The Angels are calling up first baseman/designated hitter Niko Kavadas to make his main league debut, as first reported by Chuck Freeby. So as to make area for Kavadas on the roster, the Angels will designate infielder Luis Guillorme for task, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register provides. The Halos are additionally reportedly set to pick out the contract of infielder Jack Lopez and designate Willie Calhoun for task. All of these strikes will probably be introduced later at this time.
Kavadas, 25, was acquired from the Pink Sox alongside three different minor leaguers within the commerce sending reliever Luis Garcia to Boston previous to the deadline. He’s posted a mixed .264/.400/.521 slash between the 2 organizations’ Triple-A associates this 12 months, although it’s price noting he’s struggled mightily with the Angels’ prime affiliate in Salt Lake, batting simply .159/.229/.341 in 48 plate appearances.
An Eleventh-round choose by the Pink Sox in 2021, Kavadas has clear plus energy. He hit 26 homers in 515 plate appearances throughout three ranges in 2022, belted 22 homers in simply 480 plate appearances final 12 months, and already has 19 lengthy balls in 383 plate appearances this season.
That big-time energy comes with a well-recognized crimson flag, nonetheless, within the type of strikeouts. Followers have seen loads of three-true-outcomes sluggers over time, and Kavadas embodies that method to its fullest extent. A whopping 57% of his skilled plate appearances have led to both a homer, stroll or strikeout. This season, he’s punched out in 33.9% of his plate appearances — and that’s really an enchancment over final 12 months’s 35.8% mark. He’s additionally drawn a stroll in a gaudy 16.2% of his journeys to the plate.
The 6’1″, 235-pound Kavadas is a nicely below-average runner, and scouting experiences peg his glovework at first base to be below-average as nicely. His enormous energy is his carrying instrument, and whether or not he’s in a position to make sufficient contact to get to that energy with regularity will decide the kind of future he has. Gamers who whiff this a lot within the higher minors don’t are likely to make sufficient contact to achieve the large leagues, though Baseball America wrote in 2023 that Kavadas is an “clever hitter” with at the least an opportunity to shut among the holes in his swing as he features extra expertise.
Nolan Schanuel, the Angels’ 2023 first-rounder, skyrocketed to the majors lower than two months after being drafted and has settled in as the first first baseman. The 22-year-old Schanuel is in some ways the alternative of Kavadas: a first-base prospect with elite bat-to-ball expertise however extra a extra suspect energy profile.
After a gradual begin to the season, Schanuel is hitting .269/.382/.409 with practically as many walks (14.6%) as strikeouts (15.2%) by means of his previous 250 journeys to the plate. He’s slumped these days, however the Angels presumably need to hold getting him publicity to massive league pitching. That the promotion of Kavadas coincides with the DFA of Calhoun — who’s seen 60 video games at designated hitter this 12 months — means that Kavadas and his concurrently thunderous and porous left-handed bat might get the majority of the Angels’ DH reps down the stretch.
Extra to come back.