{"id":747593,"date":"2026-07-09T23:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/747593\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T23:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:18:14","slug":"padres-lose-7-year-mlb-veteran-to-angels-immediately-after-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/747593\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres Lose 7-Year MLB Veteran to Angels Immediately After Release"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">Pablo Reyes didn&#8217;t remain a free agent for long. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"76\">Six days after he was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/padres\/onsi\/padres-officially-release-former-yankees-utility-man-from-organization\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">released from his minor league contract with the San Diego Padres<\/a>, the veteran utility player signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">Reyes will try to continue his strong offensive season in the Pacific Coast League with the Salt Lake Bees, the Angels&#8217; Triple-A affiliate, after failing to make a strong enough impression at Triple-A El Paso.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">Reyes, 32, was slashing .310\/.408\/.491 for the Padres&#8217; top farm team, leading the club in OBP and walks (35). He saw action at five different positions as well as designated hitter. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">What Reyes lacked in pop, he made up for with a small 14% strikeout rate (a shade higher than his 13.6% walk rate) and 121 wRC+.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">For all his gaudy stats and versatility, the 5-foot-8 utility player didn&#8217;t stand out enough to crack the Padres&#8217; 40-man roster. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\">The Padres signed Reyes to a minor league contract on Nov. 6, 2025, making him one of the first players they signed last offseason. He made a fast impression, slashing .323\/417\/.419 in 19 Cactus League games in spring training.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\">In seven major league seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates (2018-19), Milwaukee Brewers (2021-22), Boston Red Sox (2023-24), New York Mets (2024) and New York Yankees (2025), Reyes never put up a 100 OPS+ or better in a full season. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7r\">Reyes is a career .245\/.305\/.342 hitter in 257 MLB games, and the Padres were likely counting on some regression to the mean following any potential promotion to the majors.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7u\">Utility infielders Will Wagner and Mason McCoy, and catcher Blake Hunt, are the only three position players on the Padres&#8217; 40-man roster not currently in the majors. Against this backdrop, losing Reyes could be somewhat consequential if injuries strike their infield.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7x\">Reyes will get a better chance at that promotion with the Angels, who recently cut veteran utility player Donovan Walton as a corresponding move to activate Mike Trout. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"80\">Reyes can fill the Walton role in their organization, with a better chance of reaching the big leagues with the struggling American League West club. Through Wednesday, the Angels have the worst record in the majors at 37-56.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"83\">The Padres conclude a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/padres\/onsi\/padres-announce-starting-pitchers-critical-series-rival-diamondbacks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">four-game home series against the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> at Petco Park on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"86\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/padres\/onsi\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a> and follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61581307683573\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PadresOnSI\" rel=\"nofollow\">X\/Twitter<\/a> for the latest news.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pablo Reyes didn&#8217;t remain a free agent for long. Six days after he was released from his minor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,5,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,4],"class_list":["post-747593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-angels","tag-angels","tag-baseball","tag-la","tag-la-angels","tag-laangels","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesangels","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116892578954807558","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}