Max Stassi

Angels Place José Marte On 60-Day IL

By Darragh McDonald | March 29, 2023 at 4:50pm CDT

The Angels announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported selection of infielder Jake Lamb. To open a spot for Lamb on the roster, right-hander José Marte was placed on the 60-day injured list. Additionally, the club placed catcher Max Stassi and infielder Jared Walsh on the 10-day injured list, and placed right-handers Chris Rodriguez and Griffin Canning on the 15-day injured list.

Marte, 27 in June, was recently shut down for four weeks due to a stress reaction in his elbow. Even if that cool down period helps get him back to health, he will then have to ramp back up into game readiness at that point, so it’s not shocking to see the club doesn’t expect him back in the next two months. He’s made 15 major league appearances for the Halos thus far in his career with a 7.80 ERA.

As for other IL placements, they’re all of the smaller variety. Stassi has a hip injury while Walsh is currently plagued by headaches and insomnia. Both of those issues were reported earlier this week when it was reported that Lamb would make the team. In the case of Rodriguez, he underwent shoulder surgery last year and it was reported last month that the club would be ramping him up slower than his teammates as he gets back into game shape. To this point, there’s nothing to suggest that there’s been any sort of setback from that plan, and the fact that he hasn’t been placed on the 60-day IL suggests he could return fairly early in the season.

As for Canning, the club announced his injury as a groin strain, which is a recent development. Manager Phil Nevin told Adrian Garro of MLB.com about the issue yesterday. “It’s something that’s not really alarming, but it’s there for sure,” Nevin said.

Canning, 27 next month, has shown some promise in his career, particularly during the shortened 2020 season. He made 11 starts that year with a 3.99 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate, 9.7% walk rate and 36.3% ground ball rate. Unfortunately, his ERA ticked up to 5.60 in 2021 and then he missed all of 2022 due back issues. He was healthy here in spring, making four starts with a 1.32 ERA. That got him into the conversation for a sixth starter job behind Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Anderson, Patrick Sandoval, Reid Detmers and José Suarez. Unfortunately, this groin issue will keep him out of action for the start of the season, seemingly giving Tucker Davidson that sixth starter gig, at least for the time being.

Jared Walsh, Max Stassi To Start Season On Injured List; Angels To Select Jake Lamb

By Steve Adams | March 27, 2023 at 5:57pm CDT

Angels first baseman Jared Walsh and catcher Max Stassi will begin the 2023 season on the injured list, tweets Sam Blum of The Athletic. Walsh is currently being plagued by headaches and insomnia, while Stassi is dealing with a hip injury. With that pair of IL stints, the Halos will carry top catching prospect Logan O’Hoppe and veteran corner infielder Jake Lamb on the Opening Day roster. Lamb, who’s in camp on a non-roster deal, will need to have his contract selected.

Walsh’s trip to the injured list is an unfortunate development for the Halos, given the resurgent showing he turned in this spring after undergoing thoracic outlet surgery in 2022. The 29-year-old Walsh’s 2021 breakout sent him to the All-Star Game, and he finished out that season with a hearty .277/.340/.509 batting line and 29 homers. He hit just .215/.269/.374 in 2022 before landing on the injured list and undergoing surgery, but through 14 spring games in 2023 Walsh looked like his old self: .400/.512/.686 with a pair of homers and four doubles in 43 plate appearances. He’ll meet with a specialist to determine the root of his current issues.

With Walsh out, the veteran Lamb could step into the large half of a first base platoon. He’s had a monster spring, batting .324/.419/.595 with a pair of homers, four doubles and a 9-to-5 K/BB ratio in 43 plate appearances. Lamb hit 59 home runs as the D-backs’ regular third baseman back in 2016-17 but has since had his career derailed by shoulder injuries. He’s batted just .198/.310/.394 in 606 plate appearances since 2018 shoulder surgery. That said, Lamb is a .251/.339/.455 hitter against right-handed pitching.

There’s no timetable provided for Stassi’s return, but his trip to the IL paves the way for O’Hoppe, one of the sport’s top catching prospects, to open the season as the Angels’ primary starter. It also at least temporarily resolves the Angels’ dilemma with regard to catcher/first baseman Matt Thaiss, who’s out of minor league options. Thaiss will now slot in as the backup to O’Hoppe early on, and his experience at first base will also be a factor with Walsh sidelined.

