Ramirez, 33, is a veteran of six Major League seasons, most of which came with the Angels. After initially joining the Angels via a 2016 waiver claim, Ramirez quickly solidified his spot on their roster, first with a strong showing out of the bullpen in 46 1/3 innings during the 2016 season and then as a member of the rotation in 2017, when he made 24 starts and racked up 147 1/3 innings. From 2016-17 with Anaheim, Ramirez worked to a 3.86 ERA with a 16.7% strikeout rate, a 7.6% walk rate and a big 52.1% ground-ball rate.

Unfortunately for both Ramirez and the Angels, that solid 2017 season ended in August when he was diagnosed with an elbow strain. Ramirez returned early in the 2018 season in hopes that an offseason’s worth of downtime had resolved the issue, but he was hit hard in his first two starts of the season. Ramirez went back to the injured list, and Tommy John surgery was recommended in early April. He missed the remainder of the 2018 campaign and a notable chunk of the 2019 season, although he did make it back to the mound for eight relief innings in the second half of that ’19 campaign.

Ramirez was removed from the Angels’ 40-man roster late in the 2019 season and elected minor league free agency after the year, though he was set to return to the organization as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training 2020. He’d hoped to vie for a roster spot, but Spring Training 2020 was ultimately canceled during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ramirez pitched in the Mexican Winter League in both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, logging a combined 2.61 ERA in 82 2/3 innings over 13 starts. He spent the 2021 season pitching first in the Mexican League and then with the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. In 57 2/3 innings CPBL innings, Ramirez posted a 3.43 ERA with a 21.3% strikeout rate and a 6.6% walk rate.

The Twins entered the offseason with a notable need in the rotation and have thus far added Sonny Gray, Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy on the Major League side of things. President of baseball operations Derek Falvey said after signing Archer this week that while the Twins remain open to additional trade scenarios, the limited time remaining between now and next Thursday’s season opener (plus the generally limited supply of available big league starters) might mean Archer was the final big league piece added.

If that’s indeed the case, the depth options the Twins have — both in terms of veterans like Ramirez and upper-level prospects like Josh Winder, Jordan Balazovic, Cole Sands and more — will prove all the more important this season.

The 32-year-old Ramirez didn’t pitch in the Majors this past season after signing a minor league pact to return for what would’ve been a fifth season in the Halos organization. He was a solid member of the Angels’ rotation back in 2017, pitching to a 4.15 ERA over the life of 147 1/3 innings (27 games, including 24 starts). That showing seemed to set the stage for Ramirez to take hold of a rotation spot full-time beginning in 2018, but he suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament and underwent Tommy John surgery after just two starts in 2018.

Ramirez returned to the Majors in the second half of the 2019 season but pitched in just five games before being removed from the team’s 40-man roster. In all, he’s pitched just 14 2/3 innings since that promising showing back in 2017.

Beyond his work with the Angels, Ramirez has seen brief MLB time with the Phillies, D-backs, Mariners and Reds. In 288 1/3 innings as a big leaguer, he’s logged a 4.71 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 1.44 HR/9 and a 49.8 percent ground-ball rate.

• GM Billy Eppler says he doesn’t feel any added need to acquire a new starter — at least not yet — as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. That may in part speak to ongoing hope that Canning’s elbow woes won’t ultimately represent a major problem. But it also reflects the simple fact that, as Eppler notes, it just isn’t the best time of year to go out looking for a new arm. The open market’s best options are already taken and teams that have depth on hand are loathe to part with it at this juncture. A patient approach therefore makes sense, as the Halos’ precise level of need isn’t yet known and some amount of pitching supply is likely to free up later in Spring Training.
• The Angels will build up JC Ramirez as a starter in camp, manager Joe Maddon told reporters including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic (Twitter link). As Ardaya notes, that could put the righty in the running for some sort of a flexible swingman function throughout the season. Ramirez just re-joined the Halos after reportedly showing a bit of a velocity renaissance in winter ball. If he can get back to something approaching the solid form he showed in 2016 and 2017, he’d be an awfully useful part of the Angels’ pitching staff.
• There’s better news in the bullpen, where key righty Keynan Middleton seems to be showing well. As Fletcher tweets, Middleton was pumping 96-97 mph heat in his scoreless outing today. That’s a good sign given what we saw of him late last season, when he had only just returned from Tommy John surgery. While he allowed only a single earned run in 7 2/3 innings late in 2019, Middleton was clearly not in top form. He displayed a loss of over two mph on his average fastball and dished out seven walks to go with six strikeouts.

