Zack Weiss

Twins Outright Zack Weiss

By Darragh McDonald | July 17, 2024 at 2:50pm CDT

The Twins have sent right-hander Zack Weiss outright to Triple-A St. Paul, per Dan Hayes of The Athletic on X. He had been on the 60-day injured list but was reinstated and passed through waivers. The club’s 40-man roster count stays at 40.

Weiss, 32, has never appeared in a big league game for the Twins. He was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox in February and then began the season on the IL due to a teres major strain, getting transferred to the 60-day version in early April. He recently began a rehab assignment, making five appearances in the minors since the end of June. He was going to need to retake a spot on the 40-man roster but the Twins decided to put him on waivers instead.

Since he passed through unclaimed, he’ll stick in the organization as depth without taking up a roster spot. He doesn’t have three years of service time, nor does he have a previous career outright, meaning he can’t elect free agency.

The Twins will therefore get to keep a guy who has put up some intriguing numbers in recent years. Over 2022 and 2023, he tossed 27 1/3 innings in the majors with a 3.29 earned run average. His 11.4% walk rate was on the high side but he struck out 28.9% of batters. In that same period, he also tossed 91 1/3 innings in the minors with a 4.93 ERA, 29.9% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate.

Weiss will report to St. Paul and try to earn his way back onto the 40-man roster. If he succeeds in doing so, he still has two options and less than a year of service time.

Twins Acquire Michael Tonkin From Mets

By Darragh McDonald and Steve Adams | April 9, 2024 at 2:44pm CDT

The Twins announced that they have acquired right-hander Michael Tonkin from the Mets, after the latter club designated him for assignment last week. Outfielder Max Kepler has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right knee contusion, opening an active roster spot for Tonkin. Right-hander Zack Weiss was transferred to the 60-day IL due to his right shoulder strain, opening a spot on the 40-man.

Tonkin, 34, returns to the organization that originally drafted him in the 30th round back in 2008. He’s pitched in the D-backs, Brewers, Braves and Mets organizations since originally leaving the Twins, in addition to stints in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, the Mexican League and the independent Atlantic League.

Though he pitched just four innings with the Mets, Tonkin spent the entirety of the 2023 season in the Braves’ bullpen, working to a 4.28 ERA with a solid 23.1% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate in 80 innings of relief. That marked his first MLB experience since 2017. Overall, Tonkin has appeared in parts of seven big league seasons. He carries a career 4.38 ERA with strikeout and walk rates that closely mirror his 2023 levels in Atlanta.

Tonkin originally signed a split one-year deal with the Mets, which calls for just a $1MM base salary. The Twins will owe him the prorated portion of that sum for any time spent on the big league roster, though he’ll have a different rate of pay in the minors if Minnesota designates him for assignment, passes him through waivers and outrights him to Triple-A St. Paul. He’s out of minor league options, so he can’t be sent down unless going through that waiver process first.

The Twins have several relievers on the injured list, most notably including Jhoan Duran, Caleb Thielbar and Justin Topa. None of those injuries are expected to require long-term absences, but Tonkin will add a veteran arm to a group that’s been tested more early on than the front office would’ve hoped. If he can get on track and carve out a role in the Twins’ bullpen, he’s technically controllable through the 2026 season via arbitration.

Kepler fouled a ball into his leg recently, creating the contusion that’s currently hobbling him. The 31-year-old is out to a poor start at the plate, having gone just 1-for-20 with a walk and six strikeouts. Kepler had a prolonged slump during the 2023 season as well, struggling badly in May and for most of June before catching fire late that month. He closed out the season hitting .297/.368/.545 with 17 home runs in his final 326 plate appearances. That torrid run erased any doubt that might’ve been rising regarding his $10MM club option for the 2024 season.