O’Hoppe, 23, made his big league debut with the Angels late in the 2022 season but received just 16 plate appearances in five games. Acquired from the Phillies in the deadline deal that sent center fielder Brandon Marsh the other way, O’Hoppe posted a combined .283/.416/.544 batting line in 447 plate appearances between the Double-A affiliates for his two organizations.

With this Opening Day assignment, he’ll skip the Triple-A level entirely. He’s looked ready for the challenge in Cactus League play, batting .281/.361/.438 with a homer and a pair of doubles. O’Hoppe’s 13 strikeouts in 36 plate appearances are a red flag, but he’ll get the chance to prove he’s ready to step up as the organization’s long-term option behind the plate right now. Baseball America currently ranks O’Hoppe as the game’s No. 42 overall prospect.

Turning to the rest of the Halos’ roster, there’s further clarity being gained. While the Halos are still deciding who’ll round out the final spot in their six-man rotation, they’ve decided on carrying righty Andrew Wantz in the bullpen and, perhaps more interestingly, will run with offseason trade acquisition Gio Urshela as their Opening Day shortstop.

It’s long been expected that Urshela would see some time at shortstop in Anaheim, and he’ll get the nod over Luis Rengifo and David Fletcher. It bears mentioning that the Angels will face a lefty starter (Kyle Muller) on Opening Day, so getting Urshela’s right-handed bat into the lineup is particularly sensible. Whether he holds the shortstop job on an everyday basis will be seen, but he’s made a strong case for as much playing time as possible this spring, batting .382/.417/.471 with a double, a triple and just two strikeouts in 36 trips to the plate.

The Angels’ Catching Competition

By Anthony Franco | February 17, 2023 at 4:34pm CDT

The Angels have made a number of acquisitions this offseason. GM Perry Minasian and his staff addressed virtually every area of the roster in some capacity. Hunter Renfroe came in via trade to bolster the outfield. Gio Urshela and Brandon Drury were brought aboard as infield help. Tyler Anderson signed a three-year deal for the rotation. Carlos Estévez and Matt Moore step into the bullpen mix.

The primary exception is behind the plate. While the Halos were tied to top free agent backstop Willson Contreras at the start of the winter, they ultimately head into Spring Training with a trio of catchers who were on the roster to finish last season. That’s not especially surprising — catcher never looked like the biggest area of concern for the group — but it represents one of the areas that’s least solidified at the moment.

Manager Phil Nevin told reporters this week he views the catching situation as an open competition going into camp (via Sam Blum of the Athletic). With that in mind, it’s worth examining the options at his disposal.

Logan O’Hoppe

Acquired from the Phillies last summer in a surprising deadline deal that sent center fielder Brandon Marsh to Philadelphia, O’Hoppe is one of the sport’s top catching prospects. He’s been a minor leaguer of some regard for a few years running but took things to a new level last season. O’Hoppe spent the vast majority of 2022 with the Double-A affiliates for the respective clubs. He combined for a .283/.416/.544 line with 26 home runs, a massive 15.7% walk percentage and a modest 16.6% strikeout rate during his age-22 campaign.

At the very end of last season, the Halos rewarded O’Hoppe with his first MLB call. He appeared in only five games, far too small a sample upon which to draw any conclusions. The move was more about giving him an opportunity to get acclimated to an MLB atmosphere than in providing useable data for the front office to determine his readiness for 2023.

O’Hoppe is widely praised by prospect evaluators. Baseball America considers him the top young talent in the organization, placing him 42nd among prospects overall. The Athletic and ESPN each slot him towards the back half of their respective top 100 lists. All three outlets credit him for a well-rounded game with solid expected contributions on both sides of the ball.

He’s clearly far too advanced for Double-A. He has zero Triple-A experience and only a cup of coffee in the majors, though, so there’s certainly risk in turning over the primary job on a club that hopes to compete for a playoff spot right out of the gate. O’Hoppe is the organization’s hopeful catcher of the future. They’ll need to determine whether he’s ready to take that mantle immediately. He still has a full slate of minor league option years remaining.

