Angels Release Ryan Miller
November 13: Miller has been released by the Angels, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com.
November 7: The Angels designated righty reliever Ryan Miller for assignment, tweets Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. That’s the associated 40-man roster move for the Kyle Hendricks signing.
Miller, 28, earned his first major league call in August. He made 13 appearances late in the year. Miller gave up seven runs (six earned) while striking out 11 and issuing eight walks across 13 innings. The Clemson product showed a fairly typical sinker-slider combination, averaging just under 94 MPH on the fastball. While he didn’t miss many bats in his brief MLB look, he’s coming off a nice year in Triple-A. Miller tossed 62 1/3 innings of 2.45 ERA ball in Salt Lake. He struck out around a quarter of opponents while keeping his walks to a tidy 5.6% clip.
The Halos acquired Miller last offseason, grabbing him from the Red Sox in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft. They have five days to explore trade possibilities but are likelier to try to run him through outright waivers.
MLBTR Podcast: Roki Sasaki, Cole’s Non-Opt-Out, And Cardinals Rumors
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- Roki Sasaki to be posted for MLB clubs (1:45)
- Gerrit Cole‘s weird non-opt-out situation with the Yankees (17:50)
- The Cardinals might trade Nolan Arenado but might keep Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray (24:20)
- The Braves and Angels swap Jorge Soler and Griffin Canning (33:05)
- The Dodgers are moving Mookie Betts back to the infield (41:50)
Check out our past episodes!
- Breaking Down The Top 50 Free Agents List – listen here
- The Mets’ Spending Power, Juan Soto Suitors, And The Rangers’ Payroll Limits – listen here
- The World Series, The White Sox Reportedly For Sale, And Tropicana Field – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Angels Sign Travis d’Arnaud To Two-Year Deal
The Angels announced that they have signed catcher Travis d’Arnaud to a two-year deal. That pact reportedly comes with a $12MM guarantee for the Wasserman client. Right-hander Guillo Zuñiga has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move. The Halos have also hired Sal Fasano, who was with Atlanta as catching coach until being fired last month, as an assistant pitching coach.
d’Arnaud, 36 in February, has been with Atlanta for the past few years. However, that club declined an $8MM club option to keep him around for the 2025, sending him to the open market last week. The veteran has quickly landed on his feet with a new deal at a slightly lower average annual value but with an additional guaranteed season.
His time with Atlanta has consisted of a series of deals, all with an AAV of $8MM. He signed a two-year, $16MM deal going into 2020, followed by a two-year, $16MM extension signed late in 2021. Midway through 2023, he and the club agreed to a one-year, $8MM extension for 2024 with an $8MM club option for 2025.
During that stretch, he has missed some time due to injury and his offense has been up-and-down, but it’s generally amounted to solid production. He got into 384 games over his five years with the club, hitting 60 home runs and slashing .251/.312/.443 for a 106 wRC+. His defense was generally well regarded, allowing him to produce 9.3 wins above replacement over that time, in the eyes of FanGraphs.
Despite his competent performance, Atlanta decided to move on. Perhaps that was due to budgetary constraints or the emergence of prospect Drake Baldwin, who is knocking on the door. Either way, that club’s catching tandem is shifting. It has been d’Arnaud and Sean Murphy in recent years but Murphy will need a new partner, whether that’s Baldwin or someone else.
The Angels will be hoping that Atlanta’s loss will be their gain. They already have a strong catcher in Logan O’Hoppe, who doesn’t turn 25 years old until February and can be controlled through the 2028 season, but d’Arnaud can act in a veteran/backup role.
The only other backstop on the Angels’ 40-man roster is Matt Thaiss, who is out of options. General manager Perry Minasian said today that they are still figuring out plans with Thaiss, per Sam Blum of The Athletic on X. Perhaps Thaiss will move to another position but the club could also carry three catchers or make Thaiss available in trades. He is eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a salary of $1.3MM. The non-tender deadline is November 22, so perhaps some more clarity on his status will emerge between now and then.