Ramirez has gone through some ups and downs with the Halos already. The typically hard-throwing righty finally found a stable job as a reliever back in 2016, turned in a lot of solid starts in 2017, and then went down to Tommy John surgery in April of 2018.

Though he was tendered a contract and worked back to health in 2019, Ramirez has yet to recover his heater. He sat at 91 mph after working in the mid-to-upper nineties for much of his career.

Ramirez was ultimately outrighted by the Angels after five subpar MLB outings. He also struggled during his time at Triple-A. But Ramirez has perhaps shown a bit of a spark in Mexican winter ball, where he carries a 3.48 ERA with 29 strikeouts and eight walks over 41 1/3 innings.

After undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2018, Ramirez made his return to the Major League mound on July 31, and the righty has a 4.50 ERA over eight innings of relief work.  Of particular note was Ramirez’s 91mph average fastball velocity, a notable step down from his 95.5mph average over the course of his career, though it isn’t unusual for pitchers to gradually build up velocity after any long absence (especially in the aftermath of a major arm procedure).

The 30-year-old has already logged 41 1/3 minor league innings this season as part of his rehab work, and he’ll now head back to Triple-A unless he chooses to become a free agent.  He could decide to simply remain in a familiar organization while he gets back to full health, unless Ramirez feels he’s ready for MLB action and opts to seek out a chance on another club’s 25-man roster.  As evidenced by the outright, Ramirez is out of options, meaning that a new team would either have to keep him on their active roster or else expose him to waivers again in order to outright him to the minor leagues.

McCreery, 26, didn’t pitch for the Angels at the MLB level after the Halos acquired him from the Dodgers in exchange for cash earlier this month. In fact, he made only two appearances with the Angels’ Triple-A club prior to today’s announcement, allowing a run on two hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. McCreery has a spotty track record in the upper minors thanks to control issues, but he’s also averaged nearly 12 strikeouts per nine innings pitched throughout his minor league career.

Ramirez, 31 next month, came out of nowhere to give the Angels 24 starts and 147 1/3 innings of 4.15 ERA ball after bouncing all over the league prior to landing in Anaheim. He’ll be utilized out of the bullpen in his return to the MLB roster, but he’s eligible for arbitration in the winter and will likely reemerge as a rotation candidate for the Angels in 2019.

Harvey went to the injured list with an upper back strain May 25 and then suffered a setback June 10, continuing a nightmarish season. The Angels took a one-year, $11MM flier on Harvey in free agency, but the decision has emphatically gone against the team thus far. Once an ace with the Mets, Harvey joined the Angels after finishing 2018 in respectable fashion with the Reds. In his first two months as an Angel, though, the 30-year-old performed like one of the majors’ worst starters, notching a  7.50 ERA/6.11 FIP with 6.56 K/9 against 3.94 BB/9 across 48 frames.

Ramirez, also 30, hasn’t taken the mound for the Angels since going under the knife last April. The righty managed effective results in 142 1/3 innings as a starter for the Angels in 2017, when he put up a 4.11 ERA (with a 4.67 FIP), 6.45 K/9, 2.97 BB/9 and a 51.4 percent groundball rate. A 95.5 mph fastball helped Ramirez achieve that success, though Triple-A Salt Lake broadcaster Steve Klauke tweeted last week that the hurler’s velocity has been far less imposing during his rehab work. That was again the case Friday, per Klauke, who reports Ramirez hovered around 88 to 92 mph while tossing six innings of three-run ball.

Sadly for the Angels, the upcoming returns of Harvey and Ramirez have taken on added importance in light of starter Tyler Skaggs’ passing this week. At 45-44 and 4 1/2 games out of playoff position, the club has an outside chance at earning a wild-card spot. But the Angels will need more from a starting staff which is trying its best to carry on under terrible circumstances. None of the Angels’ current options have posted exemplary production to this point, though there’s plenty of promise in the form of Andrew Heaney and the young tandem of Griffin Canning and Jose Suarez.

