OC Register: Angels deal away Andrew Heaney, Tony Watson at trade deadline

[AngelsWin.com]

In Perry Minasian’s first trading deadline with the Angels, the biggest move he made may have been one involving a player he already had.

The Angels reportedly traded Andrew Heaney to the New York Yankees for two minor-league pitchers and reliever Tony Watson to the San Francisco Giants for a journeyman reliever.

The Heaney move may have opened up a spot for top pitching prospect Reid Detmers in the majors.

Detmers, the Angels’ top pick in last year’s draft, was scratched from what would have been his second Triple-A start Friday.

The 22-year-old left-hander has a 3.15 ERA in 60 innings in the minors this season, with 97 strikeouts and 18 walks. In his lone start at Triple-A, he pitched six scoreless innings.

If Detmers replaces Heaney in the rotation, it would certainly be a dramatic shift, although not what many fans expected heading into the deadline.

With the Angels at 51-51 and on the fringes on the playoff race, most expected them to be sellers, perhaps trading away Raisel Iglesias, Alex Cobb or José Iglesias. All three are free agents at the end of the season, and all three are having good seasons.

The other path would have been to send away minor-league players in order to upgrade the big-league roster, specifically the pitching staff, to make a run at the playoffs in 2021.

They took a third path. The Angels added to their farm system by trading away Heaney and Watson.

Heaney, 30, had a 5.27 ERA in 18 starts this season, a disappointing year by any standards. Although he had shown flashes of his potential throughout the season, including back-to-back quality starts in his past two outings, the consistency wasn’t there.

For Heaney, the Angels got 25-year-old right-hander Janson Junk, who was ranked the No. 27 prospect in the Yankees system by MLB Pipeline. A 22nd-round pick in 2017, Junk has a 1.78 ERA in 65 2/3 innings this season at Double-A.

They also received 24-year-old right-hander Elvis Peguero, who has a 2.23 ERA in 44 1/3 innings split between High-A and Double-A. Peguero was not ranked among the organization’s top 30.

The Angels reportedly sent some cash to the Yankees to help pay the remaining $2.25 million due on Heaney’s salary for this year, which likely allowed them to get better prospects back from the Yankees.

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Watson, 36, had a 3-3 record with a 4.64 ERA in 36 games this season for the Angels. The left-hander had spent the past three seasons in San Francisco.

The Angels received left-hander Sam Selman from the Giants for Watson. Selman, 30, has pitched 37 2/3 innings over parts of three seasons in the big leagues with the Giants, posting a 4.06 ERA. This year at Triple-A, Selman has a 4.03 ERA in 22 1/3 innings, with 24 strikeouts and 19 walks.

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