Angels win arbitration case against Gio Urshela, lose vs. Hunter Renfroe

The Angels have won their arbitration case against infielder Gio Urshela, and lost their case with Hunter Renfroe reports Jeff Fletcher of SoCal News Group. Urshela will now take home an $8.4M salary in 2023, rather than the $10M salary he’d filed for. Renfroe will get $11.9M from the Angels, who’d countered with an $11.25M offer. Both players are entering their first season with the Angels this year.

Urshela was acquired from the Twins earlier in the winter, after enjoying something of a bounce-back year in 2022. The 31-year-old posted a .285/.338/.429 line with 13 home runs for the Twins last year, his most productive season since 2019 with the Yankees. The key there was a 7 percentage point drop in his strikeout rate from a year prior as well as an uptick in his walk rate.

Renfroe was picked up in an early offseason trade with the Brewers. The corner outfielder slugged 29 home runs last year on his way to a .255/.315/.492 line over 522 plate appearances. That came with some solid outfield defense, as Renfroe logged 2 defensive runs saved in right field.

He figures to be the team’s everyday right fielder, but the playing time allocation for Urshela is a little less clear. Urshela’s generally graded out well at third base, but Anthony Rendon looks set to get the majority of the reps there. Rendon has missed 219 games in the past two years, but if he is fit, one would expect him to be in the lineup at third most days. That could leave Urshela to spend time at the middle infield spots. He played a handful of games at short for the Yankees in 2021. Apart from that, he has been used only sparingly outside of third, so it’ll be interesting to see where he fits in the Angels lineup.

Both Urshela and Renfroe are entering their last season of club control, and will become free agents at the end of the season.