With Kepler on the shelf, the Twins can go with fellow lefty swingers Matt Wallner and Alex Kirilloff in the outfield corners — presumably with Wallner in right field. Right-handed-hitting Manuel Margot will work into the mix against lefty starters, and the Twins could also mix in utility players Willi Castro and Austin Martin.

Jhoan Duran, Caleb Thielbar, Anthony DeSclafani To Begin Season On Injured List

By Steve Adams | March 18, 2024 at 1:39pm CDT

1:39pm: There’s concern that DeSclafani could require season-ending surgery, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey tells Nightengale and others.

1:00pm: Twins closer Jhoan Duran, lefty reliever Caleb Thielbar, and rotation hopeful Anthony DeSclafani will open the season on the 15-day injured list, tweets Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Duran is dealing with a “moderate” oblique strain, while Thielbar will head to the IL with a strained hamstring. DeSclafani has a more ominous forearm strain and is slated to meet with Dr. Keith Meister for further evaluation.

Beyond that trio of surefire big leaguers, the Twins will also see prospect Matt Canterino and roster hopeful Zack Weiss start on the injured list, tweets Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Canterino, long one of the organization’s most promising arms, will be on the Triple-A injured list after suffering a subscapular strain in his shoulder. Weiss, a waiver claim out of the Red Sox organization, has been rehabbing a teres major strain and will be on the major league injured list.

Losing Duran even for a short spell is painful for the Twins, given the flamethrower’s emergence as one of MLB’s premier relievers. Since making his big league debut on Opening Day 2022, Duran has pitched 130 innings of 2.15 ERA ball with 35 saves, 19 holds, a 33.2% strikeout rate, a 7.9% walk rate and a massive 63.4% ground-ball rate. He averaged a ludicrous 101.8 mph on his heater last season and 98.4 mph with his splitter/sinker hybrid (“splinker”). The good news for the Twins is that a moderate strain shouldn’t result in excessively lengthy absence, but even Grade 1 strains have been known to sideline players for upwards of a month. The team hasn’t formally announced a timetable for Duran’s expected return just yet.

Wit Duran sidelined, it’ll likely fall to Griffin Jax and Brock Stewart to handle save situations early in the season. Jax has become one of Duran’s top setup men in recent years and offers an above-average strikeout rate and strong command of a slider-heavy arsenal. Stewart returned from a yearslong MLB absence and multiple arm surgeries brandishing an upper-90s cutter that helped him punch out nearly 36% of his opponents while pitching to a 0.65 ERA in 27 2/3 innings for the Twins last saeson.

The 37-year-old Thielbar has flown under the radar since returning to affiliated ball following a five-year absence in 2020, but he’s quietly been one of the team’s most important relievers in that time. Over the past four seasons, the Minnesota native has given his hometown club 174 innings of 3.21 ERA ball, piling up 45 holds while punching out 30.2% of his opponents against a 7.4% walk rate. He struggled against right-handers last season, yielding a .258/.319/.621 batting line, but Thielbar didn’t have glaring struggles against righties from 2020-22. As with Duran, they’ll hope for a relatively brief absence, but the team hasn’t given any specifics on how long he’s expected to miss just yet.

Word of DeSclafani’s injury is the most concerning of the three. Acquired from the Mariners (who’d picked him up from the Giants previously) as part of the trade sending Jorge Polanco to Seattle, DeSclafani had been in the running to open the season as the Twins’ fifth starter. He was slowed early in camp by some discomfort and is now headed for evaluation with one of the sport’s more notable surgeons.

DeSclafani has struggled to stay healthy throughout his career. He missed the entire 2017 season with a UCL sprain that never required surgery, pitched a mostly healthy year in 2018 and enjoyed one of the best seasons of his career with the Reds in 2019. A teres major strain hobbled him in 2020 and limited him to 33 2/3 innings of 7.22 ERA ball, however. DeSclafani bounced back with a bit 2021 season in San Francisco, working 167 2/3 frames of 3.17 ERA ball over a mostly full slate of 31 starts.

