1:50pm: The Angels sent cash to the Pirates in the deal, reports Andrew Destin of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
1:18pm: The Angels are acquiring right-hander Roansy Contreras in a trade with the Pirates, reports Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. Pittsburgh designated Contreras for assignment five days ago.
The Halos have an open 40-man roster spot after designating lefty Amir Garrett for assignment last night, and they already cleared a 26-man roster spot earlier today when they announced that utilityman Niko Goodrum and righty Davis Daniel were optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake, with infielder Luis Rengifo coming off the injured list. A second 26-man roster move wasn’t revealed at the time, but it now seems that’ll go to Contreras, who’s out of minor league and thus cannot be sent to Triple-A himself.
Still just 24 years old, Contreras was the headline prospect going from the Yankees to the Pirates in the 2020-21 offseason trade that sent Jameson Taillon to the Bronx. At the time of the swap, Contreras was widely regarded among the top-100 minor leaguers in the sport, and through the early portion of his career, the reasons for his prospect fanfare were apparent. Contreras debuted as a 21-year-old late in the 2021 season and tossed three shutout innings, then went on to make 18 starts and another three relief appearances for the 2022 Pirates. In all, he pitched 98 innings with a 3.67 ERA, 21.4% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate in the majors — all before celebrating his 23rd birthday.
That’s a fine start to any big league career, and as recently as April 2023, Contreras looked like a foundational rotation piece alongside Mitch Keller. The 2023 season went about as poorly for Contreras as possible, however. He made 11 starts between April and mid-June — struggling so much that the Pirates dropped him to the bullpen. Through Contreras’ first 56 1/3 frames last year, he was torched for a 5.91 ERA with a greatly reduced 17.4% strikeout rate and a bloated 10.1% walk rate. His fastball velocity, which sat just shy of 96 mph from 2021-22, averaged a noticeably lesser 94.4 mph. Statcast painted the picture of a right-hander who opponents had little problem squaring up: 90.3 mph average exit velocity, 9% barrel rate, 42.7% hard-hit rate.
The 2024 season hasn’t brought better results. Despite a full-time move to the ’pen, Contreras’ 94.7 mph average fastball is still more than a mile per hour slower than his 2021-22 velocity out of the rotation. His 21.6% strikeout rate is a slight uptick from last year’s 21.4% mark, but his 10.8% walk rate is a career-high. His Statcast profile looks quite similar to the rough numbers he posted as a starter in 2023: 90.8 mph average exit velocity, 10% barrel rate, 42% hard-hit rate. Opponents hit .292/.370/.477 against Contreras this season. He’s sitting on a respectable enough 4.41 ERA, but his 5.01 FIP doesn’t match even that modest number. (His 4.13 SIERA is a bit more optimistic, forecasting some improvement in terms of homer-to-flyball ratio.)
Since the Pirates couldn’t send Contreras to the minors without first passing him through waivers, the club opted to DFA him. It’s clear they no longer viewed Contreras as a viable candidate to take a rotation spot alongside Keller, Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and veteran Martin Perez. With several pitching prospects having leapfrogged Contreras on the depth chart and no set-in-stone place in the team’s bullpen, the decision was made to designate him and evaluate other options. The cash return on the swap will surely frustrate Pirates fans, but that negligible return also speaks to the manner in which the leaguewide perception of Contreras has changed over the past 13 to 14 months.
The Angels have a full five-man rotation — Patrick Sandoval, Reid Detmers, Griffin Canning, Tyler Anderson, Jose Soriano — so it seems likely they’ll plug Contreras into the bullpen for the time being. It’s possible he’ll eventually get a look as a starter, with injuries always standing as an inevitability plus some notable workload concerns for Soriano, who’s making the transition from reliever to starting pitcher this season.
