Tyler Anderson takes loss and Luis Rengifo gets hurt as Angels fall to Mets

ANAHEIM — Despite rumors to the contrary, both Tyler Anderson and Luis Rengifo remained with the Angels past the trade deadline on Tuesday.

The Angels’ 5-1 loss to the New York Mets on Friday night illustrated some of the reasons why.

Anderson likely didn’t attract a big prospect return because his peripheral numbers suggested the left-hander might be due for a regression. He gave up three runs in five innings in his first post-deadline start.

And Rengifo was having an impressive season, but for the past month he’s played under a red – or at least yellow – flag because of a wrist injury. Rengifo came out of Friday’s game after two at-bats, both strikeouts, with what the Angels called “wrist irritation.”

Manager Ron Washington said after the game he’s not sure of Rengifo’s status.

“All we know is we had to remove him because of the little flare up,” Washington said. “We’ll just see what the trainers have to say going into tomorrow.”

Rengifo is a 27-year-old switch hitter who can play multiple positions, with a .300 batting average and a year of team control beyond this one. All of that is why many figured the Angels would be able to deal him for some prospect capital that the franchise badly needs.

However, Rengifo just missed three weeks with a wrist injury suffered on July 3. After he returned, he went 3 for 22 in the week before the deadline.

He had a three-hit game hours after the deadline, on Tuesday, but then aggravated the injury on Wednesday. He sat out Thursday’s game, and then got hurt again when he returned to the lineup on Friday.

The Angels now could shop Rengifo again over the winter or at next year’s deadline. Or they could sign him to a contract extension that keeps him around beyond 2025.

As for Anderson, he’d performed brilliantly for the Angels this season, with a 2.96 ERA over 130⅔ innings. Those numbers led many to assume one of the pitching-starved contenders would be willing to give up legitimate talent to get him.

But no offer came that was sufficient for General Manager Perry Minasian to move Anderson.

One reason is that teams value raw stuff and strikeouts when trying to predict a pitcher’s future performance.

The Houston Astros gave up three prospects for Toronto’s Yusei Kikuchi, who had a 4.75 ERA, but a 96 mph fastball and a 26.2% strikeout rate. Anderson’s average fastball is 89 mph and his strikeout rate was 18.6%.

Those numbers suggested he would probably drift more toward his career 4.18 ERA than what he’d been doing with the Angels.

Just as with Rengifo, the Angels could still trade Anderson over the winter. Perhaps then his ability to eat innings would be more valued by a team that might have lost a couple of starters to free agency.

On Friday night, Anderson pitched against the Mets, who were one of the teams that was shopping for a starter. They gave up their No. 26 prospect for right-hander Paul Blackburn, who shared the mound with Anderson in his Mets debut.

Blackburn held the Angels to one run in six innings, while the Mets had an army of baserunners against Anderson. He gave up eight hits and two walks, striking out just two. Two of the runs came on a Pete Alonso homer in the third inning.

All of that actually could have easily added up to more than three runs, but Anderson did well to pitch out of jams. He stranded multiple runners in the first, fourth and fifth innings.

Second baseman Luis Guillorme bailed out Anderson in the fifth with a sensational catch of a pop-up in shallow right field. Guillorme, who had been shaded up the middle, ran 97 feet to make the diving catch.

Washington said he didn’t believe Anderson made many mistakes – other than the Alonso homer – so he credited the Mets for being able to keep putting balls in play.

“They didn’t actually hit him hard all over the place,” Washington said. “The only ball they really centered was the one the first baseman hit out. But in the game of baseball, base hits are base hits. They got things going and they were able to keep it going.”

Anderson agreed with Washington’s assessment: “You make good pitches and they are spoiling them. When they get a bat to them they are finding a hole.”