DeSclafani re-signed in San Francisco on a three-year, $36MM deal that hasn’t at all gone according to plan. An ankle injury that eventually required surgery limited him to 19 frames in 2022. Shoulder fatigue and a pair of flexor strains capped him at 99 2/3 frames in 2023. He’ll now be slowed to begin the 2024 season, though a timeline won’t be known until that appointment with Dr. Meister has taken place.

The Twins are only the hook for $4MM of DeSclafani’s $12MM salary. The Giants sent $6MM to the Mariners in their original trade involving DeSclafani, and the M’s sent that plus another $2MM to Minnesota in the Polanco swap. With DeSclafani headed to the injured list, right-hander Louie Varland should have the fifth spot in the rotation all but locked up. He’ll follow Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Chris Paddack and Bailey Ober in what should be a solid Twins staff if everyone can remain healthy. However, the Twins will undoubtedly feel the losses of Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda, particularly now with their top depth option shelved. In the event of additional pitching injuries, Minnesota would likely turn to one of Simeon Woods Richardson, Brent Headrick or yet-to-debut top prospect David Festa.

As for the others, Canterino is still working his way back from 2022 Tommy John surgery. Injuries have regularly slowed him since being selected in the second round of the 2019 draft. Between shaky health and the scrapped 2020 minor league season, he’s still pitched only 85 professional innings. They’ve been excellent — 1.48 ERA, 39.2% strikeout rate, 10.5% walk rate — but his persistent injury troubles have undercut his considerable upside. As for Weiss, he’s pitched just 27 1/3 MLB frames but has a history of strong strikeout totals in the minors. He could be a bullpen option for the Twins at some point, but for now he’ll collect MLB service and pay while rehabbing. For a 32-year-old with just 91 days of big league service to this point in his career, that’s not insignificant.

It seems unlikely that the Twins will go outside the organization to boost their depth — at least in term of significant salary additions. Owner Joe Pohlad all but declared his team out on top names like Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery earlier in camp when stating that his team was not going to “go out and spend $30MM on a player right now.” The Twins shocked baseball with a pair of Carlos Correa signings that came together under similar circumstances, but it doesn’t seem there’s another splash of that magnitude up their sleeves. Minnesota was reportedly interested in Michael Lorenzen earlier in the offseason, so it’s possible they could still circle back on that front. More likely is that they’ll just ride things out with internal options, perhaps adding a veteran on a minor league deal. A particularly lengthy absence for DeSclafani could create some extra urgency, so the results of his evaluation are worth tracking with a close eye for Twins fans.

Twins Claim Zack Weiss, Designate Three Players

By Darragh McDonald | February 7, 2024 at 2:15pm CDT

The Twins announced that they claimed right-hander Zack Weiss off waivers from the Red Sox. They also made their previously–reported signings of first baseman Carlos Santana and right-hander Jay Jackson official. To open spots on their 40-man roster for those three players, outfielder Bubba Thompson as well as right-handers Daniel Duarte and Jordan Balazovic were designated for assignment.

Weiss, 32 in June, has made 24 major league appearances over the past two seasons with the Angels and Red Sox. In 27 1/3 innings, he’s allowed 3.29 earned runs per nine. He’s paired a strong 29% strikeout rate with a high 11.4% walk rate. He notably leans heavily on his breaking stuff, with Statcast characterizing 63.7% of his pitchers last year as sliders and another 7.1% as cutters. Opponents hit just .121 off the slider and and couldn’t muster a hit against the cutter.

Weiss was claimed off waivers by the Red Sox last year and now the Twins, suggesting clubs are interested in his stuff. He’ll likely need to improve his command a bit but he still has a couple of options and can be kept in the minors as depth until he better harnesses his stuff or is needed at the big league level.