I remember how dominant Contreras looked in his start against the Sox last April. It’s been a steep downhill slide since then
A very Angels type pitcher
That’s life for you. One moment you’re a big prospect, debuting with some hype and a whole career ahead of you, the next moment you’re playing for the Angels
He’s still only 24. Seems odd they’re moving on so quickly
Agreed tigers. He’s not brandon bielak. His stuff is far superior and he’s plenty young. To trade him for cash is surprising
Sometimes it Bielak that.
underrated pun
Astros- It is not surprising if one is a Pirates fan.
He’s out of options and they don’t appear to have room for a role for him at the mlb level. Since they seem to have multiple guys they prefer for shuttle duty and shots at development in mlb that makes him a roadblock and odd man to the fo judging by this decision.
Been awful for a year. I think a year is enough time to know if you can fix someone.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all as a Pirates fan to watch the Halos quickly get him back to form, and I’m sick just watching that happen over and over again.
Anaheim is not Tampa Bay, but I hope he does well
“I wouldn’t be surprised at all as a Pirates fan to watch the Halos quickly get him back to form”
When Moreno was putting together this incredible machine known as the Angels organization, he especially focused on using his insights and resources to surpass all other teams in pitching development. Contreras will be MVP and CY very soon and this, of course, will just about guarantee a long playoff run and ring.
lay off the sauce, Sealbeach Comber
That’s like saying of an accountant, “He’s still only 47. He’ll get it going any time now.”
24 is 3 years shy of the age at which players’ peak.
Like almost everyone else in the bullpen, they’ll probably give him a few innings of relief and DFA him. It still perplexes all of us as to why Suarez is STILL on the roster, though! The excuse that he’s a “lefty” doesn’t match up with how BAD he is.
Suarez being on the roster is a way of tanking without admitting you’re tanking.
Lol!
They aren’t tanking, they are this bad. Minasian keeps shopping at the Dollar Store which doesn’t work when you are as poor of an evaluator as he. I hope cheapskate Arte doesn’t extend him.
@kellin that was the Aaron loup argument, I agree he’s most likely done next year so why not try someone else. Can it be any worse?
Instead of shopping at Bloomingdale’s, Angel’s GM is contented with Salvation Army’s Castoffs
Dumpster diving is a Pirate tradition
Once in a while you find a jackpot at SA. That is what Perry is hoping.
@aragon atleast it’s someone younger why not I remember reds fans being pumped on noe ramirez for raisel until he didn’t make it out of spring training I was glad he was gone. It’s definitely a lotto ticket. Still need to get rid saurez.
The Angels have the 27th best record in MLB. This is exactly what they should be doing.
Unlucky for Roansy going to the Guardians or Rays would have been much better for his career.
As both a rays fan and Roansy fan I wanted him to the Rays bad sucks for him
I’m guessing that with Rasmussen, Springs, and not long after, McClanahan coming back, there was no room on the roster for another reclamation project.
Be careful what you wish for. Yeah, he lost 4-5 mph on his fastball but his problems are above the neck. Kid lost confidence after being shelled a few times. Not like you’re gonna snap your fingers and he’s a ready made pitcher.
just what the Bucs need
cash
How about a first baseman who isn’t batting below the Mendoza line ( my apologies to 215 for using his namesake)
In 2020’s MLB .150 is the new .320
The hottest player on this team is not in the lineup for tonight’s game
Cutch is sitting this game out
Shelton as a manager is such a joke
Sure we don’t need a hitting prospect, so we will take cash.
Paul- No worries.The more the merrier.Those dollar bills add up after a while.
instead they played Jack who proceeded to strike out 4 times
Career is in trouble. Luck has nothing to do with it. If they seen something they could have beat the offer.
Some message boarders were right: Trout should have been traded years ago (March of 2021 at the latest- there were serious red flags in 2020 and he was less only half a year away from 30 by that point). Albatross contract and Trout has less trade value than the piece of chewing gum from a 1980s pack of cards- Anaheim would have to cover $100+ million just to get a team to take on his contract for no players in return. Just to get rid of his contract (sort of). More than a quarter of a $ billion left on the deal (!!), one of the worst contracts in sports. Not even a chump like brian cashman would be enough of a stupid idiot to take on the rest of the contract at this point. By the way, Trout choked (as usual- very non-clutch type of guy) on the world stage and was beaten badly by Ohtani including with straight fastballs right down the middle none of which Trout even made contact with. He should never be allowed to play in the WBC again, let alone be the “captain” of the US team. Trout let America down.
