgery in April of last year, before he even got a chance to throw a pitch for the Angels. He recovered from that surgery and was reinstated from the IL a few days ago. But in his second appearance, which was on Friday, he departed after just three pitches with an apparent injury.
The Angels’ bullpen has a collective 6.04 earned run average, worse than every club in the majors except for the Athletics. Ideally, Stephenson’s return would have strengthened the group. In the second half of 2023, he was one of the best relievers on the planet. With the Rays, he threw 38 1/3 innings with a 2.35 ERA, 42.9% strikeout rate and 5.7% walk rate. That prompted the Angels to give him a hefty deal but he hasn’t been able to give them a return on that investment yet and that won’t change for a few more weeks at least.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Dodgers Claim Chuckie Robinson, Move Tyler Glasnow To 60-Day IL
The Dodgers have claimed catcher Chuckie Robinson off waivers from the Angels, as announced by both Los Angeles clubs. Tyler Glasnow was moved from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day IL in order to open up room on the Dodgers’ roster.
It has now been a little over a month since Glasnow went to the 15-day IL due to right shoulder inflammation, and he was shut down for over two weeks before resuming his throwing in mid-May. He threw his first bullpen session last weekend and by all reports emerged in good form, even if some more build-up was naturally required.
The shift to the 60-day IL now firmly rules Glasnow out of action until close to the end of June, so he’ll have plenty of time to gradually rebuild his arm strength. Despite the injury-riddled nature of their pitching staff, the Dodgers surely aren’t going to rush Glasnow in any way, both out of common sense and as a nod to his lengthy injury history.
With a roster spot now open due to the Glasnow move, the Dodgers chose to add another backstop. Robinson was designated for assignment by the Angels earlier this week, and he’ll now head over to the other L.A. team to join Hunter Feduccia and Chris Okey as Triple-A catchers with some degree of MLB experience. Top prospect Dalton Rushing is now serving on the big league roster as Will Smith‘s backup, and is focused just on catching despite some work in the minors as an outfielder and first baseman. If Rushing’s workload is expanded to another position, the Dodgers may like the idea of having more traditional catchers on hand for depth purposes.
Robinson has 51 Major League games on his resume, consisting of 25 appearances with the 2022 Reds and then 26 more games with the White Sox last season. The catcher has hit .132/.170/.194 over 136 plate appearances at the big league level.
Angels Release Tim Anderson
The Angels announced that infielder Tim Anderson has been released. He had been designated for assignment two days ago. He’ll be a free agent once he clears release waivers, unless he has already.
This was the expected outcome when Anderson was designated for assignment earlier this week. He was unlikely to be claimed based on his performance this year and in other recent seasons. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, so the Angels have skipped over that formality.
He’ll now be free to sign with any club, though he’ll surely be limited to minor league offers. Anderson just produced a tepid .205/.258/.241 line over 90 plate appearances with the Angels. That continued a yearslong slump for him. Dating back to the start of the 2023 season, he has stepped to the plate 855 times with a .232/.269/.270 line. That leads to a 49 wRC+, indicating he’s been 51% worse than league average at the plate.
Based on that performance, he’s unlikely to get a major league opportunity in the immediate future. There’s no harm in a minor league deal, however, and Anderson has previous major league success. From 2019 to 2022, he slashed .318/.347/.473 for a 123 wRC+ with the White Sox. He also stole 53 bases while playing solid shortstop defense.
But early in 2023, he landed on the injured list due to a left knee sprain and hasn’t been the same since. The White Sox declined a $14MM club option for 2024, going for the $1MM buyout instead. Anderson landed a $5MM deal with the Marlins going into last year but was released in July. He signed a minor league deal with the Halos for this year and cracked the Opening Day roster but wasn’t able to produce. His 32nd birthday is next month. He’ll now see what kind of opportunities await him on the open market.
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images
Angels Re-Sign Shaun Anderson To Minor League Deal
Right-hander Shaun Anderson cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Angels, briefly elected free agency and quickly re-signed with the Halos on a new minor league pact, per the transaction logs at MiLB.com.