It’s possible that Minasian has been waiting for his opportunity to reconnect with d’Arnaud, as he has quickly gotten a deal done shortly after the veteran became available. Minasian worked as a scout for the Blue Jays from 2009 to 2017. It was during that time that d’Arnaud, still a prospect, was traded to the Jays as part of the December 2009 Roy Halladay blockbuster. He would later be traded to the Mets as part of the December 2012 deal that brought R.A. Dickey to Toronto.
Atlanta’s current general manager Alex Anthopoulos was the GM for the Jays for both of those trades and also seemingly made it a priority to reunite with d’Arnaud a few years back. The overlapping careers of Minasian and Anthopoulos have apparently led to good relations extending into the present, as the two clubs have been frequent trade partners of late. Since Minasian was hired in November of 2020, the two clubs have connected on the August 2022 Raisel Iglesias deal, the December 2023 David Fletcher trade, the Jorge Soler deal from a few weeks ago and some other minor swaps. Angels’ manager Ron Washington was also on Atlanta’s coaching staff before joining the Halos.
Today’s news isn’t a trade but it adds to the track record of interchange between the clubs, with the Angels acquiring both d’Arnaud and Fasano after they had been let go from Atlanta. Fasano started his coaching career in 2009 in the minor league system of the Jays when both Minasian and Anthopoulos were there. In the fall of 2017, around the same time Anthopoulos was hired by Atlanta, Fasano got a job as a catching coach with that organization. He held that job until he was dismissed a few weeks ago, though he and d’Arnaud will be reuniting with Minasian in Anaheim.
The move brings the Angels’ projected payroll to $174MM, per RosterResource. That’s above the $170MM they had to start 2024, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Owner Arte Moreno has said that the payroll will go up next year, though it’s unclear exactly how high they plan to go. For clubs that missed out on d’Arnaud, the free agent market still features Danny Jansen, Kyle Higashioka, Carson Kelly and others.
Zuñiga, 26, was acquired from the Cardinals in February. He has 19 2/3 innings of major league experience with a 5.03 earned run average. In the minors, he has posted some decent strikeout numbers but walks have occasionally been an issue. He has thrown 113 2/3 innings in the minors over the past three years with a 5.62 ERA, 23.9% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate.
He now heads into DFA limbo, which can last a week, as the Angels figure out whether to trade him or put him on waivers. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so a trade would need to come together in the next five days. His fastball averaged 96.9 miles per hour in the big leagues this year and he still has an option season remaining, which could perhaps intrigue other clubs around the league.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first relayed the $12MM guarantee for d’Arnaud (X link). Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register first noted the Zuñiga DFA (X link). Sam Blum of The Athletic relayed the Fasano hire (X link).
Angels Reach New Broadcast Deal With Diamond Sports Group
November 11: The Angels’ deal with Diamond is a three-year contract, reports Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.
November 9: The Angels reached a local broadcasting/streaming contract with Diamond Sports Group yesterday, reports Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. The team will remain on the FanDuel Sports Network, the same organization that previously operated under the Bally Sports name. The Angels have not made an official announcement.
Terms of the deal remain unreported. For fans, the biggest development is the introduction of the streaming agreement. Fans in the Anaheim area can access Halos games on the FanDuel Sports app even if they don’t have a television provider that carries the network. The Cardinals reached a similar arrangement, which should dramatically reduce the number of blackouts, with Diamond earlier this week.
Diamond abandoned 11 of its 12 existing TV deals last month. They’ve renegotiated new terms with the Marlins, Cardinals and Angels. Diamond plans to honor its initial arrangement with the Braves. It’ll carry at least four teams next season. The Twins, Guardians and Brewers have announced that they’ll allow MLB to handle in-market broadcasts. The Rangers are still exploring options but do not intend to renegotiate with Diamond.