Max Stassi

Stassi is much more of a known quantity. 32 next month, he’s played in parts of 10 big league campaigns. Stassi only started garnering legitimate playing time in 2018, his sixth year logging some MLB action. Between 2018-21, he looked like one of the sport’s more underrated catchers. Over that stretch, Stassi hit .222/.306/.382. That’s roughly average output for a catcher, though the cumulative slash is weighed down by an atrocious 2019 season. He was an above-average hitting catcher in the other three years, including a .241/.326/.426 showing for the Halos in 2021.

The veteran paired that solid offense with consistently excellent marks from public defensive metrics. He wasn’t especially adept at controlling the running game but garnered glowing reviews from pitch framing evaluations. The Halos signed him to a $14.5MM extension covering the 2023-24 seasons (with a ’25 club option) last spring. It seemed a firm commitment he’d be their primary catcher for the next few years, though that predated an underwhelming 2022 showing.

Stassi hit just .180/.267/.303 with nine homers in a career-high 375 plate appearances last year. His formerly excellent defensive grades slipped to almost exactly league average. His bat-to-ball skills and hard contact percentage each took steps back. It obviously wasn’t the kind of season he or the club had envisioned, meaning he’ll need a rebound showing if he’s to secure regular reps again. Stassi can’t be optioned to the minors, so he’ll be on the big league roster in some capacity. Whether that’s as the starter or reserve is up in the air.

Matt Thaiss

Thaiss was a catcher at the University of Virginia. A bat-first player, he was selected in the first round in 2016 and immediately moved to first base. Scouts questioned whether he’d have the receiving skills to stick behind the plate. The Angels didn’t give him the chance to work on his defense, instead hoping his bat would launch him quickly through the minor leagues.

The lefty-hitting Thaiss proved a fine but not exceptional minor league hitter. He paired quality plate discipline with above-average contact skills but never made the kind of power impact one would expect from a first baseman. In 2021, the Angels started giving him reps back behind the plate with Triple-A Salt Lake. He’s played 99 games there the past two years and started 11 MLB contests at catcher last season.

Thaiss owns just a .205/.299/.373 line over 278 MLB plate appearances, striking out at an uncharacteristic 30.6% clip. He only fanned in 18.4% of his trips with a robust 13% walk rate for the Bees last season, hitting .268/.364/.451 over 77 Triple-A games. He’s an interesting depth player but comes with questions about both his offensive impact and receiving ability behind the plate. Thaiss has exhausted his option years; the Halos have to keep him in the majors or make him available to other teams via waivers or trade.

Outlook

Anaheim will also get looks at Chad Wallach, José Godoy and minor leaguer Anthony Mulrine in camp this spring as non-roster players. Mulrine has never hit in the minors and looks to be an organizational depth piece. Wallach and Godoy have played in the big leagues but typically function as third/fourth options on a depth chart.

The initial playing time will almost certainly be divided among some combination of O’Hoppe, Stassi and Thaiss. Carrying O’Hoppe in a reserve capacity feels unlikely. He should play regularly, either in the majors or at Salt Lake. Whether the Halos deem him ready out of the gate — and if they do, whether they feel there’s room to keep both Stassi and Thaiss on the bench — are key questions for the front office and coaching staff over the next month and a half.

Angels Designate Jose Rojas For Assignment

By Steve Adams | May 23, 2022 at 4:18pm CDT

The Angels announced a series of roster moves Monday, reinstating catcher Max Stassi and right-hander Archie Bradley from the injured list. In order to open roster space for the returning veterans, the Halos optioned catcher Chad Wallach and lefty Jose Suarez to Triple-A Salt Lake. Infielder Jose Rojas, meanwhile, was designated for assignment. A 40-man move was necessary due to the fact that Stassi had been on the Covid-19-related injured list and was thus not counting against the 40-man roster.