The 30-year-old Anderson pitched 10 innings for the Halos prior to his DFA and was tagged for seven runs on 14 hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts. He averaged a pedestrian 92.1 mph on his four-seamer but still notched a hearty 12.2% swinging-strike rate thanks in part to a changeup he’s incorporated into his mix at a career-high rate of usage (23.3%). Anderson entered the season with 152 MLB innings under his belt and had thrown just seven percent changeups in his career (11.5% in 2024). It’s a small sample of innings, but he was also using his changeup more frequently (albeit not to this extent) in Triple-A as well.
Anderson has seen action in parts of six major league seasons and suited up for eight different teams along the way. He’s been hit hard, yielding a 6.11 ERA with a 16.8% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate in 162 MLB frames overall, but teams have continued to give him looks based on a solid Triple-A track record and some appealing traits in his pitches. He’s shown good aptitude for generating spin on both his four-seamer and slider throughout his career, and the 6’6″ righty gets excellent extension on his pitches, which can help his lackluster velocity play up.
Anderson was working as a starter in Salt Lake prior to being called up by the Angels. He’d tossed 37 1/3 innings across seven starts and logged a 5.06 ERA, a 17.6% strikeout rate and a 7.6% walk rate in that time. He worked as a multi-inning reliever with the Angels and saw his pitch count climb as high as 51 in one of his appearances with the Angels, on May 11. He’ll now remain with the Halos and again serve as a versatile depth arm who could come to the majors and help in a variety of roles.
Angels Designate Tim Anderson For Assignment
The Angels announced a series of roster moves today. They have selected the contract of infielder Scott Kingery and reinstated right-hander Robert Stephenson from the 60-day injured list. To make room for those two on the active roster, left-hander Jake Eder has been optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake and infielder Tim Anderson has been designated for assignment. To open another 40-man spot, catcher Chuckie Robinson has been designated for assignment.
Anderson, 32 next month, signed a minor league deal with the Angels in the offseason. A former All-Star and batting champion, Anderson’s production tailed off in 2023 and 2024, which is why he had to settle for a minor league pact. Injuries to infielders like Zach Neto, Anthony Rendon and Yoán Moncada opened a path for him to crack the roster but he hasn’t done much with the opportunity.
Across 31 games, Anderson stepped to the plate 90 times for the Halos. His 3.3% walk rate was very low but that’s always been his style. Unfortunately, his 32.2% strikeout rate was way above both his personal track record and the league average. He had only three extra-base hits, which were all doubles. It all added up to a .205/.258/.241 line and 42 wRC+.
As mentioned, Anderson was once an All-Star and batting champion. He slashed .318/.347/.473 for a 123 wRC+ from 2019 through 2022. But from the start of 2023 to the present, he has 855 plate appearances with a .232/.269/.270 line and 49 wRC+. With other players getting healthy and/or performing better than Anderson, he’s been squeezed off the roster. He will likely be placed on waivers in the coming days but probably won’t find much interest, given his ongoing struggles. If he is passed through waivers unclaimed, he’ll have the right to elect free agency.
His playing time will seemingly be going to Kingery, who was acquired from the Phillies in the offseason but then outrighted off the 40-man. He has been excelling at Triple-A Salt Lake this year, with a .373/.418/.578 line, though those numbers need to be taken with some grains from that lake. The Bees play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and Kingery also has a massive .433 batting average on balls in play that he won’t be able to sustain.
Still, it’s understandable to consider him a better bet than Anderson. Kingery’s major league track record isn’t strong but he had a solid .268/.316/.488 slash and 103 wRC+ for the Phillies’ Triple-A club last year. He also stole 25 bases while playing second base, shortstop and center field. Given how bad Anderson has been struggling, Kingery doesn’t need to be a star to be an upgrade.
The return of Stephenson is a notable moment for the Angels. They signed him to a three-year, $33MM deal going into 2024 but he still hasn’t made his team debut. Some elbow issues plagued him at the start of last year and he ultimately required Tommy John surgery at the end of April. He has been rehabbing from that procedure for just over a year now.