Angels starters have handed off to a bullpen which has received quality late-game production from Ty Buttrey, Hansel Robles and Cam Bedrosian. When Middleton comes back, the 25-year-old will add another high-octane arm to the group. With help from a 96 mph heater, the right-handed Middleton logged a 3.43 ERA/4.24 FIP with 9.36 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 76 innings from 2017-18. He underwent surgery last May.

More on a few other pitchers…

• Pirates righty Chris Archer left his start against the Brewers on Friday after just four innings with left hip discomfort. However, it’s still unclear whether he’ll require a stint on the injured list. The club will reevaluate Archer when it returns to Pittsburgh on Monday, according to Adam Berry of MLB.com. Archer was already on the IL earlier this season with a thumb injury, and has come up well short of expectations when healthy. The 30-year-old has managed a discouraging 5.50 ERA/5.77 FIP in 73 2/3 innings.
• Angels righty JC Ramirez is at least one more rehab start from making his 2019 MLB debut, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. Ramirez, who’s working back from April 2018 Tommy John surgery, made his fifth rehab start Saturday and threw five innings of two-run ball for Triple-A Salt Lake. His average fastball was sitting in the 88 to 91 mph range, according to Salt Lake broadcaster Steve Klauke. That’s down significantly from the 95.5 mean Ramirez posted in 2017, the last time he logged extensive major league action.
• Injured Diamondbacks righty Jon Duplantier’s most recent MRI on his shoulder yielded positive news, manager Torey Lovullo announced Saturday (via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). Still, the Diamondbacks aren’t any closer to determining how much more time Duplantier will miss. The 24-year-old has already sat out almost three weeks, having gone on the IL on June 12. With Luke Weaver and Taijuan Walker also injured, the Diamondbacks have cycled through Taylor Clarke, Zack Godley and Alex Young at the back of their rotation during Duplantier’s absence. Clarke and Godley have struggled mightily, though the former did turn in a solid five innings in a win over the Dodgers on Wednesday. Young just made his MLB debut Thursday and tossed five innings of one-run ball in a victory over San Francisco.

More from the American League West:

• Angels righty JC Ramirez is set to launch a rehab assignment later this week, Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times tweets. Ramirez underwent Tommy John surgery last April. With his 30-day rehab clock set to be triggered, Ramirez is now back on the map as a near-term roster piece for the Halos. The club owes him $1,901,000 this year, with two more arb campaigns remaining. Though he has had some struggles in his time in the majors, Ramirez has given the Halos 200 1/3 innings of 4.04 ERA ball and showed he could stick in the rotation in 2017.
• As ever, there are other updates to the Angels rotation mix. Nick Tropeano will beat Ramirez back to the big leagues; as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets, Tropeano is coming up to pitch today’s ballgame. He was optioned after working back from a shoulder strain, and has been tagged in the run-happy PCL, but the innings are needed now. That’s due in no small part to the issues surrounding Matt Harvey, who just hit the injured list with a back strain after an awful stretch on the hill. Harvey didn’t have much of a timeline to offer reporters, as Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter link). With more to sort out than an injury, there’s no reason to think Harvey will be rushed back.
• For the Mariners, there are a few incremental health updates of note, as Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports (all links to Twitter). Rehabbing relievers Sam Tuivailala and Hunter Strickland are still a ways off. The former, who is working back from Achilles surgery, has come down with dead arm and may need to re-start his rehab rather than heading back to the majors. The latter is readying for his first mound work since leaving with a lat injury earlier this year. Starter Felix Hernandez, who’s on the IL with a shoulder strain, is also nearing mound work. The club is still taking it slow with corner infielder Ryon Healy, who has yet to resume baseball activity after recently hitting the shelf due to a balky lower back. That’s a less promising outlook than had been indicated when he was first sidelined, but the club no doubt hopes to avoid a lingering problem.
• Athletics backstop Chris Herrmann is nearing a rehab assignment, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link). Herrmann inked a one-year, $1MM deal over the offseason but hasn’t yet debuted with his new organization owing to knee surgery. It remains to be seen how the Oakland club will manage its roster once Herrmann is ready; Josh Phegley has hit well all year and Nick Hundley has turned it on after a dreadful start. It’s possible the A’s could ultimately carry all three, at least for a stretch, as Herrmann does have experience playing in other parts of the field.
• It still doesn’t seem the Astros have cause for alarm regarding righty Collin McHugh, but he’s not going to be ready to return within the minimum ten-day window. Manager A.J. Hinch tells reporters, including Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link), that McHugh is in need of “a little more down time” to let his elbow stop barking. “He’s played catch a couple days and has not seen any progress,” says Hinch. “He’s not any closer than he was a few days ago.” McHugh has been a bit homer-prone, which explains his rough 6.04 ERA on the year, but otherwise has impressive peripherals. That he has been moved out of the rotation and into a relief role is testament to the depth of the talent on hand in Houston.