The Reds are taking that path as well. The Cincinnati franchise revealed in court on Friday that it was unable to come to terms with Diamond (link via Evan Drellich of the Athletic). The Reds gave up their stake in what had been a joint venture with Diamond covering FanDuel Sports Network Ohio. They’ll look for other arrangements. The Rays, Royals and Tigers remain in limbo and could still hammer out new contracts.
That all presupposes that Diamond continues to exist. The corporation still needs approval from the bankruptcy court to embark on a reorganization plan at all. The confirmation hearing is set for next Thursday and Friday. MLB and the Braves leveled formal objections yesterday, expressing their belief that Diamond has “a substantial likelihood” of going under again if the court approves reorganization. In the event the court overrules those objections, the Angels will be back on FanDuel Sports Network for at least another season.
Zach Neto Could Miss Start Of 2025 Season After Undergoing Shoulder Surgery
Angels shortstop Zach Neto underwent shoulder surgery and could miss the start of the 2025 season. General manager Perry Minasian informed reporters such as Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com (X link) and Sam Blum of The Athletic (X link), though didn’t specify the exact nature of the injury or procedure.
Per Minasian, Zeto sustained the injury playing in Chicago during the club’s final week of the season. While playing the White Sox on September 26, Zeto was on first base and tried to take second on a ball in the dirt (video link from MLB.com). After sliding headfirst into the bag and getting thrown out, he was clutching at his right shoulder and clearly in pain. The Angels then hosted the Rangers for the final three games of the season but Neto didn’t play in those.
Over a month has now passed since that injury. Per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (X link), Neto tried rehabbing but still had some lingering issues, so it seems he had to go under the knife.
Though the exact details of the situation haven’t been relayed, the timetable is not good news for the Angels. Neto has less than two years in the big leagues but has taken over the club’s shortstop job and performed well. He just wrapped up a 2024 season in which he hit 23 home runs and slashed .249/.318/.443 for a wRC+ of 114 wRC+. The reviews of his defense were mixed but he stole 30 bases on the year. Putting his total performance together, FanGraphs graded him as worth 3.5 wins above replacement on the year, tops on the team.
The club just wrapped up their worst season in franchise history, going 63-99. Despite that, owner Arte Moreno said last month that they planned to increase payroll and try to compete in 2025. They have already acquired slugger Jorge Soler from Atlanta and signed pitcher Kyle Hendricks as they attempt to upgrade the roster.
Turning a 99-loss team into a contender was always going to be a challenge, especially for a franchise that has continually fallen short of expectations. In recent years, they have had two-way star Shohei Ohtani and something near peak Mike Trout on the same roster but couldn’t even get their win-loss record over .500. Now they’ve lost Ohtani while Trout has become increasingly absent due to injuries as he pushes towards his mid 30s.
Cobbling together a winner in 2025 will now only become more difficult as their top contributor from 2024 will be missing time. Since Neto will presumably be back at some point, they probably won’t go after a big free agent like Willy Adames to fill the spot for a temporary absence. Perhaps they will keep an eye out for multi-positional players that could fill the void and then move to another spot once Neto is healthy.
It’s also possible that they’ve already been on this path. Super utility player Scott Kingery was sent from the Phillies to the Angels last week, with the Halos adding him to their roster shortly thereafter to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency. Kingery played mostly shortstop in Triple-A this year, also spending some time at second base and center field. He hit 25 home runs and stole 25 bases, slashing .268/.316/.488. He has a line of just .229/.280/.387 in his major league career but would be a fine utility guy if he performed the way he did in the minors in 2024.
Luis Rengifo is also on the roster and can play all over the diamond, though he’s not really considered a strong defender anywhere and is probably better suited for a less-demanding spot like second base. Kyren Paris is on the 40-man but has just 105 major league plate appearances with a rough line of .110/.214/.165 in those. Perhaps the club will keep an eye out for other depth options in free agency, the trade market, or on the waiver wire.
How the roster shakes out will be determined in the months to come. For today, it’s a setback for the Halos. They have a roster with plenty of question marks but shortstop wasn’t one of them before this news.