His track record is mixed, with a 4.64 earned run average in his career, but the Angels made a bet that he had broken out just prior to the signing. A former first-round pick and top prospect, he couldn’t stick in a rotation and eventually moved to a relief role. He occasionally showed flashes of promise there before putting together an elite run in 2023.
He started that year with the Pirates and had an uninspiring 5.14 ERA when he was traded to the Rays. With Tampa, he reeled off 38 1/3 innings with a 2.35 ERA, 42.9% strikeout rate and 5.7% walk rate. In short, he was one of the best relievers on the planet for a few months.
The Angels haven’t yet received any return on their investment but Stephenson’s return could be a massive boost, as their bullpen is one of the worst in the league. Their relievers have a collective 6.31 ERA, dead last in the majors, slightly behind Washington’s 6.22 mark. Even if Stephenson doesn’t fully return to his dominant form from the second half of 2023, he should be a nice upgrade to the group. Kenley Jansen will perhaps continue in the closer’s role but Stephenson should be in line for meaningful innings one way or another.
Robinson, 30, was acquired from the White Sox in the offseason. He has been serving as Triple-A depth so far this season, hitting .272/.315/.388 for the Bees. He’ll head into DFA limbo alongside Anderson. He still has options and could perhaps appeal to a club in need of catching depth. He generally hasn’t hit much but has a decent defensive reputation. The Angels are now down to just two catchers on their 40-man roster in Logan O’Hoppe and Travis d’Arnaud.
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images
Angels, Oscar Colas Agree To Minor League Deal
The Angels and outfielder Oscar Colas are in agreement on a minor league contract, as first reported by Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com. He’s expected to head to the Halos’ Double-A affiliate once he passes his physical, per the report.
Colas is the latest in a line of former top prospects to try to rebuild their careers with the Halos. The Angels have regularly given looks to once-vaunted talents who didn’t reach their potential through several auditions with their original organizations. Recent examples include Carter Kieboom, Willie Calhoun, Keston Hiura, Miguel Sano and Carson Fulmer, just to name a few.
The 26-year-old Colas was a notable international pickup by the White Sox during the 2021-22 signing period. He’d posted intriguing power numbers both in the Cuban National Series and in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Initial thought that he could be a two-way player based on some dabbling on the mound in Japan proved vastly overstated, but throughout Colas’ early run in the ChiSox organization, he was still lauded as a top-100 prospect in the sport.
During the 2022 season, his first after signing with the Sox, Colas ripped through minor league pitching, slashing .314/.371/.524 with 23 homers across three levels. Strong as those rate stats were, his production came with some red flags. Colas spent the bulk of the season playing against younger and less experienced competition, and he rarely walked. His strikeout rates also climbed rapidly as he moved from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A.
Colas made his big league debut the following year, in 2023, and looked overmatched against MLB opposition. He tallied 263 plate appearances over the life of 75 games and turned in an anemic .216/.257/.314 batting line with a hefty 27.6% strikeout rate against a tiny 4.6% walk rate. His overly aggressive approach was clearly exploited; Colas had the 13th-highest chase rate on pitches off the plate among the 328 batters who tallied at least 250 plate appearances in 2023. His contact rate ranked 289th among that same set of 328 hitters.
Colas still managed to hit Triple-A pitching well that season, but even his production in the upper minors dipped the following season. He .246/.332/.400 at the Triple-A level in 2024. Even as the White Sox fielded a historically bad team that season, he received only 38 major league plate appearances and hit just .273/.368/.273 in that time. He split 2025 between the White Sox’ Double-A and Triple-A squads, batting a combined .163/.245/.255 in 110 turns at the plate before being released.
At this point, Colas is a pure project, but there’s little harm for an Angels team with a paper-thin farm system speculating on a once-notable outfield prospect. Only two of the Angels’ top 20 prospects at MLB.com are outfielders. Nelson Rada is currently hitting well in Double-A but is only 19 years old. Matthew Lugo is on the big league roster but showing a similarly untenable approach to that of the recently optioned Kyren Paris — chasing pitches and striking out at alarming rates. Colas will have to hit his way into being an option whatsoever, but he’ll give them some depth at a thin position.