Andrew

Wantz

Wantz seemed to have the makings of a quality reliever, but the Angels moved him back to the rotation this year and he ended up undergoing elbow surgery in July. The Angels never did reveal exactly what the surgery was; it didn’t appear to be Tommy John but there is doubt about his readiness for the beginning of 2025. Marte underwent shoulder surgery in September and is also a question mark for next year.

Wantz made just one relief appearance for the Angels earlier this month before heading to the injured list and requiring season-ending surgery. The club declined to reveal the exact procedure, which certainly has an impact on our ability to estimate his return timeline. There should be some clarity on his status in the coming weeks.

This move was made to open up a spot on the 40-man roster for Keston Hiura, who was added to the major league roster with Luis Rengifo going on the injured list. It’s unclear when Wantz might return from right elbow inflammation, but it won’t be anytime soon with him being transferred to the 60-day injured list.

No word yet on how long Wantz will be sidelined. The 28-year-old righty was recalled last week from Triple-A Salt Lake and made only one relief appearance before hitting the injured list.

With Zach Plesac heading back to Triple-A on Saturday, Wantz will get an opportunity to add a fresh arm to the Halos’ bullpen for the time being. The 28-year-old hurler had registered a 6.17 ERA, 1.63 WHIP and a 34/15 K/BB ratio over 23 1/3 innings in seven appearances (six starts) at Triple-A.

There simply isn’t any space in Los Angeles’ bullpen at the moment for either Wantz or Joyce at the outset of the season, but both figure to be up with the Angels at some point in the coming months.

Wantz hasn’t even really established himself in the Angels’ bullpen yet, so the recent move to the rotation seems like a mixed blessing; it might pay off for him if someone gets hurt and a spot opens up, but it could also result in him returning to Triple-A for a spell, even though he likely deserves a bullpen spot. He didn’t hurt the cause today, and he’s now up to 7 1/3 scoreless innings for the spring. Oddly enough, he hasn’t allowed a run in 16 2/3 Cactus League innings since debuting in 2022.

Wantz came into the spring as a quality bullpen depth piece for Los Angeles, but now the club is looking to him to be more than that. Wantz made three starts in his 27 appearances last season but never threw more than two innings in those starts. Washington stated the move was to add more depth in the rotation.

Wantz tossed a clean first inning before working around a pair of base hits in the second, collecting two strikeouts on the day. The 28-year-old right-hander is a long shot to make the Opening Day roster, but provides the Angels some organizational bullpen depth as a long reliever. He posted a 3.89 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and a 33/15 K/BB ratio across 39 1/3 innings with the Angels last season.

Davis Daniel will likely serve as a bulk guy. It’s Wantz’s second big-league start as an opener.