You sound totally reasonable.
You do remember they offered to trade him just last year and he said no, he wanted to stay with the Angels, right? He flat out said he doesn’t want to play anywhere else. But that doesn’t matter for the purposes of your incoherent ramblings, does it?
He was already untradable, of course he said “no”. To spare himself the embarrassment. He uses the nickname “God’s Gift”, he deserves all the criticism in the world for the audacity of that. He’s just a baseball player, that’s it. Absolutely nothing truly special or important.
I think anyone who talks about trout being traded should be banned from the boards.
Face it, one of your favorite baseball players is an extremely fragile, quickly fading, petty delusional jackass with a God complex. he could never play another game for Anaheim and it would be nothing to me.
@trojantoss The trout troll with a new name.
(troll) Trojan……..
Why????????????????????????????????????????????
There is no reason, zero, ziltch, nada, to bring up the obligatory “Trout Trade comment.
It is beyond old it is idiotic at this point.
Most of us with any ounce of common sense read the comments to find out who the first troll will be to bring it up
Congrats on being the idiot of the day
Trojan Toss4 hours ago
Trout choked (as usual- very non-clutch type of guy) on the world stage and was beaten badly by Ohtani including with straight fastballs right down the middle none of which Trout even made contact with.
================================
Thanks for admitting that you never saw the at bat.
Drafted 20 pitchers in 2021, signed 19 of them. Many of them were relievers in college who were expected to be here by now.
I am trully worried about this year’s draft. You can find a jewel at 8th but not with any GM Arte has.
@Aragon perry was decent with neto, and schanuel and the o’hoppe trade. I agree the bar is set low. But the angels haven’t had any draft picks land in awhile trout was the last until arte gutted the scouting department.
Well he’s screwed. Really loved him coming up and was a great guy to meet at spring training. Wish would have went to a organization that has a decent track record of developing guys like him ie they rays lol
Turn into the next Clay Holmes
how does Perry still have a job?
same reason Cherington still has a job
ownership ignorance and profit above everything else
Its not Perry. The angels wont develop internally and its impossible to win otherwise.
Another 6 ERA for the bullpen.
Looking like the Angels will lose 100 or more for the first time in team history.
Sad part of all the loses is their player personnel staff has no clue how to draft when they likely will have a top 5 pick.
Arte please leave and head back to AZ.
Correct – Angels are the only MLB franchise to never lose 100 games in a season. I hope it doesn’t happen, but it’s gonna take a LOT of things to break just right to avoid it.
The Angels are assembling an impressive group of players who have no business being in the big leagues
I actually like this move for the Angels. Young guy with good FB velocity and 4 more years of control. They aren’t competing this year, so they can afford to give him a roster spot for a few weeks to see what they have.. if nothing else, he continues to pitch poorly and maybe he’ll clear waivers and you’ll get a chance to work with him at AAA.
I’ll miss Roansy. Thought he could have been a rotation anchor back in 2021. Stuff just hasn’t gotten better and has declined. Maybe he can improve, maybe he can’t. I wish him luck though.
glad he is moving to another organization. Not because i want him gone but because the guy is pretty good but for whatever reason just fell apart. maybe he never was an mlb pitcher but the guy has some stuff maybe another organization can figured out what we screwed up with him and get him going on a path to be a decent MLB arm again.
day dream….. Angels should’ve sent Trout and half his salary. I think there would have been a 30% chance Mike would at least consider it Given he hasn’t been playing much anyway and would likely be traded to an actual contender if he was healthy… and if he was healthy it might make the pirates an actual contender
Any way, Good luck Roansy!
There are thousands of guys who are “pretty good” and never make the big show. I’m kind of amazed how fans have romanticized the young man. He had a few promising innings but really, he was taking a roster spot not only here but in the minors based on potential. Hope he turns it around and can do something with raw talent but he had his chances here
Nutting loves his cash.
