An outlook at the LA Angels non-roster OF’ers in Spring Training

Peter Bourjos

Former Angels fan favorite Peter Bourjos is back in the fold once more after being picked up as a free agent on a minor league deal this past offseason. Bourjos was drafed in 2005 by the Angels and made his debut in 2010 where he showed off his dynamic play in the outfield and captured the fans hearts. 2011 saw him bring together his best season yet with a league high 11 triples and 12 HR’s (2nd highest is 6 in 2010) while posting a .271/.327/.438 slash line in 147 games. He may be a bit removed from that high-profile season, but he’s still the stalwart defender that he’s always been.

His 2017-2018 seasons saw Bourjos maintain a perfect Fielding Percentage across all three outfield positions in 565 defensive innings. Bourjos brings a known quantity to Spring Training, despite his lacking bat there is still a lot of value to be had from Bourjos. The last 5 seasons has seen his OBP dip below .300, but again, were not here for his bat.

This is where things get interesting, if guys like Brennon Lund are able to show just as much defensive value while bringing a bat to the table we might not see the Bourjos shoe-in for Opening Day that most of us are expecting. It’s not the longest shot in the world, but if Bourjos have a poor defensive Spring and Brennon Lund excels in performance we may end up seeing him slip into the roster spot Bourjos is heading towards.

There’s a lot riding on this Spring for Bourjos, but at the same time there’s relatively little pressure since he’s only being asked to do what he’s been doing his entire career, provide excellent defensive value. Bourjos has the highest possibility of making the Opening Day roster than any other non-roster outfielder invited to Spring Training.