As always, it’s interesting to refer back to MLBTR’s annual arbitration projections. Here are the day’s deals:

• The Tigers will pay Shane Greene $4MM for the coming campaign, Murray tweets. Entering his second year of eligibility, the 30-year-old had projected at $4.8MM, owing largely to his strong tally of 32 saves. Despite appealing K/BB numbers, though, Greene finished the season with an unsightly 5.12 ERA.
• Righty Nick Tropeano settled with the Angels at $1.075MM. (That’s also via Murray, on Twitter.) That falls well shy of his $1.6MM projection. The first-year arb-eligible hurler was not terribly effective in his 14 starts last year and has just over two hundred career frames in the big leagues, due in no small part to a long rehab owing to Tommy John surgery.

Earlier Updates

• Newly acquired outfielder Domingo Santana will earn $1.95MM in his first season with the Mariners, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports on Twitter. That’s just a touch below the $2.0MM that MLBTR & Matt Swartz had projected. The 26-year-old Santana swatted thirty long balls and had a productive overall 2017 season, but only received 235 plate appearances in the ensuing campaign — over which he hit five home runs and carried a .265/.328/.412 slash — before being dealt to Seattle.
• The Angels are on the hook for $1,901,000 to rehabbing righty J.C. Ramirez, Robert Murray of The Athletic tweets. Ramirez will receive a nominal raise on his 2018 salary after requiring Tommy John surgery after just two starts.
• Phillies righty Hector Neris has settled at $1.8MM, according to Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia (Twitter links). He had projected at $2.0MM but will settle for a bit less in his first season of arb eligibility. Right-handed starter Jerad Eickhoff, meanwhile, is slated to receive $975K. His projected first-year salary was much higher, at $1.7MM, but Eickhoff presented a tough case since he missed virtually all of his platform season with arm troubles.
• Southpaw Ryan Buchter has agreed with the Athletics on a $1.4MM deal, Nightengale of reports on Twitter. That lands just a smidge over his $1.3MM projection. Soon to turn 32, Buchter worked to a sub-3.00 for the third-straight season in 2018, but only threw 39 1/3 innings while working as a lefty specialist.
• Red Sox reliever Heath Hembree will receive a $1,312,500 salary next year, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports (Twitter link). Starter Steven Wright checks in just a shade higher, at $1.375MM, per Nightengale (via Twitter). Both players had projected in this range, with Swartz pegging $1.2MM for the former and $1.4MM for the latter. It’s Hembree’s first time through the process and Wright’s second.
• First-time arb-eligible righty Scott Oberg settled with the Rockies for $1.3MM, according to Nightengale (via Twitter). It’s $100K over the projected rate for the 28-year-old hurler, who turned in far and away his most productive MLB season in 2018.
• The Yankees have a $1.2MM deal in place with first baseman Greg Bird, Nightengale was first to tweet. Though he had projected a bit higher, at $1.5MM, Bird’s relatively robust number of home runs (31 total in 659 career plate appearances) were threatened to be overshadowed in a hypothetical hearing by his rough overall stats over the past two seasons. He’ll need to earn his way back into a larger share of playing time in 2019.
• Infielder Travis Jankowski will earn $1.165MM with the Padres, per Murray (via Twitter). He projected at a heftier $1.4MM, but the Super Two qualifier will still earn a nice raise after his best season in the big leagues. Jankowski will be looking to crack 400 plate appearances for the first time in the season to come.
• The Nationals have agreed to a $1MM contract with righty Joe Ross, Murray also tweets. Though Ross projected at $1.5MM for his first season of eligibility, that was based largely upon the innings he accumulated over the prior three seasons. Ross made it back from Tommy John surgery in time for only three outings in 2018.
• A pair of backstops have also put pen to paper on new salaries. Curt Casali will earn $950K with the Reds, per Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link). John Ryan Murphy has a $900K agreement with the Diamondbacks, the elder Nightengale tweets. Casali, a Super Two, had projected for a $1.3MM salary, while Murphy projected at $1.1MM in his first arb year.