When will Mike Trout request a trade. He might be one of the best players ever to play just 3 postseason games in his entire career.
Yankees never trade top prospects, and prospects they do trade away are always basura.
Another overrated former Yankee’s prospect.
Joey Votto played just a few more than that. Maybe 8 or 9? I know Google is available.
More trash
Cherington got hosed again.
Minasian’s entire roster construction philosophy summed up in three words… Hope and Pray.
I can’t wait for the Angels to replace him.
@halo11fan I find it weird that every gm the angels had did the same thing in the arte era. We can hope for a change but I have a feeling the only thing that’s changing is the name, same crap philosophy it’s like the buzz word in the interview is cheap options and arte automatically offers the candidate the job.
Not really. There is no one in the minor leagues to look at.
I can’t remember a GM that has done so little.
There are only three Angel GMs I wanted gone, Port, Reagins and Minasian. And I’ve been an fan since the best days of Fregosi and Chance.
@halo11fan I would say every gm after stoneman has sucked. Not sure if perry is any worse than the previous ones, and maybe even ever so slightly better. Reagins was the worse with the stupid Vernon wells trade.
Halo11Shill must get paid by the post to try and shift blame onto everyone except Moreno. The Angels haven’t won a playoff game since 2009 and the organization is perhaps the most inept in the MLB and only getting worse….the only constant in all of it has been Moreno.
@sealbeach comber I wouldn’t say he likes arte. But I agree every general manager has no experience and has the same philosophy. It’s definitely a arte thing, he needs to spend money on a infrastructure to let the gm succeed positive everything is still stripped down to save money
Rex, they may have sucked, but I generally don’t have a dislike for GMs. As a GM, you have to really suck to get my ire.
That was the point I was trying to make.
Hey, liar sealbeach. When is the last time I didn’t also blame Moreno?
He doesn’t pay enough attention to the minor leagues and goes for big ticket items. When did I ever say otherwise?
Rex, about Moreno, how Moreno treated Hamilton, who had a sickness, and how he treated employees during Covid disgusted me. But that liar calls me a Schill for Moreno because I think Minasian is worse.
I was the first person on this board to rip Moreno and I was the only one ripping Moreno for his handling of Hamilton.
But here is a fact, we have one with Moreno, we haven’t with Minasian, and I think winning with Moreno is more possible than winning with Minasian.
Although, I highly doubt either is likely.
The problem after Minasian goes: who will want the job? Quality baseball minds have (e.g., Dombrowski) and will continue to stay away from an Arte owned Angels team.
Destroying the scouting dep’t and throwing huge money at big named free agents instead have devastated the team for a long time to come.
The only good thing that came out of the spring is that Artie didn’t spend again on the likes of Snell and others.
@halo11fan Moreno is definitely the problem. Atleast perry might’ve hit on two guys in the draft neto, and schanuel. Has there been anyone in the system that was good after stoneman and bane left. I just don’t think getting rid of him will solve anything. Most likely going to keep him and Washington another year until the contracts run out.
I dont think Schaneul was a hit. Maybe Neto will be an above average player.
Schanuel has a negative fWAR. Neto is 21st in fWAR for shortstops. I wouldn’t call them hits.
But feel free to disagree who is worse. They both suck. I think Perry is worse. But that’s a far cry from saying I’m a Schill for Moreno. M
61 fan. There are only 30 of these jobs. There will be hundreds of applicants.
And no one thinks Moreno will own the team in a couple three years from now.
May be hundreds, just not sure what kind of quality you’ll find among them.
And I don’t think we can entice a potential GM of quality in the hope that Arte will sell some time in the future.
In that group of hundreds, there will be some good ones, and like you, I wouldn’t expect this team to pick any of the good ones.