Thompson, 26 in June, is a speedster with questions around his hitting ability. One of the fastest players in the league, he has 22 steals in 27 tries over the past two years but has hit just .242/.286/.305, pairing a 4.6% walk rate with a 29.9% strikeout rate. Since August of last year, he has gone from the Rangers to the Royals, Reds, Yankees and Twins via waiver claims. He still has a couple of options and could be valuable to other clubs as an optionable role player, as his speed naturally helps him both with baserunning and in running down balls in the outfield.

Duarte, 27, has also been a mainstay of the transaction logs this offseason, having gone from the Reds to the Rangers in a cash deal and then to the Twins via a waiver claim. He tossed 31 2/3 innings with the Reds last year with a solid 3.69 ERA. He got grounders on half the balls in play he allowed but only struck out 16.9% of opponents while giving out walks at a 14.7% clip. A .218 batting average on balls in play and 81.6% strand rate helped to keep runs off the board, which is why his 5.84 FIP and 5.52 SIERA weren’t nearly as exciting.

But his Triple-A work has been much more interesting. In 35 innings at that level last year, he posted a 3.34 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate, 11.3% walk rate and 51.8% ground ball rate. He still has one option year remaining and could serve as optionable bullpen depth, which is why various clubs around the league have acquired him this offseason.

Balazovic, 25, was a fifth-round pick of the Twins in 2016 and shot up prospect lists as he climbed the minor league ladder. In 2019, he posted a combined 2.69 ERA between Single-A and High-A and Baseball America ranked him the #95 prospect in the league going into 2020. The minors were canceled by the pandemic that year but the righty got a roster spot in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

He proceeded fairly well in 2021, as he made 20 Double-A starts with a 3.62 ERA, but things seemed to come off the rails the year after that. He was lit up for a 7.39 ERA in 22 Triple-A appearances in 2022, with Baseball America highlighting that his stuff had diminished in terms of velocity.

Last year, he and the Twins were surely hoping for some kind of bounceback, but things got off to an ominous start. It was reported in February that he had a broken jaw due to “an altercation away from the field.” He eventually returned to health and made his major league debut, with a 4.44 ERA in 24 1/3 innings. But he struck out just 15.7% of hitters in that time while walking 11.1%. In 45 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level, he had a 5.32 ERA, 25.7% strikeout rate, 15.2% walk rate and 49.2% ground ball rate.

He is now out of options and would have needed an active roster spot if the Twins wanted to hang onto him. It seems they weren’t prepared to do that, so he has been bumped off the 40-man entirely. He’s likely to draw interest from somewhere based on his former top prospect status. The results of late weren’t pretty but he was still getting strikeouts and grounders in the minors last year. But any club looking to acquire him would need to deal with his out-of-options status once the season begins.

Red Sox Claim Romy Gonzalez, Designate Zack Weiss

By Steve Adams | January 31, 2024 at 1:32pm CDT

The Red Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed infielder/outfielder Romy Gonzalez off waivers from the White Sox. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Boston designated right-hander Zack Weiss for assignment. Chicago had designated Gonzalez for assignment last week in order to clear space for free agent signee John Brebbia.

In parts of three seasons with the White Sox, Gonzalez is a .222/.239/.361 hitter with five homers and seven steals in 239 plate appearances. Gonzalez’s approach at the plate has been a major issue, however. He’s walked in just 2.1% of his plate appearances against a jarring 36% strikeout rate. On pitches within the strike zone, Gonzalez’s 83.3% contact rate is just slightly under league average. However, his 50.2% contact rate on pitches off the plate is tied for 543 among the 593 hitters who’ve taken at least 200 plate appearances over the past three seasons. That lack of contact on pitches off the plate is exacerbated by the fact that only 39 hitters in that same group of 593 have chased off the plate more frequently than Gonzalez (41.5%).

Big league troubles notwithstanding, Gonzalez has been a reasonably productive hitter in the upper minors. He batted .267/.355/.502 in his lone season at the Double-A level and is a .251/.332/.451 hitter in parts of two Triple-A seasons. When he has made contact in the big leagues, it’s also typically been loud. Gonzalez has averaged 90.4 mph off the bat and put 45% of his batted balls in play at 95 mph or greater.

