The Angels announced that left-hander Sammy Peralta’s contract has been selected from Triple-A Salt Lake. In corresponding moves for the 28-man and 40-man rosters, righty Chase Silseth was optioned to Triple-A, and infielder Chad Stevens was designated for assignment.
After beginning his season in the Mexican League and posting a 2.53 ERA over 21 1/3 innings with El Aguila de Veracruz, Peralta inked a minors deal with the Angels in May. His 4.33 ERA over 70 2/3 innings with Salt Lake is pretty good for the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, plus Peralta has a solid 24.1% strikeout rate and an excellent 4.8% walk rate.
The southpaw’s control has generally been a plus over his minor league career, but he has only an 11.1% walk rate over his 35 career MLB innings, along with a 4.37 ERA and 17.9K% with the White Sox during the 2023-24 seasons. Those two years in Chicago saw Peralta shuffled up and down from Triple-A and on and off the roster in a flurry of transactions, which even included a couple of months in the Mariners organization before he was claimed back by the Sox.
Peralta will now get his first taste of big league action in 2025, adding a fresh arm to a Los Angeles pitching staff that has been pulverized by the Athletics over the last two days. The Angels have been outscored 27-8 in the first two games of their series with the A’s, and Silseth allowed a run in 1 2/3 of relief work in Saturday’s 17-4 rout.
Stevens made his Major League debut earlier this season, hitting .154 in 14 plate appearances during a five-game cup of coffee with Los Angeles in July. An 11th-round pick for the Astros in the 2021 draft, Stevens’ first full Triple-A season has been a triumph, with a .291/.372/.494 slash line over 478 PA with Salt Lake this year.
Given that production, it’s a little surprising that the Angels chose Stevens as the odd man out of the 40-man roster mix. As noted, the PCL environment is quite favorable for hitters, so Stevens’ big numbers translated to a solid but unspectacular 111 wRC+. Stevens has primarily played shortstop in the minors but has a lot of experience at second and third base, plus a smattering of time as a first baseman and corner outfielder. A team in need of versatility could potentially put a claim in for Stevens, who has multiple minor league option years remaining.