Angels Acquire Former Headline Prospect In A Trade With The Pirates
According to Alex Stumpf of MLB.com, the Pittsburgh Pirates have traded Roansy Contreras to the Los Angeles Angels for cash considerations. Contreras was designated for assignment by Pittsburgh on Saturday after posting a 4.41 ERA and 1.653 WHIP across 16 1/3 innings. The right-hander will replace Davis Daniel in the Angels bullpen, although Contreras could move into the starting rotation if necessary.
“We like Ro, and he’s a really good pro,” general manager Ben Cherington said. “He’s a talented kid who we believe will be a good big-leaguer.”
The Angels have an open spot on the 40-man roster after designating Amir Garrett for assignment Wednesday night. They already have a 26-man roster spot available after Niko Goodrum and Davis Daniel were sent to Triple-A Salt Lake with Luis Rengifo coming off the injured list. The spot will go to Contreras, who is out of minor league options as he doesn’t have the option to go to Triple-A.
Former Headline Prospect
Contreras is only 24 years old. He was a headline prospect for the New York Yankees before he was sent to the Pirates in an offseason trade for Jameson Taillon. At the time, Contreras was among the top 100 minor leaguers in baseball. Contreras was 21 years old when he came up to the majors in late 2021 and threw three shutout innings to make 18 starts. He did appear in three relief appearances for the 2022 season. Contreras pitched 98 innings with a 3.67 ERA, 21.4 percent strikeout rate and a 9.5 percent walk rate in the majors. That’s a good way to kick-start a major league career as a pitcher. Contreras did look like he was going to be a key rotation piece alongside Mitch Keller. However, the 2024 season went poorly for Contreras.
Contreras and His Struggles
Between April and mid-June, Contreras made 11 starts. He struggled to the point where the Pirates put him to the bullpen. Through his first 56 1/3 innings last year, he put up a 5.91 ERA. Contreras saw a decline in his strikeout rate (174. percent) and an increase in walk rate (10.1 percent).
“We wanted to give it all the time we could with Ro,” Cherington said. “Obviously, he’s been a guy we believed in and were hopeful for. We just felt like right now, the alternative moves we could have made to open up that spot were not going to be best for the team.”
This season didn’t bring promising results either. A full-time move to the Pirates bullpen did help him somewhat. Opponents hit .292/.370/.477 against the right-hander this season. Since the Pirates couldn’t send Contreas to the minors, the club went ahead to DFA him. The Pirates will turn their attention to Keller, Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and Martin Perez.
