SF Giants ship veteran reliever to the Angels after brief stint with the club

If you blinked, you might have missed the Mike Baumann era in San Francisco. The veteran reliever was shipped by the SF Giants to the Los Angeles Angels right before the trade deadline, per the team's transaction log.

SF Giants ship veteran reliever to the Angels after brief stint with the club

Baumann had been on the waiver wire since the weekend after he was designated for assignment with both Hayden Birdsong and Spencer Bivens returning from the minors. He did not have to wait long before being moved to the Angels in exchange for cash considerations.

The Giants just acquired the right-handed pitcher from their old pals, the Seattle Mariners, last week. They had a four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers coming up right before the deal was made.

Of course, the Dodgers can always be a tough matchup against the Giants and with the bullpen gassed, the Giants essentially borrowed Baumann in case they needed a few innings covered.

While that was the reason for the move, Giants announcer Dave Flemming was unusually critical of the lack of a personal touch with the roster churn and used the Baumann addition as an example. The move did not make a lot of sense and Flemming made a good point that Bivens should have been up instead. It was unfortunate that Baumann was caught in the middle of that, but Flemming was highlighting a larger issue with the front office.

Baumann did make his way into a game with the Giants. Bob Melvin tabbed him to soak up an inning or two in a blowout win against the Colorado Rockies on Friday night. However, the 28-year-old pitcher yielded two earned runs while recording just two outs before being replaced by heavily-used arm Ryan Walker.

That proved to be Baumann's only appearance with San Francisco. Overall, the righty pitcher has appeared in parts of four seasons with the Giants, Mariners, and Baltimore Orioles. He has posted a 4.68 ERA with 122 strikeouts against 65 walks in 144.1 frames during that time.

Baumann now joins an Angels bullpen that has struggled to a 4.34 ERA in 2024. Only four teams, including the Giants, have posted a worse mark, so there should be some opportunity for the veteran arm.