Defensively, Gonzalez is capable of playing all over the diamond but has spent the bulk of his time at shortstop (847 innings), at second base (616) and in left field (579). He has a pair of minor league option years remaining, too, making him a flexible bench option for the Red Sox for the foreseeable future, however long they choose to continue carrying him on the 40-man roster.

Boston claimed the 31-year-old Weiss off waivers from the Angels back in late August. He spent the remainder of the 2023 campaign in manager Alex Cora’s bullpen, pitching 8 2/3 innings and holding opponents to a pair of runs on three hits and four walks with eight punchouts. Weiss has appeared in parts of three MLB seasons dating back to his 2018 debut and carries a 4.61 earned run average with an impressive 28% strikeout rate but an ugly 12.7% walk rate in 27 1/3 MLB frames.

Those K/BB numbers are near-mirror images of the rates he’s posted in Triple-A (28.2% strikeout rate, 12.6% walk rate). Weiss averages 94.3 mph on his heater and generates tons of whiffs on his slider, which he threw at a 70% clip in his limited MLB action this past season. His overall 13.9% swinging-strike rate and 33% opponents’ chase rate in his three big league cups of coffee are both intriguing, but those traits are undercut by his lackluster command.

The Red Sox will have a week to trade Weiss, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.

Red Sox Notes: Imanaga, Breslow, Turner, Jansen, Rafaela

By Mark Polishuk | September 23, 2023 at 2:25pm CDT

NPB standout Shota Imanaga will be posted for Major League teams this offseason, and MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam reports that the Red Sox have “heavily scouted” the Japanese left-hander. Imanaga has a 3.17 ERA over eight seasons and 990 2/3 innings with the Yokohama DeNa Baystars, though North American fans might know him best from his work with Japan’s national team in this year’s World Baseball Classic. Imanaga had a 3.00 ERA over six innings and three appearances, and was the starting pitcher (earning the win) in Japan’s gold-medal game victory over the United States.

MLB Trade Rumors readers are also familiar with Imanaga from our NPB Players To Watch series, as Dai Takegami Podziewski has regularly written about the southpaw as Imanaga looks to be on the verge of heading to the majors. Imanaga will draw plenty of attention from pitching-needy teams, and the Sox certainly figure to make rotation upgrades a major part of their offseason plan under their next head of baseball operations. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the top name available among NPB pitchers this winter, but with at least ten MLB clubs (including the Red Sox) interested in Yamamoto’s services, it is possible Imanaga might be something of a solid backup plan for teams that either can’t land Yamamoto or can’t afford his big price tag.

Red Sox Claim Zack Weiss From Angels

By Darragh McDonald | August 25, 2023 at 3:15pm CDT

Right-hander Zack Weiss, who was designated for assignment by the Angels earlier this week, has been claimed off waivers by the Red Sox. Both clubs announced the move, with the Red Sox adding that Weiss has been optioned to Triple-A Worcester. Righty Corey Kluber was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on Boston’s roster.

Weiss, 31, has been on the Angels’ roster just under a year now, getting added last September. Since that time, he’s been an up-and-down depth arm, getting frequently optioned to the minors. He has thrown 18 2/3 major league innings in that time with a 3.86 earned run average. He struck out 30.9% of batters faced but also walked 11.1%.

He’s spent more time this year in Triple-A, tossing 37 1/3 innings with a 6.03 ERA. He walked 14% of hitters at that level but struck out 29.2%. Those control issues pushed him off the Angels’ roster but the Red Sox will see if they can help him rein in that command and get better results. He can still be optioned for two more seasons after this one and has yet to reach one year of major league service time, meaning they can cheaply retain him for the foreseeable future as long as he continues to hold a spot on the 40-man.