Rojas, 29, has seen Major League time at second base, third base, first base and in both outfield corners. He’s a .199/.261./.377 hitter through 207 plate appearances in that time but does possess a much more appealing track record in Triple-A, where he’s logged a .274/.340/.496 slash in 950 trips to the plate. Rojas swatted 31 home runs with Triple-A Salt Lake back in 2019, although that came during a season when the baseball is widely believed to have been juiced both in the Majors and in Triple-A.

A former 36th-round pick, Rojas still has a pair of minor league options remaining, meaning any club that picks him up via waiver claim or a small trade will be able to shuttle him back and forth between Triple-A and the big leagues as some additional outfield/infield depth both this season and next. The Angels will have seven days to trade Rojas, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him.

Angels Notes: Suzuki, Stassi, Canning, Ward

By Mark Polishuk | May 21, 2022 at 6:42pm CDT

The Angels have reinstated catcher Kurt Suzuki from the COVID-related injury list. Austin Romine was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Suzuki on the active roster, while fellow catcher Matt Thaiss will also remain with Triple-A Salt Lake on option after being activated from the minor league version of the IL.

With both Suzuki and Max Stassi sidelined on the COVID list, the Halos found themselves quite shorthanded behind the plate, leading to Romine and Chad Wallach each getting plenty of action over the last 10 days. Suzuki is returning after a two-week absence, while Stassi hit the IL on May 10 and could himself be close to a return. Angels athletic trainer Mike Frostad told The Athletic’s Sam Blum (Twitter links), and The Southern California Newsgroup’s J.P. Hoornstra that Stassi will likely play two more minor league rehab games before being activated.

The outlook isn’t as positive for Griffin Canning, as Frostad said the right-hander is considering surgery to address a stress reaction in his lower back. No decision has been made, as Canning is meeting with a specialist on Monday and will then opt to go with a surgery or a less-invasive treatment.

It’s worrisome news for Canning, as these back problems have kept him from pitching from July 8, 2021 (when Canning last took the mound at Triple-A). He had worked his way up to the simulated-game stage of his rehab earlier this month, but he continued to feel discomfort after his latest outing. Depending on the type of procedure or how well Canning responds to rehab, it’s possible the entire 2022 season could now be in jeopardy for the 26-year-old.

A second-round pick in the 2017 draft, Canning has appeared in each of the last three seasons, starting 41 of his 43 MLB games and posting a 4.73 ERA over 209 1/3 innings. Even without surgery, it’s hard to figure on when Canning might make his 2022 debut, leaving the Angels short an important depth arm for their six-man rotation. Long a weak spot, the Anaheim rotation has been quite good thus far, but the club also has less margin for error given their need of an extra hurler. With Canning sidelined and Jose Suarez ineffective, that depth has already been tested, the Halos recently promoted Chase Silseth directly from Double-A to the majors.

The Angels entered today’s action with a strong 24-17 record, despite an ongoing four-game losing streak. Last night’s 4-2 loss to the Athletics also saw Taylor Ward leave the game in the ninth inning after colliding with the outfield wall following a catch. Fortunately, Frostad said Ward didn’t suffer a concussion and only had a stinger in his arm after making the play.

Ward isn’t in tonight’s lineup but is only day-to-day, and seems to have avoided any major injury. It has been a dream start for Ward, who leads the majors in all three slash categories (.370/.481/.713) and has hit nine home runs over his first 131 plate appearances.

Angels Place Max Stassi On Injured List, Select Austin Romine

By James Hicks and Sean Bavazzano | May 10, 2022 at 5:20pm CDT

The Angels placed catcher Max Stassi on the IL this evening, the team announced, and selected the contract of catcher Austin Romine to take his place on the active roster. As Stassi’s IL stint comes without an injury designation, it’s likely COVID-related, which would mean his time on the injured list has no minimum duration.

Signed to a three-year extension this March, Stassi has joined the rest of the league in getting off to a slow start this season. Through 19 games behind the plate, the 31-year-old has hit .200/.288/.354 (91 OPS+) with three home runs and strikeouts in more than one third of his at-bats. While Stassi is striking out in droves, he’s also walking at a career-best rate and is part of a league-best offense that’s been buoyed by otherworldly performances from outfielders Mike Trout and Taylor Ward.

