Angels News: Top draft pick dealing with elbow injury, 2 players elect free agency

The Los Angeles Angels had a relatively healthy first half of the 2025 season with their pitching staff (save for Ben Joyce and Hunter Strickland), but many of them succumbed to injury post All-Star break. In particular, Reid Detmers and Robert Stephenson dealt with elbow inflammation in September and had their seasons ended prematurely. José Soriano took a comebacker off his forearm, and then players like Carson Fulmer, Víctor Mederos, Tyler Anderson and Andrew Chafin also suffered season-ending injuries later in the year.

So, Sam Blum's latest report comes as no surprise.

Angels News: Top draft pick dealing with elbow injury

With Angels fans waiting for Blum to tweet out notes from Perry Minasian's end-of-year press conference, they instead got a semi-alarming note regarding Tyler Bremner. Bremner, who was shockingly selected No. 2 overall by the Halos in the 2025 MLB Draft, is dealing with a mild elbow injury (described as soreness). It was enough of an issue for Bremner to get an MRI, but everything came up clean, per Blum. He will still participate in the strength and conditioning portion of the Angels 2025 Instructional League, but he will not pitch in the team's games.

Bremner did not pitch at all for an Angels affiliate this season, although it was not reported why he did not. Perhaps it was due to his elbow? Who's to say, but Bremner is going to be playing catch up this offseason and next spring training to prepare for the upcoming season. The Angels, who notoriously promote their top prospects at breakneck speed, will have that philosophy tested next year with Bremner whose development is being slow-played due to physical issues.

Angels News: 2 players elect free agency

In other news, Scott Kingery and José Quijada recently elected free agency. Per MLB Trade Rumors, Kingery and Quijada were able to opt out of their Angels deals because of multiple factors -- they were outrighted off the Angels 40-man roster last year, were not currently on the 40-man, have multiple outrights throughout their careers, and both have more than three years of big league service time. Former Angels catcher Matt Thaiss also elected free agency, and will depart the Tampa Bay Rays (as well as former Angels Keston Hiura and Chris Devenski).

Kingery played in just 19 MLB games for the Angels this year and slashed .148/.207/.185/.392, while Quijada pitched in two games for the Halos this year.

More LA Angels News from Halo Hangout