Angels get Greinke
Former Cy Young winner is acquired from the Brewers to shore up rotation, at a minimal cost.
The former Cy Young Award winner is acquired from Brewers for minimal cost.
The Angels re-established themselves as legitimate World Series contenders with a bold and dramatic move Friday, bolstering their sagging rotation by acquiring right-hander Zack Greinke from the Milwaukee Brewers for three prospects.
Shortstop Jean Segura and double-A pitchers Johnny Hellweg and Ariel Pena will go to the Brewers.
The deal was announced during batting practice before the Angels defeated the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-1, at Angel Stadium, cutting the Texas Rangers’ lead to four games in the American League West.
Greinke, 28, who won the 2009 AL Cy Young Award, will team with Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson and Dan Haren to give the Angels a rotation to rival the best in the game.
Two added bonuses: The Angels prevented Texas, which was pursuing Greinke, from acquiring the top pitcher on the market before Tuesday’s nonwaiver trade deadline, and General Manager Jerry Dipoto
pulled off the deal without giving up his top trade chips, pitcher Garrett Richards and center fielder Peter Bourjos.
“This guy is a bulldog, one of the elite pitchers in the game, and I’m glad he’s on my side,” said right fielder Torii Hunter, the former Minnesota Twins star who faced Greinke extensively in the AL Central. “He throws 93-94 mph, and when he’s [ticked], he throws 99.”
The Angels are trying to catch the Rangers, who reached the World Series in 2010 and 2011. With an added emphasis on winning the division, Dipoto had to improve a rotation that had a 5.72 ERA in 24 games entering Friday and has been slowed by Haren’s back injury and Ervin Santana’s struggles.
The two wild-card winners in each league must play a one-game playoff to advance to the division series. The three division winners are automatically in.
It was clear last winter, when they spent $317.5 million to acquire first baseman Albert Pujols and Wilson, that the Angels were serious about returning to the World Series. With Friday’s move, Dipoto reiterated that the Angels are all in.
“This shows you we’re trying to win this thing,” Hunter said. “We’re trying to take that crown away from the Rangers.”
Greinke was 9-3 with a 3.44 earned run average, 122 strikeouts and 28 walks in 123 innings this season after going 16-6 with a 3.83 ERA to help Milwaukee reach the NL championship series in 2011.
“Zack has won a Cy Young Award, he’s in the prime years of his career, and he has a fresh, healthy arm,” Dipoto said. “He’s a highquality innings-eater. He gets ground-ball outs, strikeouts. He’s a steady winner.”
Greinke gave up one run and three hits in seven scoreless innings against Philadelphia on Tuesday. Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said he will start against the Rays on Sunday.
“It should be fun — they’re a great team,” Greinke told reporters in Milwaukee. “After the first month of the season, they’ve been one of the best teams in baseball. There’s a lot of talent there. The pitching staff will be pretty incredible.”
The risk in acquiring Greinke, who makes $13.5-million this season — about $5 million of which the Angels will pay — is he can depart as a free agent next winter with the Angels receiving no draft-pick compensation.
Dipoto said he’s had “no conversations” with Greinke’s agent, Casey Close, about a contract extension. Greinke reportedly turned down a five-year offer of more than $100 million from Milwaukee.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Dipoto said. “We’re excited to see what kind of difference Zack can make for the 2012 Angels, and we’ll worry about the rest later.”
Though the Angels pushed their payroll to about $159 million, they could clear a significant amount by not picking up 2013 options for Haren ($15.5 million) and Santana ($13 million) and letting Hunter, who is 37 and makes $18million, go.
“Once he gets here and sees what it’s like in Angel country,” Hunter said, “I think he’ll fall in love with it.”
Greinke, who mixes a 93-mph fastball with a slider, curve, cutfastball and changeup, had his best season in 2009, when he went 16-8 with a 2.16 ERA, 242 strikeouts and 51walks in 2291⁄ innings for Kansas
3 City.
He had a down year in 2010, going 10-14 with a 4.17 ERA, but a trade to Milwaukee the following December seemed to rejuvenate him.
Greinke comes with some baggage. In the spring of 2006, he broke down after a wild throwing session and left the Royals for personal reasons. It was eventually revealed that Greinke suffered from social anxiety disorder and depression, and he pitched in only three games that season.
Greinke said his condition, characterized by an intense fear in social situations, got so bad he considered leaving the game. But he was prescribed antidepressants and showed considerable improvement in 2007, going 7-7 with a 3.69 ERA in 52 games, 14 of them starts.
Greinke returned to the rotation full-time in 2008, going 13-10 with a 3.47 ERA, and he followed that up with his Cy Young Awardwinning 2009.
As dominant as he can be on the mound, Greinke can perplexing off of it.
“Zack, he doesn’t mean to, but he kind of puts himself on an island because of his personality,” Milwaukee catcher Jonathan Lucroy told ESPN.com last season. “You have to swim to that island. He distrusts easily. He’ll withdraw fast. But he’s a very honest guy, and he expects honesty in return.”