With Stassi’s absence, the first-place Angels have now seen their Opening Day catching tandem hit the IL, with Kurt Suzuki hitting the IL for COVID-related reasons just a few days ago. Any lack of continuity behind the plate should be of some interest to Halos fans, as the duo has helped steer the team’s rotation into a top-10 run prevention unit this season.

The 33-year-old Romine will join the club for his 11th big league season, forming a new catching duo with recent call-up Chad Wallach. Signed to a minor league deal by the club in March, Romine is fresh off an injury-ruined season with the Cubs in which he hit .217/.242/.300. Those numbers have rebounded in a small Triple-A showing this year, but more importantly for the Angels (and their pitchers) the veteran catcher will bring a reputation as a sturdy defender to the big league club.

Angels Sign Max Stassi To Extension

By Anthony Franco | March 24, 2022 at 8:25pm CDT

The Angels announced this evening they’ve signed catcher Max Stassi to a three-year, $17.5MM extension. The veteran backstop will earn $3MM in 2022, and $7MM apiece in 2023-24. The deal also contains a $7.5MM club option for the 2025 campaign that comes with a $500K buyout. Stassi is a Wasserman client.

The deal buys out up to three free agent years, as Stassi had been set to hit the open market after this season. He and the team had already agreed to a $3MM salary for the upcoming season. That figure remains in place, with the club tacking on $14.5MM in new money to keep him under club control through 2025.

Stassi has appeared in each of the last nine big league seasons, but he didn’t play in more than 15 games in any of the first five years. The righty-hitting backstop had never even tallied 300 plate appearances in a season until last year, as he’d spent his early days as a depth catcher with the division-rival Astros.

The Angels picked up Stassi in a seemingly minor deadline deal with Houston in 2019. He didn’t do much in 20 games with the Halos down the stretch that season, but he’s enjoyed a late-career breakout over the past two years. Stassi mashed at a .278/.352/.533 clip during the shortened 2020 schedule, rapping nine extra-base hits in 105 plate appearances. There’s little doubt the limited sample inflated his numbers that year, but Stassi continued to perform well over his largest body of work last season.

In 2021, Stassi appeared in 87 games and picked up 319 trips to the plate. He hit .241/.326/.426 with 13 homers, showing solid power and drawing a fair number of walks. Stassi struck out in an alarming 31.7% of his plate appearances, but the combination of pop and patience were more than adequate for a catcher. By measure of wRC+, Stassi’s production lined up exactly with that of a league average hitter. League average offense isn’t easy to find at the most demanding position at the diamond, with catchers overall posting a .229/.305/.391 mark last season.

Stassi pretty clearly wielded an above-average bat for a backstop, and he also rated well in the eyes of Statcast’s pitch framing metrics. Baseball Savant pegged him as six runs above average as a framer last season, his fourth straight year garnering positive marks in that regard. He didn’t do well to control the running game, throwing out only 15.4% of attempted base-stealers (against a 24.3% league average). Stassi had fared a bit better in that regard in years past, however, and the Angels are clearly comfortable in both his receiving ability and ability to handle a pitching staff over the coming seasons.

Because he didn’t establish himself as a regular until nearly a decade into his big league career, Stassi wasn’t going to hit free agency until after his age-31 season. That always figured to cap his long-term market upside, but the two years and $14.5MM in guarantees for his first couple free agent seasons is in line with the recent going rate for capable but not elite #1 catchers. The Braves signed Travis d’Arnaud to a two-year, $16MM extension last August; the Cubs added Yan Gomes for two years and $13MM just before the lockout.

d’Arnaud and Gomes were the top options in a free agent catching class that was short on #1 options this winter. Next year’s crop looks stronger, with Mike Zunino, Willson Contreras, Gary Sánchez and Omar Narváez among a handful of players set to hit the market. Rather than stick in that fairly deep class, Stassi will stick around in Orange County for at least the next couple years.