@halo11fan the only reason why I’m giving perry the benefit of doubt is. His players can turn out to be something in a year or two. Who did eppler draft adell, marsh, and maybe bradish? But agree it’s a push, and they could move on without him. I defended you about the arte shill comment, but if someone calls you a Rendon shill I would have to agree. Lol
Let’s look who Eppler drafted.
Bradish, Canning, Detmers, Adell, Marsh. He did bring in Ohtani. And he didn’t have the priority picks of Minasian.
Minasian has spent well over 100 million on the bullpen and it still sucks. I do think Neto has a chance of being a top ten shortstop. But that 2021 draft may have been the worst in Angel history.
By the way Rex, just because our opinions may differ, what difference does it make? It doesn’t make you a Minasian shill, any more than mine makes me a Moreno shill.
It’s just two fans that have a different opinion.
@halos11fan I know I don’t take things personal, just saying he’s probably not any worse than the subpar gm’s we have had in past. I just don’t think it will matter if the angels fired him because we will hire someone else with no experience. Probably should’ve traded Sandoval and canning when teams were interested. clevinger and lorenzen could’ve filled in on cheap deals. The return most likely would’ve been some tucker Davidson’s, but Should’ve blown it up partially this year
Clevinger is a bad citizen. Moreno won’t sign those guys, which is, in my opinion, Moreno’s best trait.
And it probably won’t make a difference what GM they bring in, but Perry is so bad that I have no sympathy for him.
@halo11fan might take some money, but I would try to get James click, came from the rays, and Astros might be able to get some scouts from Baltimore where most of the Astros guys went, rays, and maybe some blue Jay’s. He was responsible for the Astros international players.
90 % of the guys Minasian has signed or traded for I’ve never heard of before, they never pan out, and they’re always from the same teams. i.e. reds, pirates, Rockies, nationals, braves, independent minors.
Is there a player in baseball being released that the Angels don’t want?
Instead of “breAk up the Yankees” maybe the new one should be “merge the Angels and Rockies” there’s already a rock pile in Centerfield, direct flights to Denver.
Will the Angels trade Adell or will they keep him to “try to convince him to sign next year”
Bro, Adell has like 4 more years of team control. Maybe 3, I didn’t count all the partial games and seasons.
Roansy’s fastball and slider are both good pitches but neither are truly dominant. The bigger issue is Roansy doesn’t have the command necessary to make them play off each other and be an effective “two-pitch” pitcher. His curve and changeup basically exist simply to exist and are liable to get crushed too often to throw as anything more than a show me pitch. He should add a sinker or cutter as his third pitch to look more like his slider and fastball coming out of his hand but having a different break. Then aim everything a little closer to the heart of the plate instead of trying to hit the edges. Those are my thoughts and I’m still hoping Maikol Escotto proves himself to be the real headliner of the Taillon trade.
Here we go again
Neither is a “good pitch” when they are either wildly out of the strike zone or lingering dead red. THAT is the Roansy we’ve been treated to over a year. Using the “good pitch” logic, I can refer hundreds of Legion pitchers who should be at AAA, at least
I can’t remember the exact date but Contreras had a start against the Brewers a couple seasons ago that changed everything. After showing the great promise that many here are referring to—and has been largely absent since—he got shellacked and I don’t believe he made it beyond the 3rd.
His movement pitches didn’t move beyond dirt level and his 96 or 97 mph pitches routinely thrown down Main Street got pounded. Welcome to the majors, kid
The next thing you know, he’s a middle innings reliever who’s lost 4-5 mph on the fastball and then on a shuttle to the Gulf Coast League.
He can add what he likes and can perfect it in simulated games. But until someone not only teaches the kid how to pitch but also works on his head, it’s not going to matter much. Maybe the Angels have those kinds of pitching coaches.
Between guys like Roansy, Priester and Selby, among others who are or were here, they don’t seem to be around in the Pirates organization
“The angels will fix him!” – no one ever
A pitcher being traded to the Angels for cash is truly hitting rock bottom in major league baseball.
Very Arturo like move.
Damn! I was really hoping the Cubs would try to claim him. I knew there was little chance of him clearly waivers though.