The Los Angeles Angels, in need of infield depth after a recent rash of injuries, have acquired the 34-year-old Venezuelan professional baseball third baseman from the New York Mets in exchange for two minor league starting pitchers.
Right-handers Coleman Crow andLandon Marceaux, ranked 19th and 20th in the Angels’ system, respectively, by MLB.com, will be sent to the Mets’ system as part of the deal.
The Mets will pay all but the pro-rated league minimum of Escobar’s salary, which calls for $9.5 million in what will likely be the final year of his deal. Escobar’s contract also contains a $9 million club option for 2024.
Escobar, a switch-hitter, is batting .236/.286/.409 with four home runs in 120 plate appearances this season. He lost most of his playing time at third base to highly rated prospect Brett Baty.
A .254/.307/.435 hitter in his 13-year major league career, Escobar can also play second base and, in a pinch, shortstop.
With the Angels, he will essentially replace Gio Urshela, who is expected to miss the remainder of the season with a fractured pelvis.
The Angels also have third baseman Anthony Rendon (wrist contusion) and shortstop Zach Neto (oblique strain) on the injured list.
Crow, 22, and Marceaux, 23, had both matriculated to Double-A this season. Crow posted a 1.88 ERA in his first four starts but hasn’t pitched in a game since late April.
The Mets also optioned struggling right-hander Tylor Megill to Triple-A Syracuse on Friday, two days after he gave up 4 runs, 5 hits and 4 walks in 2⅓ innings Wednesday in a 10-8 loss to Houston.
Megill is 6-4 with a 5.17 ERA in 15 starts for the Mets this season.
Gio Urshela has helped his team smash its way into the annals of Major League Baseballhistory.
The 27-year-old Colombian professional baseball player and his fellow “Bronx Bombers,” aka the New York Yankees, hit a home run in the top of the fifth inning against the Baltimore Orioles to break the MLB record for most home runs by a team against a single opponent in one major league season.
Urshela’s homer, off a 97 mph sinker from reliever Miguel Castro that went over the left-center-field fence for a two-run shot, was the team’s 49th homer against the Orioles.
During their 14-2 win at Camden Yards on Wednesday, the Yankees went deep five times. That gave them 52 homers against Baltimore to smash the record.
The record-breaking 49th homer came in the top of the fifth inning, when Gio Urshela sent a 97 mph sinker from reliever Miguel Castro over the left-center-field fence for a two-run shot.
Urshela also homered in the sixth.
Catcher Kyle Higashiokawent deep in the fourth and ninth innings, and leftfielder Cameron Maybinlaunched a 436-foot solo blast in the ninth.
Higashioka’s fourth-inning homer off starter John Meanstied the MLB record held by the 1956 Yankees, who hit 48 homers against the Kansas City Athletics.
The Yankees have 11 players with multi-homer games against Baltimore this season, breaking the record of 10 set by San Francisco Giantsagainst the Los Angeles Dodgersin 1958.
“We have guys up and down the lineup who can hit the ball, so it is no surprise to see what we did,” Higashioka said. “It was nice to be a part of it.”
The Yankees finished 10-0 at Camden Yards. According to Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the 14th time in MLB history that a team has gone 10-0 or better on the road against an opponent and the first time since the 2002 Boston Red Soxwent 10-0 at the Tampa Bay Rays.
They have four games remaining against the Orioles this season, all next week in New York.
“Everyone has a lot of confidence, I think, in one another,” manager Aaron Boonesaid. “That’s the sense you get because we’ve proven throughout the year they can get it done throughout the lineup. Whether it’s been the bottom of the order, the middle, the top, it seems like it’s come from a lot of different places. They take a lot of pride in making it difficult on the pitchers and passing the baton and they have a lot of confidence in the guys in front of them and behind them.”
On Monday, the Yankees set a record by hitting their 32nd home run at Camden this season. That was the highest total by a visiting team at any stadium in one season, breaking the record of 29 held by the 1957 Atlanta Braves(at the Cincinnati Reds’ former Crosley Field).
They’ve only added to it since. Leading the barrage for New York is infielder Gleyber Torres, who has launched 10 of his 23 homers this season against the Birds. Nine of catcher Gary Sanchez‘s 24 home runs have been at Baltimore’s expense, and more than half of outfielder Clint Frazier‘s 11 dingers (six) have come against the O’s.
The Yankees slugged 17 home runs in their three-game sweep of the Orioles, hitting five on Monday and six on Tuesday. According to ESPN Stats & Information, they’re the second team in MLB history to hit five or more homers in three straight games, joining the 1977 Red Sox, who did so against the Yankees at Fenway Park.
The Yankees have hit 203 home runs this season, second in baseball behind the Minnesota Twins(224).
Right-handers Coleman Crow and Landon Marceaux, ranked 19th and 20th in the Angels’ system, respectively, by MLB.com, will be sent to the Mets’ system as part of the deal.