The Angels acquire Hunter Renfrew from the Brewers

The aggressiveness of the early Angels continues. Halus announced the acquisition of an outfielder Renfrew hunter From the Brewers on Tuesday night. jugs Johnson JunkAnd the Elvis Peguero And the Adam Seminaris Head to Milwaukee in turn.

It’s the third early strike of the offseason for Hallus, who has already signed a starting lineup Tyler Anderson to a three-year free agent deal and acquire a player Geo Orchila In a trade with the twins. Now, they are taking a step towards fixing an external domain that has a big question mark on its side Mike Trout And the Taylor Ward.

Renfrew should strengthen the corner spot opposite Ward. He’s been an above-average hitter each of the past two seasons, with strikingly similar production for the Red Sox in 2021 and the Brewers this year. The former first baseman has compiled 60 home runs over the past two seasons, following up a 31-homer showing with the Sox with 29 home runs for Milwaukee. He had an identical . 315 on-base percentage every year but more than made up for that modest number with great power output.

The right-handed hitter has batted between .25 and .260 each of the past two years while hovering around .500 both seasons. He has a cumulative streak of .257/.315/.496 in just under 1,100 plate appearances going back to the start of 2021. His 22.9% strikeout rate is close to average, while he’s going with a clip of just under 7.6%. He is a passive lower OBP player who has notably eliminated left opposition. Renfroe carries a .269/.357/.508 line over this stretch while retaining a platoon edge. He had more acute concerns on base but got hard enough to remain a decent option against right-handed pitching (.252/.292/.491).

This power output is Renfroe’s calling card, but he’s also a viable defender. He has been saved by defensive tackles about the league average in right field in each of the last three seasons. Range-based Statcast has Renfroe a few rounds below average per year, but it makes up for its marginal athleticism with first-rate arm strength. He’s had double-digit assists each of the past two years, and he leads all MLB catchers with 27 baserunners snapped in that time.

Renfrew’s excellent arm strength has kept him primarily in right field for the past few years, although he scored a number of innings at left earlier in his career. If he advances to right field in Angel Stadium, it will drive Ward into left field. previous highest potential Joe Adele It now looks as if he will be relegated to fourth duty in the outfield/bench after starting his career with .215/.259/.356 appearances in about one season of games. Adell is still only 23 years old and having a solid year at Triple-A Salt Lake, but the Angels don’t seem ready to count on him in a regular role as they look to jump into the playoff picture in 2023.

As with last week’s Urshela trade, the acquisition of Renfroe is about deepening the lineup with a producing but not elite veteran for one season. Renfrew turns 31 in January and is in his final season with the club in control. he is projected By MLBTR contributor Matt Schwartz With a salary of $11.2 million, he will be a free agent at the end of the year. That’s a fair amount for a player of this caliber, but one rather expensive season of refereeing control on a low-OBP corner player isn’t brimming with commercial value. Renfrew is the second such player dealt in as many weeks.

Send Blue Jays Teuscar Hernandez to the sailors for disposal Eric Swanson and promotion Adam Mako. The trade came as a surprise to a number of Toronto fans, but both Swanson and McCoo are arguably more attractive players than any of the three pitchers Milwaukee has received in this exchange. Hernández is a better hitter than Renfroe, but the gap between the former’s .282/.332/.508 streak over the past two seasons and the latter’s production isn’t all that dramatic. However, Renfrew has had a hard time staying anywhere as his price has escalated during seasons of arbitration. Halos will be his fifth team in as many years, having consecutively played the Padres, Rays, Red Sox and Brewers since 2019.

Adding his projected arbitration salary brings Halos’ estimated 2023 salary to about $192 million, for each resource in the list. This would be the highest mark in franchise history, narrowly topping their approximate $189 million figure from last season. It comes to approximately $206 million in luxury tax liabilities, which is about $27 million from the base threshold of $233 million. The ability to spend the franchise this winter has been in question with owner Arte Moreno exploring selling the franchise. There’s still no indication the club is willing to tackle luxury tax territory, but the acquisitions of Anderson, Urshela and Renfroe handled an estimated $31.9 million in 2023 spending. The latter two players represent one-year investments, but Moreno appears to be General Manager Perry Minassian and his group are giving some leeway to add a roster before the club’s final season to take control of the defending AL MVP runner-up Shuhei Ohtani.

