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Okay, so maybe we didn’t give him enough credit when he was here, but Fernando Salas is back and worse than ever.
On Saturday evening, Angels fans were busy watching a neat, little home run fest by Mike Trout and Luis Valbuena. However, Billy Eppler was hard at work. Out of nowhere, and announced by literally nobody, the Salt Lake Bees tweeted this:
TRANSACTION: The Bees have added reliever Fernando Salas to the roster today. Adam Hofacket to @Mobile_BayBears
— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) August 20, 2017
MLB Trade Rumors, MLB, and virtually every other site had no further information about what happened. Apparently, Salas was released by the Mets recently after posting a 6.00 ERA in 45 innings pitched this season. That is far-and-away the worst season he has ever had, smashing the 4.47 ERA (that looks pretty good compared to some of the numbers we’ve had this year) he held with the Angels last season before being traded for Eric Manoah.
On the one hand, you have a reliever who was relatively solid in his tenure with the Angels making a return for peanuts and only pitching in the minors at the moment. His FIP suggests he’s been pretty unlucky and he isn’t much worse than Jose Alvarez has been this season.
On the other, you have a 6.00 ERA pitcher with a WHIP of almost 1.8(!!!) who you are fairly certain will be coming up soon to add to the team’s impressive collection of game-losing grand slams. The guy is allowing the same number of home runs per inning pitched as he did last year when fans could not stand him, but with more walks.
I guess this is what passes for a playoff move these days. At least Houston can’t say they did much more.