The Angels designated lefty reliever José Quijada for assignment. That’s a corresponding move for the now official acquisition of relievers Andrew Chafin and Luis García from the Nationals. Lefty Jake Eder, one of two players headed back to Washington, was already on the 40-man roster. The Angels only needed to create one opening as a result.
Quijada’s contract was just selected last week. He made two scoreless appearances, striking out three batters in an inning and third. The 29-year-old southpaw had been designated for assignment at the end of Spring Training. He cleared outright waivers and has spent the majority of the season at Double-A Rocket City. Quijada turned in a 2.73 earned run average through 26 1/3 innings while striking out 37.1% of batters faced at that level. That earned him another brief stint in the big league bullpen, but he’s been pushed off by today’s pair of veterans.
The Angels can technically try to trade Quijada until tomorrow evening. The likelier outcome is that he’ll just go back on outright waivers. He’s playing on a $1.075MM arbitration salary that checks in a little above the MLB minimum. Quijada would need to forfeit that salary to elect free agency, so he’d likely accept another minor league assignment if he clears waivers.