Kluber’s transfer is little more than a formality since he’s already been on the injured list for more than 60 days at this point, having landed there in June due to right shoulder inflammation. He’s eligible to return whenever healthy but he was shut down in late July after experiencing a setback. There’s been no public reporting to indicate he’s close to a return and may have trouble getting back on the mound this year with just over a month left on the schedule.

Angels Designate Zack Weiss For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | August 22, 2023 at 2:45pm CDT

The Angels announced today that right-hander José Marte was reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake. To make room for him on the 40-man roster, righty Zack Weiss was designated for assignment. Additionally, catcher Chad Wallach cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Salt Lake.

Weiss, 31, was first added to the Angels’ roster in September of last year. In that span of just under a full year, he’s served as a frequently-optioned depth arm for the club, tossing 18 2/3 innings in the majors, allowing 3.86 earned runs per nine frames in that time. He struck out 30.9% of batters faced but also walked 11.1%.

This year, he’s spent the majority of his time in Triple-A, tossing 37 1/3 innings with a 6.03 ERA. That’s been in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but Weiss has still walked 14% of opponents, which hasn’t helped matters. It seems those control issues have nudged him off the roster. Since the trade deadline went by long ago, the Angels will have to put Weiss on waivers in the coming days. Despite his struggles with the free passes, he’s always had decent strikeout numbers to go with and could perhaps garner interest from other clubs.

He has less than a year of service time and a full slate of options, which could appeal to a club in search of some depth and with the ability to have some long-term patience. If he were to clear waivers, he lacks the previous career outright and three years of major league service necessary to elect free agency, though he would qualify for minor league free agency if not on a roster at season’s end.

Marte, 27, will take that roster spot from Weiss. He was placed on the injured list in March due to a right elbow stress reaction and has only just now been activated. He’s a similar pitcher to Weiss, in that he generally pair high strikeout numbers with high walk totals. In 15 major league innings, he’s punched out 26.3% of opponents while giving free passes to 27.6% in that small sample. In Triple-A last year, he had a 29.5% strikeout rate and 14.7% walk rate.

Angels Select Reyes Moronta, Jacob Webb

By Nick Deeds | May 21, 2023 at 1:05pm CDT

The Angels announced a flurry of roster moves a the club selected the contracts of right-handers Reyes Moronta and Jacob Webb. The club also announced that left-hander Aaron Loup had been activated from the 15-day injured list, while righties Andrew Wantz, Jimmy Herget, and Zack Weiss were each optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake. Moronta and Webb will take the 40-man roster spots vacated by Brett Phillips and Ryan Tepera, both of whom were designated for assignment by the club earlier this week.

Moronta, 30, made his big league debut for the Giants in 2017. He would remain a part of the club’s bullpen mix until 2021, when the club outrighted the righty off the roster, leading him to declare free agency. During his time with the Giants, Moronta excelled on the mound, with a 2.65 ERA that was 52% better than league average by ERA+ and 3.44 FIP in 132 1/3 innings of work. Despite the excellent results leading him to be seen a quality late-inning option, the Giants elected to part ways with the right-hander after shoulder surgery, which cost Moronta his entire 2020 season, proved to have sapped his velocity. While he averaged 97.2 mph on his four-seamer in 2019, the pitch’s velocity had dropped more than three ticks to just 93.9 mph when Moronta returned to the mound in 2021.

Following his departure from San Francisco, Reyes spent 2022 as a member of the Dodgers and Diamondbacks organizations, with a 4.30 ERA and 4.41 FIP in 37 2/3 innings of work. Despite the downturn in performance, he secured a minor league deal with the Rangers during the offseason, though the club released him once it was clear he would not make the roster out of camp. That led him to sign a minor league deal with the Angels earlier this month. Now, Moronta join the Halos’ bullpen just ten days after signing with the organization.

