The Los Angeles Angels held onto Reid Detmers and Zach Neto but moved on from several other players, some making their debuts on Tuesday.
The Los Angeles Angels didn’t necessarily shock the world by making a bunch of trades at the trade deadline because they should have considering their record, but selling off some bigger named players with control was out of the ordinary.
The Angels held onto lefty starter Reid Detmers and shortstop Zach Neto but brought in a ton of prospects in deals for right-handed starter José Soriano, outfielder Jo Adell, right-handed reliever Ryan Zeferjahn and lefty reliever Brent Suter, doing very well to upgrade a weak farm system.
There was one player that made his Angels debut Tuesday, though – catcher/designated hitter Moisés Ballesteros. Ballesteros was acquired from the Chicago Cubs in the Zeferjahn trade along with pitching prospect Mason McGwire (son of Mark) and hit sixth as the DH.
“Mo Baller” as Cubs fans called him went 1-for-4, singling in his first at-bat off Baltimore Orioles left-hander Cade Povich before striking out twice and grounding out..
While Ballesteros punched out twice, he saw 10 pitches including six during the first strikeout. Unfortunately for Ballesteros and the Angels, he had an opportunity to tie the game at 2 in the eighth inning but bounced out to the pitcher after just two pitches.
Ballesteros has great hitting skills and started out red-hot with the Cubs this season, but a prolonged slump and lack of consistent playing time saw him get sent down to Triple-A in June. The 22-year-old should regain some confidence playing every day.
Soriano and Suter didn’t pitch for their new teams yet, but Zeferjahn made his first appearance with Chicago against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the eighth inning of their 5-1 win on Tuesday.
Zeferjahn showed off his nasty sweeper and hard fastball in a clean 1-2-3 inning, needing just nine pitches to get Tommy Edman to ground out, Alex Call to foul out and Shohei Ohtani to fly out.
Adell made his Cleveland Guardians debut as well, and he displayed why his name was floating around for a lot of teams that sought out right-handed hitting.
Adell batted second and played right field for Cleveland, going 2-for-4 with a double, walk and run scored. He struck out in three pitches during his third plate appearance and reached on an error in his fourth plate appearance.
It seems like the former Angels are enjoying their new opportunities so far and the new Angel will enjoy free playing time. Soriano is set to make his first Toronto Blue Jays start against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday and Suter likely will appear in his first game with the Atlanta Braves Wednesday or Thursday.