Angels Sign Kyle Hendricks
The Angels announced the signing of veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks to a one-year deal. The Wassrman client reportedly receives a $2.5MM base salary.
Hendricks, 35 in December, will be suiting up for a team other than the Cubs for the first time if the deal gets finalized. Though he was drafted by the Rangers in 2011, he was traded to the Cubs prior to his major league debut, as part of the July 2012 trade that sent Ryan Dempster to Texas.
He was able to get to the big leagues by 2014 and quickly established himself as a solid rotation piece. He didn’t have overpowering stuff but showed a knack for limiting damage, earning the nickname “The Professor”. He made 13 starts and logged 81 1/3 innings in his debut, allowing just 2.46 earned runs per nine innings despite a low strikeout rate of 14.6%.
From there, he found a few more punchouts but his success was generally built around weak contact. From 2014 to 2020, he tossed over a thousand innings for the Cubs with a 3.12 ERA, 20.8% strikeout rate, 5.3% walk rate and 47.5% ground ball rate. He was a pillar of the Cubs in that time, helping them become a perennial contender and break their World Series curse in 2016.
The last few years have been a bit more rocky, however. In 2021, his strikeout rate dipped to 16.7% and his ERA climbed to 4.77. In 2022, a capsular tear in his right shoulder limited him to 16 starts with a 4.80 ERA. He didn’t require surgery but was out of action until May of 2023.
He managed something of a rebound when he got back on the hill. Last year, he posted a 3.74 ERA over 24 starts after recovering from that shoulder injury. His 16.1% strikeout rate was still low but he only walked 4.7% of batters faced and prevented batters from producing big exit velocity.
The Cubs were encouraged enough to trigger a $16.5MM club option to bring him back for 2024, part of the extension the two sides agreed to ahead of the 2019 season. But that’s a move they likely regret, as Hendricks couldn’t keep his bounceback going in 2024. He struggled out of the gate and got bumped to the bullpen. Though he eventually retook a rotation role, he finished the year with a 5.92 ERA.
There might be a bit of bad luck in there, as Hendricks was only able to strand 64.2% of baserunners this year, well below the 72.1% league average. His 4.98 FIP and 4.83 SIERA on the season suggest he deserved better than his ERA would suggest, but still aren’t outstanding numbers.
Putting those recent ups and downs together, Hendricks has a 4.80 ERA since the start of 2021. His 43.3% ground ball rate in that time is around league average and his 6% walk rate quite strong, but his 16.5% strikeout rate well below par.
Perhaps the Angels see a way to get him back on track or simply want some affordable veteran innings on what may have been a hometown discount. Veteran innings eaters can often secure deals close to eight figures, even without strong overall results. 43-year-old Rich Hill got $8MM from the Pirates going into 2023 on the heels of a season in which he posted a 4.27 ERA. Jon Lester got $5MM from the Nationals for his age-37 after posting a 5.16 ERA. Corey Kluber got $10MM from the Red Sox after putting up a 4.34 ERA in his age-36 season.
Hendricks is younger than those guys but signing for less, very early in the offseason of his very first trip to free agency. Since he grew up in Orange County, perhaps he wanted to be close to home and quickly got a deal done with the Halos, though that’s totally speculative.
Signing Hendricks would fit with the club’s longstanding aversion to spending on the rotation. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the most they’ve spent on a starting pitcher in the past decade was three years and $39MM for Tyler Anderson. Apart from that and a two-year arbitration deal for Shohei Ohtani, they haven’t given any starting pitcher a multi-year deal in that time frame.
That tendency along with struggles to develop pitching internally have led to ongoing starting pitching deficiencies in Anaheim. The club has a 4.54 rotation ERA over the past decade, 24th in baseball for that stretch, mostly ahead of clubs that underwent yearslong rebuilds. 2024 was no exception as the Angels starters had a collective 4.97 ERA this year, which was better than only the Marlins and Rockies. One of their more talented starters is going to be on the shelf for a while, as Patrick Sandoval had UCL surgery in June.