Webb, meanwhile, posted a 2.47 ERA over 76 2/3 innings of work as a member of the Braves from 2019-2021, though a 3.99 FIP indicates there was some good luck baked into those excellent top line results. Webb did not appear in the majors last season, posting a 6.06 ERA in 35 2/3 innings during an injury-plagued 2022 campaign. Webb elected free agency during the offseason, eventually signing with the Angels on a minor league deal. While Webb has struggled to a 6.75 ERA in 17 1/3 innings of work so far for Salt Lake this season, the Angels will hope he can get things back on track in the major league bullpen going forward.

The pair of right-handers are joined in the Angels bullpen by Loup, who is returning from the injured list after suffering a hamstring injury earlier this season. Loup signed a two-year, $17MM deal with the Angels ahead of the 2022 season, and delivered a 3.84 ERA with a 3.76 FIP in 58 2/3 innings of work last season. Now in his age-35 season, Loup struggled in nine innings of work this year prior to his injury, posting a 7.00 ERA on nine hits and seven walks (two of which were intentional) against just eight strikeouts. Of course, the veteran lefty came into the 2023 campaign with a career ERA of just 3.15 over his eleven previous seasons in the majors, leaving the Angels with reason for optimism he can turn things around and join Carlos Estevez and Matt Moore as a late-inning option going forward.

The 27-year-old Wantz has performed the best this season of the three righties ticketed for Triple-A, with a 3.32 ERA in 21 2/3 innings so far this season. Herget, 29, has struggled to a 4.38 ERA in 12 1/3 innings so far this season after posting a sterling 2.48 ERA in 69 innings of work for the Angels last season. Weiss, meanwhile, made just two appearances for the Angels prior to his demotion, with three hits, a home run, and a walk against two strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings of work. All three figure to be depth options for the Angels’ bullpen going forward.

Angels Release Ryan Tepera

By Nick Deeds | May 20, 2023 at 3:34pm CDT

TODAY: Tepera is now a free agent after clearing release waivers, the Angels announced.

MAY 14: The Angels have designated right-handed reliever Ryan Tepera for assignment, per a team announcement. Taking Tepera’s place on the active roster will be right-hander Zack Weiss, who was recalled from Triple-A in a corresponding move.

Tepera, 35, signed a two-year, $14MM contract with the Angels prior to the 2022 season. At the time, Tepera was coming off of a dominant season in Chicago, where he posted a 2.79 ERA (154 ERA+) with a matching 2.73 FIP over 61 1/3 innings split between the Cubs and White Sox. While Tepera was solid in his first season with the Angels, he didn’t quite live up to that promise, posting a 3.61 ERA (113 ERA+) with a 4.21 FIP over 57 1/3 innings of work.

The 2023 campaign has been nothing short of a disaster for Tepera so far, however. In ten appearances, the veteran righty has allowed nine runs (seven earned) in just 8 2/3 innings of work. While Tepera has a decent 21.7% strikeout rate and an excellent 6.5% walk rate so far this season, and a massive .448 BABIP certainly contributed to his struggles, Tepera had already allowed two home runs this season after allowing just 11 over his past 118 2/3 innings of work.

Tepera’s struggles were enough for the Angels to pull the plug despite the club still owing him $7MM for the 2023 campaign. At this point, it’s all but assured that Tepera will clear waivers, allowing him to sign with another club that would only owe Tepera the pro-rated big league minimum while the Angels continue to pay down his 2023 salary.

With Tepera off the roster, the Angels still have plenty of solid options for the back of their bullpen, with Carlos Estevez, Matt Moore, Jaime Barria and Andrew Wantz all having excelled to this point in the season. They’ll be joined by Weiss, 31 next month, who posted a solid 3.38 ERA (123 ERA+) with a 4.16 FIP in 13 1/3 innings for the Angels last season. Weiss’s stint with the Angels last season was just his second in the big leagues, as he debuted with the Reds in 2018 but failed to record an out in the appearance while surrendering four runs.

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