The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with right-handed reliever Evan Marshall, tweets James Fegan of The Athletic. Marshall himself suggested on Twitter last night that he’d signed with the Halos. He’s represented by ISE Baseball.
Marshall, 33 next month, missed the 2022 season recovering from 2021 Tommy John surgery. He enjoyed an excellent run with the White Sox from 2019-20, logging a combined 2.45 ERA with a 23.5% strikeout rate, 10.3% walk rate and 52.3% ground-ball rate in 73 1/3 frames out of the Chicago bullpen. His numbers took a sharp downturn in 2021, however, as Marshall was tagged for a 5.60 ERA in 27 1/3 frames before landing on the injured list and ultimately undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Marshall’s Tommy John procedure came in November 2021, so he should be largely recovered from the procedure. He’ll still need to build up to game readiness after remaining unsigned through the bulk of spring training. An assignment to Triple-A Salt Lake would make sense, speculatively speaking.
In the short-term, there’s not a lot of immediate opportunity in the Anaheim bullpen. The Halos are slated to carry a trio of out-of-options bullpen arms — Jaime Barria, Jose Quijada, Tucker Davidson — and the bulk of their other options are veterans on guaranteed deals who cannot be optioned (Carlos Estevez, Ryan Tepera, Aaron Loup, Matt Moore). Right-handers Jimmy Herget and Andrew Wantz are the only Angels relievers who can be optioned to the minors without first passing through waivers, but they’re both also coming off strong 2022 seasons at the big league level.
Of course, injuries and rough starts to the season are inevitable for any group of pitchers. Either could create an opportunity for Marshall or another veteran who’s with the Angels on a minor league contract. That’s a group that currently includes names like Chris Devenski, Jonathan Holder, Cesar Valdez and Jacob Webb, among others. If Marshall can successfully get back to his pre-Tommy John 2019-20 form, he’d presumably be among the first names up when an opportunity presents itself.
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