The Brewers add three pitchers, two of whom already have major league experience. Junk is a former Yankees 22nd round pick. He went to Halos on a 2021 deadline deal that sent southpaw Andrew Heaney to the Bronx. The right-hander has made seven MLB appearances over the past two seasons, starting in six. He allowed a 4.74 ERA through 24 2/3 innings pitched, striking out against opponents at 19.4%, but posting a walk average of 4.4%.

Junk, Jan 27 Basically based on a low 80s slider that potential evaluators suggest could be an above average show. He has a decent four-seam turn of 92-93 mph but hasn’t established himself on a major league team up to this point. He’s spent most of this year on an option assignment to Salt Lake, posting a 4.64 ERA through 73 2/3 innings pitched as a starter in a batter-friendly environment. His 22.1% strikeout percentage was just below average, but he only walked 5.8% of opponents. The Seattle University product still has a couple of years of minor league options left and can bounce between Milwaukee and Triple A Nashville as a center fielder or relief depth.

On the other hand, Peguero is a pure devotee. Right made his debut with three appearances as a COVID substitute late in the 2021 season. He earned a permanent place in the 40-man roster off last season and has appeared in 13 games this year. Tasked with low-leverage innings, Peguero put up a 7.27 ERA across 17 1/3 innings pitched. He knocked out only 15.6% of opponents, but he hit swings on an even more impressive 12% of his total pitches. The Dominican Republic native has grounded on nearly half of the battered balls he’s surrendered in the major leagues.

He also had a stellar year in Salt Lake, throwing 44 1/3 frames off a 2.84 ERA ball. Peguero fanned 27.5% of batters who faced a high-quality walk rate of 7.1% and pounded the ground with a whopping 57.5% clip. Like Junk, Peguero primarily leans on the slider during his MLB appearance, though he throws more aggressively. Peguero’s slider clocked in at an average of 91 mph while his fastball sat just north of 96. He turns 26 in March and also has two options remaining, so the Brewers can deploy him as an up-and-down middle reliever while hoping he can translate his Triple-A success against major league opponents.

Seminars went in the fifth round in the 2020 draft from Long Beach State. A 6’0 southpaw, he was not ranked among the top 30 prospects in Baseball America’s Anaheim system. He passed three minor league levels this year, showing well at High-A against younger opponents but struggled as he moved up the minor league ladder. In all, he made 101 2/3 frames off a 3.54-ball ERA for a strike rate of 22.1% and a walk percentage of 8.7%. He is not on the 40-man roster but will have to be added by the end of the 2023 season or be revealed in the Rule 5 draft.

While Milwaukee obviously likes all three mid-20s, they are flexible depth options. Certainly, the main driver in the deal was the reallocation of Renfroe’s massive arbitration drop. The payroll cut wasn’t the only driver of the trade — the Brewers could simply not have bid for Renfroe last week if they were committed to getting his money off the books — but GM Matt Arnold and his staff chose to free up some payroll room while bringing in some depth of masculine arms.

The Brewers are expected to have a salary of around $115 million at Roster Resource thanks to the arbitration class, which still includes Corbin BurnsAnd the Brandon Woodruff And the Willie Adams, among others. That’s about $17 million shy of this year’s opening day mark, and more roster mix numbers will be on the horizon. Dealing with a complement player like Renfrew doesn’t indicate the Brewers are about to turn over any Burns, Woodruff, or Adams, but Milwaukee could consider moving their second baseman. Colton Wong or depth start like Adrian Houser or Eric Lauer. They’ve already drawn some benefit Mariners on Wong and you’re sure to think of a number of ways to try to balance the present and the future.

Milwaukee can now plunge into the lower tiers of the outfield free agent corner market to fill Renfrew’s absence, with Tyrone Taylor Stands as a current favorite for side-by-side play Christian Yelich And the Garrett Mitchell Abroad. Highly inclined young players like Sal Frelick And the Joey Wimmer They could play their way into the midseason mix, but it would be surprising if the Brewers didn’t add at least one veteran player before the opening.

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