The Angels re-signed Kurt Suzuki this winter, and he’ll serve as Stassi’s back-up for the upcoming campaign. The extension won’t affect the Angels’ books for the upcoming season, given that it doesn’t change his price tag from the previously agreed upon $3MM arbitration settlement. Los Angeles is still set to open this season with a franchise-record payroll in the $188MM range. The extension brings their 2023 estimated player commitments up to around $119MM, in the estimation of Jason Martinez of Roster Resource.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Angels Notes: Ohtani, Trout, Rendon, Stassi

By Mark Polishuk | August 12, 2021 at 9:30pm CDT

Shohei Ohtani’s epic season has made him one of the most fascinating players in recent memory, and his contract status may only add to that intrigue. Ohtani is controlled through the 2023 campaign (via the final year of his current two-year contract with the Angels and then a final arbitration-eligible season) and as ESPN’s Buster Olney writes, speculation has already begun about whether a potential Ohtani extension would set new precedents. Rival evaluators feel the Angels could be best served to work out an extension with Ohtani this winter, in order to figure out as soon as possible how to best manage a difficult payroll situation.

It is hard to imagine that the Angels would trade Ohtani or let him walk in free agency, yet Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon are also committed to huge salaries and not going anywhere. Olney estimates that retaining that trio of stars could put Los Angeles on the hook for roughly $120MM-$130MM per year, which wouldn’t leave the Angels with much wiggle room in filling out the rest of the roster. While the luxury tax thresholds could rise in the next collective bargaining agreement and owner Arte Moreno has been willing to spend big, the Angels haven’t paid a tax bill since 2004. With Albert Pujols’ deal still on the books until the end of the season, the Angels are used to top-heavy payrolls, but that tactic has left the team unable to amass much in the way of depth (especially on the pitching side) and the Halos haven’t had a winning season since 2015.

Angels Activate Max Stassi, Option Jose Quijada

By TC Zencka | June 1, 2021 at 4:52pm CDT

The Angels have activated catcher Max Stassi from the injured list, per the team. He’ll be in the lineup and starting behind the plate for the Angels tonight. Meanwhile, Drew Butera has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A, and Jose Quijada was optioned to Triple-A in order to create the roster spot to bring Stassi off the IL.

Stassi returns to the lineup with a .241/.313/.345 batting line across 32 plate appearances. He’s one of three catchers currently on the roster, along with Kurt Suzuki and Anthony Bemboom. If healthy, Stassi figures to get a healthy share of the playing time behind the dish.

The veteran Butera remains in the organization to serve as further depth. The Angels’ catching corps has been beat up for much of the season – and they’re not a young group – so Butera may very well find himself with another opportunity this year. He’ll be seeking a redemptive effort after going just 3-for-32 with 16 strikeouts in 32 plate appearances.

As for Quijada, the 25-year-old southpaw logged 3 1/3 scoreless innings across a pair of outings. He went 1 2/3 innings yesterday, and while he didn’t allow a run and struck out three, he also walked three and allowed both of his inherited runners to score – one via a wild pitch and the other via a Wilmer Flores double.

Angels Make Several Roster Moves

By Connor Byrne | May 6, 2021 at 8:13pm CDT

The Angels announced several roster moves Thursday: They selected the contracts of outfielder Jon Jay and catcher Jack Kruger, placed backstop Max Stassi (concussion) and right-hander Chris Rodriguez (shoulder inflammation) on the 10-day injured list, and reinstated righty Felix Pena from the IL.

Jay spent time in the majors with the Angels earlier this season, but they designated him for assignment on April 16 after he went 1-for-8 at the plate. He’ll rejoin an Angels outfield going through some upheaval at the moment, as Justin Upton is battling knee problems and Jared Walsh is heading to first base in the wake of the team’s decision on Thursday to designate Albert Pujols.

Kruger, 26, could make his major league debut with Stassi out for at least the next week. The Los Angeles native was a 20th-rounder in 2016 who hasn’t played above Double-A ball yet. He owns a .265/.326/.357 line with 15 home runs in 1,392 minor league plate appearances.

Rodriguez has held his own out of the Angels’ bullpen this year, having thrown 15 2/3 innings of 2.30 ERA ball with 17 strikeouts against eight walks, but manager Joe Maddon said his injury isn’t serious (via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). They’ll replace him with Pena, a regular in their pitching staff from 2018-20. Pena amassed 215 2/3 frames of 4.34 ERA ball during that span, though he hasn’t contributed this year after straining a hamstring during the spring.

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