ANAHEIM —There is no sugar-coating the reasons Jose Quijada was designated for assignment by the Angels in late March, unclaimed by 29 other teams and demoted to the minor leagues.
The veteran left-hander’s weight and ERA were way up, and the velocity of his fastball was way down, a combination that was obvious to anyone who watched Quijada, a key component of the team’s bullpen in 2022, give up 11 runs in 7⅓ innings of eight spring-training games for a 13.50 ERA.
Quijada, 29, was recalled from Double-A Rocket City and struck out three of five batters in a scoreless, 28-pitch sixth inning against the Mariners on Thursday. He’s about 30 pounds lighter than he was in March. His fastball is back in the 94-96-mph range, a significant increase from the upper-80s four-seamer he featured in camp. And he seems a little wiser.
“If I’m being honest with you guys, never stop working and never get comfortable,” Quijada, speaking through an interpreter, said when asked what he’s learned about himself over the past four months.
“I didn’t have my best stuff or velo during spring training. I had to work on my body to be ready for a long season, to get in better shape, and now that I did it, the team brought me back.”
Quijada, listed at 5-foot-11 and 215 pounds, spent six weeks of April and May at the team’s training complex in Arizona, where he boosted his protein intake, cut back on carbohydrates and built muscle in the weight room.
He was sent in mid-May to Rocket City, where he went 2-1 with a 2.73 ERA in 27 games, and he looked noticeably thinner and more muscular when he returned to Anaheim on Thursday.
“The team wants more muscle instead of fat,” Quijada said. “The working process in Arizona was … wow, it was great. I worked hard. I’m stronger and slimmer.”
Quijada went 0-5 with a 3.98 ERA in 42 games for the Angels in 2022, striking out 52 and walking 21 in 40⅔ innings. He had Tommy John surgery in May of 2023 and returned to the Angels in late July of 2024, going 2-2 with a 3.26 ERA in 22 games.
“When you come off an injury like he did, sometimes you get out of baseball playing shape and you think what you did before works–it doesn’t,” Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “I think he did a really nice job of getting back into what I would consider normal shape for the demands of the job in the bullpen.”
SWITCHAROO
Montgomery said his decision to flip-flop Nolan Schanuel and Mike Trout in the batting order Thursday night, moving Trout from third to second and Schanuel from second to third, was not the result of some deep dive into the analytics of lineup construction.
“It’s not a big shakeup,” Montgomery said. “It’s just, any time you can get Mike more at-bats and try to get him in a position where he can get to the plate more, I’m gonna try that. So I thought it would be a good time to do it, in this series.
“You look around the league, and you could say that a lot of the better hitters bat in [the second] spot, and that’s probably true. Analytically, I’m not that smart to go to that extreme. I just think any time you can get your better players more opportunities to hit, that’s a good thing.”
NOTES
Second baseman Christian Moore, out since July 3 because of a left thumb sprain, has begun taking dry swings and expects to resume baseball activities by this weekend or early next week. Montgomery said Moore, who will wear a small splint – in the field and at the plate – to prevent the thumb from bending backwards, will need a brief minor league rehab stint before returning to the Angels.
Left-hander Jake Eder was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake to clear a 26-man roster spot for Quijada. Reliever Robert Stephenson, out since May 31 because of a stretched nerve in his right biceps, was transferred to the 60-day injured list to clear a 40-man roster spot for Quijada. Montgomery said Stephenson is progressing in his throwing program, but is not ready to throw off a mound.
UP NEXT
Mariners (RHP Bryan Woo, 8-5, 2.91 ERA) at Angels (Jose Soriano, 7-7. 3.83 ERA), Friday, 6:38 p.m., FDSN West, 830 AM.