Stephenson done for the year

[Angels 1961]

ST 2025 Stephenson will not be ready. Perry made some dumb signings in Kolarek, Plesac, Stephenson and Cisneros. Some good ones in Matt Moore and Cimber. Garcia signing has looked better of late. Minor league signings of Strickland and Fullmer have looked good. Stephenson signing will put a bad taste in Arte Moreno mouth.

[redoctober2002]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

I guess I better phrase would have been it isn’t unheard of to include options like this. Either way it isn’t anything new or it isn’t in the contract because he was damaged goods. Common sense tells you that you aren’t giving $33 million to a guy who you think has an elbow injury. 

So one of the first contracts I looked up was Degrom's and he has a similar clause where if he misses 130 consecutive season days or 186 days in a service period the Rangers have a conditional option in 28. That option year is much more convulated though and is based on other factors like IP during the contract and medical evaluations.

It seems like teams are going to be more likely to add these clauses to pitchers that have a history as a sort of insurance policy when there's enough red flags.

[BTH]

8 hours ago, Stradling said:

Yea read what I wrote. I said it’s fairly common AND the FIRST one I remember was the Lackey contract. 

The way you phrased it below is better, but my point still stands that it's not that common.

4 hours ago, Stradling said:

I guess I better phrase would have been it isn’t unheard of to include options like this. Either way it isn’t anything new or it isn’t in the contract because he was damaged goods. Common sense tells you that you aren’t giving $33 million to a guy who you think has an elbow injury. 

Common sense tells you the player isn't giving you that contract stipulation unless there is some reason to warrant the clause.

[Blarg]

The Padres signed Richard's on a 2 year $25.5 million dollar contract, knowing he couldn't pitch until the end of the first year. 

Trying dying on a hill that isn't a landfill. 

[jsnpritchett]

11 minutes ago, Blarg said:

The Padres signed Richard's on a 2 year $25.5 million dollar contract, knowing he couldn't pitch until the end of the first year. 

Trying dying on a hill that isn't a landfill. 

2 years, $15.5M, not $25.5M.  And not sure what that has to do with anything, given that his situation and Stephenson's are completely different.  Richards' contract was essentially spreading the money for a one-year deal over two years to secure him for the full year once he recovered from surgery.  The Padres were 100% aware of his medical status because he'd already had the surgery.  BTH is making the point that in Stephenson's case (and maybe Lackey's, too), the team might have had some concern over the medicals, even if nothing was certain, so they included an injury clause option year.  Two totally different contract structures. 

Even if Stephenson recovers, pitches well, and the Angels exercise the option for '27, they'd still be paying him $35.5M for, at absolute max, 3 years of actual performance--and likely closer to 2 1/2.

[totdprods]

Sticking with my initial guess that this is Sean Burnett 2.0, and that fourth year option won’t even matter because he won’t even pitch enough in ‘25 or ‘26 to justify bringing him back even for $2.5m.

Only way that maybe changes is I guessed elsewhere that there was maybe a chance the Halos convert him back to a SP. Maybe if this injury was something somewhat expected, it’ll be easier to assume he can come back stronger post-surgery, they stretch him out, and should he prove to be somewhat healthy, a $2.5m option for a SP becomes a whole different thing worth considering.

I just have never had a lot of faith Stephenson was going to be a good, reliable, durable reliever going into the winter. Didn’t see it. Maybe there’s a bigger picture plan here we’re not privy too, and it would kind of explain the contract. Makes the years, the money, the hesitancy from other teams signing him, and the prescience of an uncommon injury option clause seem a lot more sensible.

Edited April 18 by totdprods

[jsnpritchett]

Also: no update yet today?  Figured they'd do it either right before or right after the game.

[Swordsman78]

21 hours ago, Ron Mexico said:

Dude had to be Damaged goods when the Angels signed him.

The entire offseason produced a Tier 6 result.   Perry needed to do better, and unfortunately for him, it was probably his last offseason with the Halos.

[Tank]

23 hours ago, Hufflepuff said:

What percentage of free agent signings work out for the Angels? I can’t think of many.

[Good]: Raised Iglesias, Torii Hunter, Vladdy, Joe Smith

For some reason I can remember the bad ones though:

[Bad]: Gary Matthews, Josh Hamilton, Pujols, Cozart, Justin Upton, CJ Wilson, Rendon, Stephenson, Ryan Tepera, Loupe, Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, Luis Valbuena, Joe Blanton, Shaun Burnett, 

Tyler Anderson (TBD)

15/19 contracts ended up being bad contracts. Maybe it’s time we focus on building the farm system

i would add bartolo colon, jose gullen, and kelvim escobar to the good list as far as production is concerned. guillen crashed and burned in his relationship with scioscia, but he was a good player when he wasn't being a knucklehead.

[jsnpritchett]

 

[tdawg87]

That's fantastic.

[Slegnaac]

Now we know who will be the closer in 2026.

[samwum]

On 4/18/2024 at 7:09 AM, Angels 1961 said:

ST 2025 Stephenson will not be ready. Perry made some dumb signings in Kolarek, Plesac, Stephenson and Cisneros. Some good ones in Matt Moore and Cimber. Garcia signing has looked better of late. Minor league signings of Strickland and Fullmer have looked good. Stephenson signing will put a bad taste in Arte Moreno mouth.

Moore is conceivably a good signing because he doesn't suck, but the signing also doesn't actually make any sense.

• Moore is 34 years old and on a year deal -- presumably won't be on the team next year.
• Are we actually getting closer to the eventual goal of winning a World Series by signing him? The better idea would probably be to use those innings to develop a reliever who might have future value to the org.
• Relievers max out at 1 to 1.5 WAR due to the smaller quantity of innings they pitch. Should a 73 win club really be spending $9mm on a player who is capped at 1.5 additional WAR?

Just an ignorant and blind way for the front office to be spending money. You're either paying $9mm for a low level prospect at the trade deadline, or for a rental to help you win 74 games instead of 73 games. Like, what are we doing here? 

 

 

[Angelsfan1984]

So he will be out or useless the entirety of his angels contract…

 

sounds about right.

[Blarg]

13 hours ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

So he will be out or useless the entirety of his angels contract…

 

sounds about right.

Stephenson is on a three year contract with a club option for a fourth at $2.5 million. 

[Tank]

16 hours ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

So he will be out or useless the entirety of his angels contract…

 

sounds about right.

 

2 hours ago, Blarg said:

Stephenson is on a three year contract with a club option for a fourth at $2.5 million. 

best case scenario is that he's back (and effective) by the end of next season.

[jsnpritchett]

25 minutes ago, Tank said:

 

best case scenario is that he's back (and effective) by the end of next season.

Even if he's back and effective for half of next year AND they pick up his option for '27, they'll still end up paying him $35.5M for 2 1/2 seasons of actual playing time. Crazy. 

Edited April 24 by jsnpritchett

[DMVol]

31 minutes ago, Tank said:

 

best case scenario is that he's back (and effective) by the end of next season.

And counting on any production next year wouldn't be wise. That would be a bonus. 

[arch stanton]

Every pitcher in baseball is potentially one pitch away from TJS. His number came up. We’ll see him when he gets back 

[Tank]

3 hours ago, DMVol said:

And counting on any production next year wouldn't be wise. That would be a bonus. 

agreed