Athletics right-hander Ángel Felipe will undergo Tommy John surgery Friday, with team reporter Jessica Kleinschmidt among those to relay the news. The righty will miss all of the 2024 season and likely part of 2025 as well.
Felipe, 26, made his major league debut with the A’s last year. Claimed off waivers from the Padres in June, he went on to toss 15 innings over 14 appearances out of the Oakland bullpen in the latter parts of the 2023 campaign. He had a 4.20 earned run average in that time, striking out 29.7% of batters faced and keeping 53.3% of balls in play on the ground, but he showed a lack of control with his 20.3% walk rate.
That’s generally been the recipe with Felipe throughout his minor league career, as he has racked up lots of strikeouts and ground balls but also given out lots of free passes. He tossed 154 1/3 innings in the minors over the past three years, punching out 30.3% of opponents and getting grounders on roughly half of batted balls, but walking 12.8% of batters faced.
The A’s are deep in a rebuild and are coming into 2024 with very little that is certain in their bullpen. Sean Newcomb, Trevor Gott and Scott Alexander are the only relievers on the roster with more than three years of service time. That leaves plenty of room for some young and inexperienced hurlers to step up and seize jobs, but Felipe won’t be able to take advantage of that situation now.
Instead, he will spend 2024 rehabbing and set his sights on a return to the mound in 2025. The A’s will likely transfer him to the 60-day injured list whenever they need a roster spot. If that comes to pass, he will spend the year there collecting major league pay and service time. The A’s could also designate him for assignment but injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, meaning Felipe would have to be placed on release waivers. If they took that route and Felipe went unclaimed, they could try to re-sign him to a minor league deal, but he would be free to pursue opportunities with other clubs as well.
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