Going into 2025, the rotation mix has plenty of uncertainty. Anderson, José Soriano, Jack Kochanowicz, Reid Detmers, Caden Dana, Sam Aldegheri and Chase Silseth are some of the options, though there are question marks with each. Anderson had a 3.81 ERA but outperformed his peripherals and had a 5.43 ERA the year before. Soriano seemingly had a breakout campaign this year but didn’t pitch much in the 2020-2023 period thanks to two Tommy John surgeries. Detmers has shown promise at times but had a 6.70 ERA in the majors this year and wasn’t much better in Triple-A. Silseth spent most of 2024 battling an elbow injury. Kochanowicz only has 11 MLB starts while Dana and Aldegheri each have just three.
For a club that hopes to compete in 2025, adding to that rotation is a sensible path. There are more exciting options than Hendricks out there but his track record of reliability is quite strong. His modest earning power lined up with the club’s track record when it comes to not spending much on the rotation, so the stars have aligned to have Hendricks be close to home this year. For the Cubs, they no longer have any connection to their curse-breaking team on the roster, as Hendricks was the final holdout from that club.
Bruce Levine of 670 The Score (X link) first relayed that the two sides were nearing a one-year deal. Jon Heyman of The New York Post (X link) pegged the value around $3MM. Joel Sherman of The New York Post (X link) first reported the $2.5MM number.
Angels Select Scott Kingery, Release Kenny Rosenberg
The Angels added recently acquired infielder Scott Kingery to their 40-man roster. The Halos released left-hander Kenny Rosenberg in a corresponding move.
Los Angeles acquired Kingery from Philadelphia over the weekend. They would not have done so if they weren’t planning to add him to the roster, as the infielder would otherwise have reached minor league free agency today. The 30-year-old former top prospect has only appeared in one big league game since 2021. He’s coming off a decent showing with Philadelphia’s top affiliate in Lehigh Valley, hitting .268/.318/.488 with 25 homers and stolen bases apiece.
Rosenberg, a 29-year-old swingman, has pitched in 17 MLB contests across the last three years. He owns a 4.66 earned run average. The Cal State Northridge product had a decent year with Triple-A Salt Lake, working to a 4.21 ERA through 115 1/3 innings in the Pacific Coast League. He punched out 21.5% of opponents against a tidy 7.8% walk percentage.
Angels Acquire Scott Kingery From Phillies
The Angels have acquired infielder Scott Kingery from the Phillies in exchange for cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs. Kingery wasn’t on Philadelphia’s 40-man roster and won’t need to take a spot with the Angels.
Kingery, 31 in April, was once a highly-touted prospect. The Phils had enough confidence in his future that they signed him to a long-term extension before he had even made his major league debut. In March of 2018, the Phils gave Kingery a $24MM guarantee covering the 2018-2023 seasons, with three club options as well.
Unfortunately, Kingery wasn’t able to live up to his prospect billing or that contract. He can steal a few bases and and play defense all over the diamond but he simply hasn’t hit enough to be a useful big leaguer. He currently has a batting line of just .229/.280/.387 in 1,127 plate appearances in the majors.
The Phils outrighted him off their roster in both 2021 and 2022, with no club willing to grab the remainder of the contract off waivers. He had surpassed three years of service time and had the right to elect free agency instead of accepting those outright assignments. However, since he was under the five-year service mark, walking away would have involved leaving the remainder of his contract on the table. Naturally, he reported to the minors and continued playing out the rest of his deal. The Phils turned down his ’24 club option but he stayed in the organization at that point as well.
Though the contract was a bust, Kingery just wrapped up a solid season in the minors. He took 505 plate appearances for the IronPigs and hit 25 home runs. The offensive environment in the International League was quite strong this year, so his robust line of .268/.316/.488 was only marginally above league average, translating to a wRC+ of 104.
Kingery stole 25 bases and continued bouncing around the diamond this year, playing second base, shortstop and center field. He has past experience at third base and in the outfield corners.
With those traits, he could perhaps be a useful player even with some semi-competent offense. He hasn’t been able to do that in his major league career so far but it’s a low-risk move for the Angels as Kingery isn’t even taking up a roster spot for now.
The Angels have a few question marks in their position player mix. Luis Rengifo projects as the top second base option but his 2024 was ended by wrist surgery. Even if he comes back healthy, he might need to bounce to other positions. Third baseman Anthony Rendon has been extremely injury-prone in recent years and Rengifo has often had to cover the hot corner. Mike Trout has also missed significant time in center field recently and might get moved to a corner or into the designated hitter spot with more frequency going forward.
Kingery can give them some extra minor league depth all over the diamond. He will try to earn a roster spot and the opportunity for a post-hype breakout.
Angels Claim Ryan Noda
The Angels announced Friday that they’ve claimed first baseman Ryan Noda off waivers from the Athletics.
Noda, 28, was a Rule 5 pick out of the Dodgers organization back in 2022 and spent the entire 2023 campaign on the A’s roster. At the time, it looked like a savvy pick. Noda was an on-base machine with the Athletics, hitting .229/.364/.406 and drawing a walk in a whopping 15.6% of his plate appearances. He struck out far, far too often (34.3%) but popped 16 home runs in that rookie showing.
In 2024, Noda was unable to replicate that production in a smaller sample of 111 plate appearances, however. He posted a grisly .137/.255/.211 slash with a diminished (albeit still excellent) 12.6% walk rate and a strikeout in one-third of his plate appearances. Noda’s Triple-A production was reminiscent of his 2023 output, as he hit .224/.391/.486 with 22 homers and an eye-popping 19.9% walk rate.
Noda is the embodiment of the three-true-outcomes skill set, with a particular focus on walks and strikeouts. He’s shown above-average but not elite power to go along with below-average speed (41st percentile, per Statcast). Both Statcast and Defensive Runs Saved feel the 6’1″, 217-pounder is a sound defender at first base. He’s dabbled in the outfield corners as well, but his limited mobility plays better at his primary position.
Noda will enter the 2025 season with minor league options remaining, so the Halos needn’t carry him on the Opening Day roster. He can give them some depth behind Nolan Schanuel — a similarly OBP-focused first baseman whose skill set is in many ways the inverse of Noda. Schanuel has below-average power but rarely strikes out. Both players are left-handed bats who walk at plus clips and have limited defensive utility.
Braves, Angels Swap Jorge Soler For Griffin Canning
The Angels and Braves wasted little time hammering out the first significant trade of the offseason, as the teams announced Thursday that they’ve agreed on a swap sending designated hitter Jorge Soler to Anaheim in exchange for righty Griffin Canning. There’s reportedly no money changing hands in the deal. The Angels will take on the entirety of the remaining two years and $26MM on Soler’s contract. Atlanta, meanwhile, will be on the hook for Canning’s salary in his final season of arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a $5.1MM salary for Canning, who’ll be a free agent next winter.
Soler stood as one of the most obvious trade candidates in all of baseball this offseason, given his defensive limitations and the presence of Marcell Ozuna in Atlanta. The Braves acquired him as something of a desperation move at the deadline, needing help for an injury-ravaged lineup. The plan always seemed to be stomaching Soler in the outfield for a couple of months and pursuing a trade in the offseason (hence Soler ranking prominently on our list of the top 35 trade candidates of the 2024-25 offseason).
The 32-year-old Soler (33 in February) will add a thunderous bat and defensively limited skill set to the Angels’ roster. He inked a three-year, $42MM deal with the Giants last winter on the heels of a 36-homer campaign in Miami and has now been traded twice in the first year of the contract. That isn’t for lack of production, however. To the contrary, Soler enjoyed a solid season at the plate, slashing .241/.338/.442 in 142 games. He was particularly productive from June onward, catching fire with a .263/.366/.489 batting line and clubbing 15 of his 21 homers in that span of 386 plate appearances.
