Angels Acquire Former Headline Prospect in a Trade with the Pirates

Roansy Contreras Dealt to the Angels

The Angels have an open spot on the 40-man roster after designating Amir Garrett for assignment Wednesday night. They already have a 26-man roster spot available after Niko Goodrum and Davis Daniel were optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake with Luis Rengifo coming off the injured list. The spot will go to Contreras, who is out of minor league options as he can’t be sent to Triple-A.

Former Headline Prospect

Contreras is only 24 years old. He was a headline prospect for the New York Yankees before he was sent to the Pirates in an offseason trade for Jameson Taillon. At the time, Contreras was among the top 100 minor leaguers in baseball. Contreras was 21 years old when he came up to the majors in late 2021 and threw three shutout innings to make 18 starts. He did appear in three relief appearances for the 2022 season. Contreras pitched 98 innings with a 3.67 ERA, 21.4 percent strikeout rate and a 9.5 percent walk rate in the majors. That’s a good way to kick-start a major league career as a pitcher. Contreras did look like he was going to be a key rotation piece alongside Mitch Keller. However, the 2024 season went poorly for Contreras.

Contreras and His Struggles

Between April and mid-June, Contreras made 11 starts. He struggled to the point where the Pirates put him to the bullpen. Through his first 56 1/3 innings last year, he put up a 5.91 ERA. Contreras saw a decline in his strikeout rate (174. percent) and an increase in walk rate (10.1 percent). This season didn’t bring promising results either. A full-time move to the Pirates bullpen did help him somewhat. Opponents hit .292/.370/.477 against the right-hander this season. Since the Pirates couldn’t send Contreas to the minors, the club went ahead to DFA him. The Pirates will turn their attention to Keller, Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and Martin Perez.