Here are a few other disabled list transactions from around the league…

• Pirates outfielder Corey Dickerson has been activated after a short stint on the disabled list; he’d been sidelined with a left hamstring strain. They’ll surely be glad to have him back after the club traded away notable outfield depth in the form of Austin Meadows at the July 31st deadline. While he’s active, Dickerson won’t be starting today’s game against the Cardinals (though he’ll presumably be available off the bench).
• As expected after last night’s news, Cardinals outfielder Dexter Fowler will hit the DL after suffering a fractured foot. Fowler’s enduring a miserable season that’s by far his career worst; he’s managed to hit an absolutely wretched .180/.278/.298 across 334 plate appearances while playing middling outfield defense. Fangraphs rates him as being 1.2 wins below replacement level on the season after a 2.5 fWAR debut with the Cards last year.
• Switch-hitting relief pitcher Taylor Williams is headed to the DL with right elbow soreness. It’s certainly bad news for a Brewers bullpen that’s seeing Corey Knebel struggle mightily of late. Williams has tossed 42 2/3 relief innings and managed to strike out 10.43 batters per nine innings, though he’s only managed to keep the ball on the ground 34.8% of the time and has walked a batter nearly every other inning on average. Williams is in the midst of his first full season in the majors after a 4 2/3 inning cup of coffee last year.
• Angels hurler Tyler Skaggs is headed to the disabled list with a left adductor strain, the club has announced. Skaggs has described the injury as “extremely frustrating”, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. He apparently sustained it during his last start. In his stead, the Angels have called up right-hander Taylor Cole. The Angels, of course, have already seen their rotation annihilated by injuries this year, with Garrett Richards, Shohei Ohtani, J.C. Ramirez and Matt Shoemaker among the affected starters.

Ramirez, 29, was largely successful in his conversion from the bullpen to the rotation in 2017, tossing 147 1/3 innings of 4.15 ERA ball for the Halos while averaging 6.4 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and 1.3 HR/9 to go along with a strong 51.4 percent ground-ball rate. Ramirez had never started a big league contest prior to the 2017 season but took the ball to open the game on 24 occasions in addition to three relief appearances.

Whether it was a case of correlation or causation, that significant hike in workload ended with Ramirez hitting the 60-day disabled list due to an elbow strain, which was later reported to be a small tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Ramirez received a platelet-rich plasma injection and stem-cell therapy on his right elbow in hopes of avoiding a surgical procedure that would’ve wiped out his entire 2018 season anyhow, but those treatments didn’t prove sufficient.

With Ramirez on the shelf for the remainder of the year and plenty of uncertainty surrounding righty Matt Shoemaker at present, the Angels have taken a pair of early hits to their starting pitching depth. They still have Shohei Ohtani, Garrett Richards, Tyler Skaggs, Andrew Heaney, Nick Tropeano, Parker Bridwell and Jaime Barria as options, though the majority of those arms have all had some form of medical issue within the past year or two. Given the team’s fast start and some early cracks in the rotation foundation, it stands to reason that the Halos will be connected to pitching upgrades over the next few months as the non-waiver deadline draws nearer.