Soler simply wasn’t a good long-term fit on Atlanta’s roster with Ozuna a lock to be retained on a $16MM club option. Both players offer huge power but bottom-of-the-scale defense in the outfield corners. The Braves, as a luxury tax payor, would’ve been on the hook for overage penalties in addition to the $13MM annually owed to Soler.
With the Angels, it’s a more straightforward match. He’ll slot in as the everyday designated hitter on a Halos club that used journeyman Willie Calhoun as its primary option at the DH position in 2024. Eighteen players saw time at DH for the Angels last year, and their collective output (.222/.299/.328) was the fifth-worst in the sport, by measure of wRC+ (80). Even if Soler doesn’t bounce all the way back to his standout 2023 production, his 2024 output represents a monumental upgrade over what the Angels received out of last year’s committee approach to the DH spot in their lineup.
Soler is now one of five Angels under a guaranteed contract for the 2025 season, joining Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon, Tyler Anderson and Robert Stephenson. Add in an arbitration class that could cost upwards of $31-32MM before any potential non-tenders (via Swartz’s previously referenced projections), and the Halos are looking at a projected payroll around $168MM (via RosterResource) with the entire offseason ahead of them. They’re presently about $58MM beneath the first luxury tax threshold.
For the Braves, the trade subtracts an onerous contract while adding another competitor to their rotation competition behind Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, Spencer Schwellenbach (and, once healthy, Spencer Strider). Canning, a former second-round pick and top prospect, has shown promise with the Angels at times — 2020 and 2023, in particular — but has yet to solidify himself as a viable big leagues starter. He’s coming off a season that saw him soak up a career-high 171 2/3 innings but do so with a lackluster 5.19 earned run average. His 17.6% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate, 40.7% ground-ball rate and 1.63 HR/9 mark are all worse than the league average.
As recently as ’23, however, Canning logged 127 innings with a 4.32 ERA and much more promising strikeout and walk rates of 25.9% and 6.7%, respectively. A dip in both command and fastball velocity (94.7 mph in 2023, 93.4 mph in 2024) contributed to a downturn on the mound. That said, Canning entered the 2024 season with career-long strikeout and walk rates that were better than league average and a decent bit of post-hype prospect pedigree. He won’t be guaranteed a rotation spot in Atlanta, but if he’s tendered a contract — not a sure thing — he’d compete with AJ Smith-Shawver, Ian Anderson, Bryce Elder and Hurston Waldrep for a spot at the back of the starting staff.
Canning has more than five years of service time and thus cannot be optioned to the minors without his consent. That lack of options leaves open the possibility that the Braves could attempt to sign him to a one-year deal that checks in well shy of his projected arbitration salary and, if unsuccessful, decline to tender him a contract. That’d render the Soler trade a straight-up salary dump, but that’s still not an entirely bad outcome for the Braves. If Canning is indeed tendered a contract, he could also be used as a swingman or long reliever.
The Braves paid the luxury tax in both 2023 and 2024. They’re overwhelmingly likely to do so again in 2025, based on the state of their books. Paying Soler $13MM would’ve come with at least a 50% luxury tax — possibly more, depending on the extent of their remaining offseason spending. For a club with holes to fill in the rotation and quite likely at shortstop, that was an untenable setup. In effect, Atlanta is buying low on a rotation flier and creating greater financial flexibility to address other offseason needs. The Angels, meanwhile, move a potential fifth starter/non-tender candidate to provide a substantial upgrade to a lackluster offense. The Angels’ roster is still littered with holes, so this should be just the first of many additions if the team is intent on trying to compete next season. It’s a fine start as long as it’s merely the first domino in a broader sequence.
Mike Rodriguez first reported Soler was being traded to the Angels. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that Canning was headed back to Atlanta. David O’Brien of The Athletic reported that no money was changing hands in the trade.