Soon-to-be 25-year-old LHP has only pitched 3 innings above Class-A. Now McDaniels will try to stick on the Angels’ major league roster for the entire 2025 season
Left-handed pitcher Garrett McDaniels was selected from the Dodgers by the Angels in the 2024 Rule 5 Draft on Wednesday morning at the winter meetings in Dallas, Texas.
For players selected in the major league portion of the Rule 5 Draft, teams must pay $100,000 to the previous team, and have to keep said player on the active roster for the entire 2025 season without being sent to the minors. Drafting teams can offer the player back to their original team for $50,000.
This is the first time the Dodgers had a player picked in the Rule 5 Draft since 2022, when three players were selected. Ryan Noda remained with the A’s, pitcher Jose Hernandez remained through 2023 with the Pirates (and was eventually traded back to the Dodgers in 2024), and Gus Varland was sent back to the Dodgers in May 2023.
McDaniels was a non-drafted free agent signed by the Dodgers out of Coastal Carolina in 2022. The left-hander had a 3.19 ERA with 84 strikeouts (a 26.7-percent strikeout rate) and 29 walks in 73⅓ innings in 2024, mostly in both Class-A levels.
McDaniels, who turns 25 on Sunday, also pitched three scoreless innings for Double-A Tulsa to close out the year, striking out six of his 13 batters faced. But those two appearances mark his only experience above High-A. Whether he lasts all season on a major league roster is an open question, and seems like a tall task.