On Monday evening, the Los Angeles Angels made a pretty solid win-now move by going out and signing infielder Chris Taylor. Taylor slashed .202/.286/.294 in 115 games with the Los Angeles Dodgers over the last few years. He could have been a solid addition for the New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds, or another infield-needy team, but the veteran ended up with the Angels.
This looks to be a solid pickup for Los Angeles, but with an addition like this, somebody has to be cut or optioned to the minor leagues. For the Angels, they opted to send 23-year-old prospect Kyren Paris to Triple-A as the corresponding move.
It's been a mixed bag with Paris, but he was quite an exciting young player to follow earlier in the season.
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Kyren Paris' will eventually be back to the big leagues
There's a lot to unpack with Paris. You can't discuss him without talking about his incredible stretch from earlier in the season. Through the first 13 games of the season, Paris was slashing .400/488/.914 with an OPS that rivaled prime Barry Bonds (obviously, too little sample size), five home runs, and eight RBIs. Since then, Paris has just one home run and three RBIs.
It's clear why the Angels optioned the 23-year-old to Triple-A. He's slashing .190/.266/.381 with a team leading 59 strikeouts in 43 games. He's among the worst in baseball in whiff percentage, xBA, and strikeout percentage. At this point in time, the righty is a bit overwhelmed at the big league level. Sending him down makes sense.
But this isn't the last you'll hear of Paris. He has quite a bright future in Los Angeles and the Angels could bring him up again later in the season if he finds his approach and swing in the minor leagues.
While his bat has been ice-cold, his speed will never slump. He's registered one of the fastest sprint speeds in baseball this season while also being an excellent defender. He has positive fielding run value and base running run value, per Baseball Savant, while also recording positive outs above average.
The Angels will find a spot on the roster for him once he's able to be at least league average with the bat. For now, a strikeout percentage over 40 percent is too much for the Angels to justify giving him big league at bats.