Justin Bour, Nick Tropeano, and Three Other Angels Elect Free Agency

The Angels announced that 1B Justin Bour, RHP Nick Tropeano, RHP Luis Garcia, LHP Miguel Del Pozo, and INF/RHP Kaleb Cowart had all been outrighted from the 40-man roster and they all elected free agency.

1B Justin Bour

Bour was signed this past off-season in hopes that he would be the First Baseman until Designated Hitter Shohei Ohtani came back after having Tommy John surgery and Albert Pujols would then shift over to 1st Base full-time. Bour appeared in 52 games and produced a slash line of .172/.259/.364 and hit 5 Doubles, 8 Home Runs with 26 RBI in 151 at-bat’s in his only season with the team. He spent quite a bit of time with the Triple-A team in Salt Lake City and performed quite well in 49 games, producing a slash line of .316/.441/.663 and hit 12 Doubles, 1 Triple, and 17 Home Runs with 43 RBI in 187 at-bats.

RHP Nick Tropeano

Tropeano was acquired on November 5th, 2014, from the Houston Astros along with Catcher Carlos Perez in exchange for Catcher Hank Conger. Tropeano performed quite well until July, of 2016, when he needed Tommy John surgery and had struggled ever since with a shoulder issue that continued to pop up. Across 2015 (37.2 IP) and 2016 (68.1 IP), seasons he started 20 Games and pitched out of the bullpen in 1 game and logged a total of 106 innings to a 3.65 ERA.

He had a record of 6-4, allowed 45 runs/ 43 earned and allowed 16 Home Runs while striking 106 and walking 41 batters. Since his return from Tommy John in 2018, he started 15 games and pitched in 2 games out of the bullpen and logged a total of 89.2 innings to an ERA of 5.52, across the 2018 (76 IP) and 2019 (13.2 IP), seasons. He went 5-7, allowed 56 runs/ 55 earned, allowed 22 Home Runs while striking out 74 and walking 37 batters.

RHP Luis Garcia

Garcia was acquired on December 6th, 2018 from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for LHP Jose Alvarez. Garcia provided the Angels with 62 innings out of the bullpen in 2019, with an ERA of 4.35. He held 2-1 record, saved 1 game, allowed 35 runs/ 30 earned, allowed 13 Home Runs, walked 33, and struck out 57 batters across 64 games. Garcia struggled with the long ball as the homers (13) were nearly half of the earned runs (30) he allowed. He also struggled with command as he walked (33) more guys than earned runs (30) he allowed.

LHP Miguel Del Pozo

Del Pozo, spent a short amount of time with the Angels as he was acquired in early-August from the Texas Rangers. He made his Major League debut in late-August against the Rangers in a double-header and pitched .2 of an inning and struck out 1 batter. Del Pozo pitched pretty well but he had a pair of outings in which he gave up 3 runs and his ERA went up to 10.61. He appeared in 19 games going 1-1 and pitched 9.1 innings total, allowed 11 earned runs, allowed 3 Home Runs, walked 8, and struck out 11 batters.

INF/RHP Kaleb Cowart

Cowart was a 1st round draft pick by the Angels in 2010. During his tenure with the big league club from 2015-2019, he appeared in 171 games. He produced a slash line of .176/.238/.292 while hitting 21 Doubles, 2 Triples, 6 Home Runs with 34 RBI.

Cowart is an extremely good defender and this past-season he started to pitch but only pitched in the minor leagues. He hadn’t pitched since high school so his command was a little off since he had not pitched since then. Cowart was consistently in the lineup for a two-month span in 2017, where he played 2nd base. In 2017, he played in 50 games, worked a slash-line of .225/.313/.382 and hit 5 Doubles, 1 Triple, 3 Home Runs with 11 RBI.

RHP Trevor Cahill will also become a free agent so that will make it 38 and if OF Kole Calhoun’s club option gets declined then it will sit at 37.