The Los Angeles Angels have brought in some organizational legends to spring training this winter. Manager Phil Nevin has made an emphasis on bringing back some longtime Halos, and having them sharing their knowledge with the current team.
Albert Pujols (who works with the team) , Troy Percival and Darin Erstad have been among the Angels legend at camp. However, one longtime Angel who hasn't been there is Jered Weaver. And he took to Twitter to share his thoughts on not getting an invite.
"Man what's a guy gotta do to get an invite to spring? Zero calls since I retired.. kinda weird. Oh well."
Weaver spent 11 of his 12 years in the league with the Halos, finishing as an All-Star three times and as high as second in the AL Cy Young voting.
On the Angels all-time pitching leaderboards, Weaver ranks third in WAR (36.1), second in wins (150), third in strikeouts (1,598) and third in innings pitched (2025.0).
Weaver shared the tweet on Friday, so on Saturday, Angels insider Sam Blum asked Nevin about Weaver's lack of an invite to camp. Here's what he said, per Blum.
"You throw a party, there's always going to be someone upset, right? I love Jered. The relationship's good with him.
"I'm the one that chose everybody here. Just so everybody knows. This isn't coming from anybody else. Albert works for us. There will be some guys that'll be here that work for us. But if you notice, a lot of these guys came from that 02 championship team and they're all my teammates. I had a certain number of guys that I was able to bring in, and those are the guys I asked.
"And it's no offense to Jered, love him. He's a great guy. He's been a great Angel. And not something we wouldn't look at in the future. And I'll talk to him too. I didn't realize it was hurting people's feelings. (But) I'm not here to make friends or keep friends. I'm here to win games.
"And I felt like a lot of those guys from that 02 team being out here and being my teammates and knowing who they are, I thought it was important to get them here. There's certainly a lot of great Angels that have been around that are very deserving to be out here. Jered's one of them. And not something we couldn't visit in the future. I'll talk to him."
It's great that Blum asked the question, and nice that Nevin took responsibility for it and gave a nice, thorough answer. Clearly, Nevin means no hard feelings. He was inviting people he was friends with, and those who were a part of the Angels 2002 World Series winning team.
He mentioned the possibility of reaching out to Weaver for a future invite, so we'll see if they end up connecting in the future. But hopefully, Nevin's answer provides Weaver with some clarity, and the sides can continue to move forward on good terms.
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