Angels News: 2 former Angels to the Orioles, 2 to the Giants, 1 to the Blue Jays

The Angels had five former players find new homes recently. Most notably, Max Stassi signed a minor league deal with the San Francisco Giants and Michael Stefanic signed with the Toronto Blue Jays. Justin Garza also signed with the Giants, while Franklin Barreto and Jeremiah Jackson both signed with the Baltimore Orioles.

Stassi will provide some catching depth for the Giants system behind Patrick Bailey, Tom Murphy, and Blake Sabol. He will be reporting to Major League Spring Training at their complex in Scottsdale, AZ. Stassi has not played in the bigs since 2022, as he spent the vast majority of the 2023 season dealing with an extremely sensitive personal matter regarding his family. A left hip injury kept Stassi out all last season after picking up with the White Sox. The Angels are also in need of catching depth, so they will need to find a non-Stassi option now as insurance for Logan O'Hoppe or Travis d'Arnaud.

The Giants also signed Justin Garza to a minor league deal. Garza's Angels career was short-lived. He signed a major league deal with the Angels in late-December, 2022, then made six appearances in AAA Salt Lake before being designated for assignment, and was subsequently claimed by the Boston Red Sox.

Michael Stefanic is taking his unique talents to Toronto after signing a minor league deal with an invitation to Major League Spring Training. The 28-year-old 2B/3B, in theory, is an on-base machine. Stefanic's flashed incredible bat-to-ball skills, low K%s, and high baseball IQ over his long minor league career. Unfortunately, he has been unable to transfer those skills over fully to the bigs. "Stef" played 90 games for the Angels over the past three seasons, and was designated for assignment in late-October in the Angels' first big roster shuffle of the offseason. He had an option to elect free agency, took it, and is now bound for the Blue Jays organization.

Lastly, the Orioles have signed two former Angels infielders in Franklin Barreto and Jeremiah Jackson to minor league deals. Barreto's last time in the bigs was for the Angels all the way back in 2020, although he only appeared in six games. Jackson was somewhat highly-touted as an Angels prospecet, but lost some steam around 2022. He ended up getting dealt to the New York Mets in 2023 for Dominic Leone. Jackson played 121 games for the Mets' AA team in 2024, and slashed .205/.245/.373/.618 while playing 2B, 3B, SS, LF, and RF.

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