As for Ramirez, he’ll earn his full $1.9MM salary for the 2018 season and accrue big league service time while he mends on the disabled list. He’ll be eligible for arbitration once again this winter and shouldn’t command much of a raise, if any at all, after starting just two games and pitching 6 2/3 total frames. The Angels will have to make the call, then, whether they prefer to pay him around $2MM for the 2019 campaign or cut him loose via non-tender and perhaps try to bring him back on a minor league deal. The Angels control Ramirez through 2021, so there’s some added appeal to keeping him on the roster and paying a small price for his rehab season.

After some struggles with forearm tightness to open the year, following an offseason of stem-cell treatment for a partial UCL tear, this news isn’t exactly shocking. Still, it’s a disappointing development for a player who had been such a bright spot in 2017.

Ramirez, 29, had found little success in the majors until he threw well in a relief role down the stretch for the Angels in 2016. Still, nothing jumped off the page to foretell future success, with the exception of a healthy 54.9% groundball rate on the season.

Then came a 2017 campaign in which an injury-plagued Halos’ staff was desperate for innings. Ramirez ended up making 24 starts and providing 147 1/3 frames of 4.15 ERA ball. That’s hardly ace-level stuff, and the peripherals (6.4 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, 51.4% GB, 1.28 HR/9) did not exactly excite, but Ramirez certainly provided more than anyone had cause to expect.

While the elbow troubles at season’s end created some obvious cause for trepidation, the Angels decided it was worth the risk to keep Ramirez around. The club tendered the Super-Two-eligible hurler an arb contract and ended up paying him $1.9MM.

If Ramirez ends up going under the knife for a full UCL replacement, he likely won’t be ready to pitch competitively until this time next year (at the soonest). He would likely earn at an identical rate of pay if the team chooses to tender him a contract once again this coming fall.

More out of Anaheim…

• Maria Guardado of MLB.com notes that the injury to Ramirez is particularly concerning. The right-hander landed on the DL over the weekend with tightness in his right forearm, which is ominous for any pitcher given that it can be a precursor to a diagnosis of UCL damage. But the 29-year-old Ramirez already missed the final six weeks of the 2017 season due to a slight tear in his UCL, which he and the team elected to treat with stem-cell therapy rather than surgery. Shaikin notes in his column that an announcement on Ramirez’s status is likely to be made today. Guardado adds that Shoemaker is undergoing additional tests today, so a more precise diagnosis on him could be known soon. In more positive news, manager Mike Scioscia expressed confidence that the team will get Heaney back in the near future (via Guardado’s column).
• As for Kinsler, he tells ESPN’s Mark Schwarz that he’ll be activated from the disabled list for Tuesday’s game against the Rangers. A groin strain cost Kinsler the first 10 days of the regular season, prompting the Angels to shift would-be third baseman Zack Cozart from the hot corner to second base in his absence. Luis Valbuena has been lined up at third base with Cozart at second, but Kinsler’s return will give the Angels the defensive alignment they drew up this offseason.

More injury items from around the league…

• Cardinals left-hander Ryan Sheriff has been placed on the DL with a toe injury; the team has recalled right-hander John Brebbia from Triple-A Memphis in a related move. Sheriff was added to the roster with the news that Brett Cecil would be out for an extended period of time; he allowed one earned run in his 2 2/3 innings of work this season. Sheriff also managed a 3.14 ERA last season in 14 1/3 innings of work for the Cardinals.
• Anthony Rizzo has missed a couple of games for the Cubs due to back tightness, says Carrie Muskat of MLB.com. The first baseman’s back has evidently been bothering him ever since the club’s trip to Cincinnati. Rizzo has just three hits (including one home run) in 32 plate appearances to begin the season.
• J.C. Ramirez is officially headed to the DL with forearm issues, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets. We noted earlier that the righty had been experiencing forearm tightness; he now joins fellow Angels starters Matt Shoemaker and Andrew Heaney on the disabled list, leaving the club incredibly thin in the rotation beyond Garrett Richards, Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Skaggs. Parker Bridwell and Nick Tropeano seem to be the likeliest candidates to get rotation attention, but for the time being the club has recalled relievers Felix Pena and Eduardo Paredes (righty reliever Akeel Morris was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake).