Angels max out 40-man roster with wave of offseason housekeeping

The Angels' 40-man roster is finally at exactly 40 players! While the names will continue to change over the course of the offseason, it is nice to see that they have whittled down their long list of 40-man players to the magic number.

These transactions are largely the Angels activating all of their players from the 60-day injured list. Patrick Sandoval and Robert Stephenson will likely begin the regular season on the 60-day, opening up another couple of 40-man spots.

The most notable move of this laundry list of transactions is the swap of Scott Kingery for Kenny Rosenberg. The Angels needed to add Kingery to their 40-man or would have risked losing him. Angels GM, Perry Minasian, just sent the Philadelphia Phillies cash considerations in exchange for the 30-year-old utility man. Kingery has a path to make the Angels' Opening Day roster, as he can filter in at second base, third base, and the outfield from a bench role. He could be the de facto replacement for Brandon Drury.

Rosenberg's outright release comes as a bit as a surprise. He was selected in the Rule-5 Draft from the Tampa Bay Rays organization before the 2022 season, and had pitched fairly well at the hitter-friendly AAA Salt Lake affiliate in the past. The left-handed pitcher was an innings eater who was deployed in a hybrid starter-reliever role for the Angels the past three seasons. The Angels possess a few non-prospect position players on the 40-man roster who seemed like better candidates for a DFA, like Bryce Teodosio, Gustavo Campero, and Kyren Paris. Furthemore, they do not seem like a team that would have cut loose any pitcher given their massive run prevention issues going into 2025.

Rosenberg, like Chris Devenski, could have been a pitcher who increased his changeup usage and further unlocked his full arsenal. There is a modern wave of pitchers like Tommy Kahnle who are changeup dominant arms, and Rosenberg possesses a highly unique changeup that is far and away his best pitch. Rosenberg used his fastball 49% of the time and his changeup 33%, so perhaps with his next organization he could deploy a new approach and become more effective at the big league level.

The Angels used over 60 players in 2024, exemplifying their injury concerns and need for organizational depth. The offseason has just begun and the Angels have already been incredibly busy, even before signing a single free agent.