Angels surprisingly cut bait with hard-throwing reliever at non-tender deadline

Ahead of the non-tender deadline, the Los Angeles Angels had some interesting decisions to make. They had two players in arbitration that felt realistic for the team would part with. Those players were Jose Suarez and Jose Quijada.

Suarez felt unlikely for the team to non-tender for the simple fact that he's still pretty young and has had MLB success in the past even with how terrible he was last season. Jose Quijada on the other hand felt very possible due to the fact that he's set to miss most if not the entire 2024 season after undergoing Tommy John Surgery.

It turns out, the Angels plan on keeping both. At least through the non-tender deadline. Instead, they turned to a pre-arbitration player to find the guy they're non-tendering. That guy turned out to be Jose Marte.

LA Angels non-tender talented right-hander in surprising roster move

Jose Marte's stuff is undeniably what's kept him around as long as he's been in the Angels organization. He throws hard with a heavy sinker and a decent change-up. The problem with him is he simply hasn't gotten results.

Marte got a prolonged stint in September and struggled, posting an 8.68 ERA in 10 appearances and 9.1 innings pitched. His issues seem to always stem from a lack of command, as this right-hander issued seven free passes and allowed three home runs this past season. Unfortunately, these struggles at the big league level are nothing new.

Marte has an 8.18 career ERA in the majors with sporadic appearances in the last three years. He has more walks (28) than innings pitched (24.1). The strikeouts are there too as he's fanned 27 hitters in his career, but the lack of command is clearly a major issue.

The right-hander is still just 27 years old and comes with a ton of team control so if a team out there likes his stuff enough it wouldn't be surprised to see him land elsewhere. It also wouldn't be surprising seeing the Angels re-sign him on a minor league deal. They re-signed guys like Austin Warren and Kenny Rosenberg last offseason after parting with them at certain points.

Marte hasn't proven to be trustworthy whatsoever, so even with this team having bullpen issues it makes sense to part with him on the 40-man and search for an upgrade. If he's open to a minor league deal, I'm sure the Angels would take him back.