Angels Option Víctor Mederos to Triple-A Salt Lake Bees

Six earned runs over two spring outings totaling 4.1 innings was the final word on Víctor Mederos' Opening Day chances. The Los Angeles Angels optioned the right-hander to Triple-A Salt Lake on March 10, with right-handed reliever Hans Crouse recalled from Salt Lake to take his roster spot.

Mederos, 24, entered camp already facing long odds for a rotation spot and didn't close the gap. He yielded six earned runs on seven hits and four walks across those two spring appearances, numbers that gave the Angels little reason to reconsider. RotoWire noted he "entered the spring facing long odds to win a spot in the Angels' Opening Day rotation and didn't help his case" with that performance.

The raw material has never been the question. Mederos carries a 96.8 mph fastball that ranks in the 89th percentile per Statcast. The problem is everything around it: a 22.2 percent walk rate and a 68.8 percent hard-hit rate that, taken together, describe a pitcher who can blow the ball past hitters when he finds the zone but finds it far too infrequently. Those numbers explain the 8.53 career ERA he's carried through his first three big-league seasons.

The Santa Clara, Cuba native was selected by the Angels in the sixth round of the 2022 draft out of Oklahoma State University and made his MLB debut on June 30, 2023. That debut season produced a 9.00 ERA across three appearances and three innings. His 2024 showing wasn't much better: a 0-1 record and 11.81 ERA in four appearances covering 5.1 innings, including a memorable seventh-inning collapse in Arlington where run-scoring singles by Josh Smith and Marcus Semien turned a 4-2 Angels lead into a 5-4 deficit, saddling Mederos with his first career pitching decision.

The 2025 season offered more innings and slightly more promise: five appearances, three of them starts, with a 7.41 ERA and 14 strikeouts over 17 frames. But right shoulder inflammation ended his year in August, landing him first on the 15-day injured list on August 24 and then the 60-day list on September 3. He was activated November 5.

Now he heads back to Salt Lake, where he has spent most of the last three years in various recall-and-option cycles. RotoWire projects him to make regular starts with the Bees to open the season while noting he "won't necessarily be the Angels' first choice for a call-up if a spot in the big-league rotation opens up." At 24, with three big-league seasons already behind him, Mederos needs a sustained run of consistent outings at Triple-A before that calculus changes.