MLBbro outfielder Willie Calhoun has bounced around from the minors to various big league teams throughout his career. He’s now looking to make an impact in his first season with the Los Angeles Angels led by manager Ron Washington.
The Angels signed Calhoun to a minor league contract in December of 2023. Earlier this month, Los Angeles selected Calhoun’s contract from the Salt Lake Bees. He made his debut with the Angels on May 3 and put together an impressive performance against the Cleveland Indians.
Willie Calhoun Swinging A Hot Bat For LA Angels
The 29-year-old went 3-for-4 at the plate with a double and a run scored. He hit in the cleanup spot during that game and manager Ron Washington had an interesting way of putting him there.
Sunday May 12, 2024; Willie Calhoun #5 of the Angels during the game. The Kansas City Royals defeated the Los Angeles Angels the final score of 4-2 in Anaheim, CA. (PHOTO: Kevin Reece for MLBbro.com)
“I took some names and put them in a hat and shook them up and he came out fourth,” Washington said. “Seriously. You think I’m joking.”
He actually went on to explain that he wrote names on paper and threw them on his bed. Jo Adell and Logan O’Hoppe were also named on the paper too.
Adell and O’Happe have displayed some power at the plate this season, but Washington did not want them to have that responsibility hitting in the cleanup spot.
“They’re too young,” Washington said. “I tried putting Adell in the top of the lineup and it lasted a day. I tried putting (Zach) Neto in the top of the lineup and it lasted two days. I’m not going to take O’Hoppe and put him in the fourth hole. I’ll hit him fifth or sixth, but for some reason when you put them in one of those spots, they think they’ve got to be special and they don’t. They really don’t. They’ve just got to be who they are. If you can give us base hits there, I’ll take it. You can give us doubles there, I’ll take it. I’m not looking for home runs because I don’t have that kind of team.”
Ron Washington Puts Willie Calhoun In Cleanup Spot
Putting Calhoun in the cleanup proved to be a smart move based on his performance.
The California native started his 2024 season with a five-game hitting streak and through 10 games, he has a .297 average with a home run and a .541 slugging percentage. Calhoun has a lot of talent and there’s a reason the Angels signed him. He has the opportunity to be a vital player and stay on the roster throughout the remainder of the season.
Last season, Calhoun appeared in 44 games with the New York Yankees and hit .239 with five home runs. There were moments last season where he had some production at the plate for New York, but ultimately the Yankees sent him down to the minors in July. Calhoun has spent most of his career with the Texas Rangers, where he made his MLB debut in 2017.
He bounced around from the minors and the Rangers during his time there and also dealt with multiple injuries. After his time with the Rangers, he had a brief stint with the San Francisco Giants during the 2022 season.
It’s not easy having success in this league, but Calhoun is determined to prove that he belongs.
When it comes to mainstream media, the spotlight and focus when it comes to a superstar’s injury is about the severity of the injury, the length of time on the injured list and the date of return. Since Aaron Judge tore his ligament in his toe, the New York Yankees waited patiently for his return, which was at the Baltimore Orioles last Friday.
Aaron Judge Is Back Against Baltimore & He Speaks | Says Toe Is “Not 100 %” But He’s Going All Out
It didn’t take long for the reigning MLBbro MVP to make a major impact and bring hope for the Yankees postseason chances. In Judge’s second game back, he went 3-5 with two RBI and a 442-foot blast into the cheap seats.
However, the most overlooked part of stories like this is the player who gets released so all these great things can happen. In this case, in order for Aaron Judge to return, another MLBbro was designated for assignment. In English, that means let go.
The Yankees released OF/DH Willie Calhoun last Friday. The team had brought Calhoun back to the roster after being on the 10-Day Injured List with a left quad strain.
During his short stint with the Yankees, this bro had a batting average of .239 with five homers and 16 RBI in 44 games. In Calhoun’s career, which includes time with the Yankees, San Francisco Giants (2022) and the Texas Rangers (2017-22), he has a career batting average of .240 with 37 round-trippers and 120 RBI in 301 games.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone had high praise for Calhoun, but as it turned out, he got caught up in the numbers game.
“[Calhoun] did a nice job with us,” manager Aaron Boone said before the Yankees took on the Orioles Friday night. “Really enjoy the person, too. He was a guy that was a lot of fun to be around, while also taking advantage of some opportunities and doing a really nice job with us. So those are the hard decisions that sometimes have to come up in the course of the season.”
What’s next for our MLBbro Willie Calhoun? If MLBbro.com is being honest, Willie Calhoun’s career in baseball is cloudy at best and just unknown at worst.
The Bright Side: If Calhoun can stay healthy, there is potential for him to be a platoon option and occasional offensive punch coming off the bench as a pinch-hitter.
Assuming that he makes it through waivers without any takers, Calhoun can go the free agent route (Think Aaron Hicks’ situation) and possibly get signed to a team directly. If a contender doesn’t make a splash at the trade deadline, a cheap low-risk option could be ideal for our MLBbro for an audition.
At 28, Calhoun is still young. Maybe a change of scenery with more opportunities (As if Willie Calhoun was going to start over Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton!) can save his career.
The Dark Side: If Willie Calhoun wants to keep his Major League Baseball career going, he’s going to have to find a way to stay healthy. Injuries are close to derailing his career. Remember he was just coming off the 10-day IL when he was DFA’d.
His career high for games played in a season is only 83 with the Texas Rangers back in 2019.
The message is clear here. If a team does give Calhoun a chance, it might be his last if he brings the injury bug with him. His resume is dominated by his injury history and it may scare teams that are thinking about signing or trading for him.
Retroactive as of Friday, the New York Yankees have seven days to either trade Willie Calhoun or place him on waivers. Let’s see how this plays out next week.
Aaron Hicks and Willie Calhoun are both beneficiaries of changes in scenery this season. Examples of how unpredictable, challenging, euphoric and emotionally-draining the sport of baseball can be.
Aaron Hicks
Aaron Hicks is sending warning shots to the baseball world to put some respect on his name, as he has flipped the switch since joining Baltimore.
In 10 games since signing with the Orioles, Hicks is slashing .345/.472/1.058 with 10 hits, a homer, two doubles, four RBI and a stolen base.
Hicks was added to the roster after an oblique injury to their All-Star Cedric Mullins placed him on the shelf for the coming weeks.
“You may not get a great outcome on everything, but we see stuff with Aaron Hicks we like,” said Orioles General Manager Mike Elias.
“He is a good fit for us. I hope this is a shot in the arm for him and I hope he helps us out and helps us win games.”
Since acquiring Hicks, Baltimore has taken a firm hold on the top wild card spot in the American League and with a 6-4 record over their last 10 games, they are starting to slowly gain separation from both New York and Toronto.
His roller coaster ride as a Yankee ended on May 20th when he was Designated for Assignment after 8 years with the team. Hicks earned a 7-year $70 extension with the team in 2019, but never lived up to the expectations that came with a deal of that magnitude.
In the four years post signing, Hicks’ batting average never got above .235. He hit an abysmal .194 in 2021 then followed that up with just a .216 average last year.
This season in 76 plate appearances for the Yankees, Hicks hit .188 with a .263 on base percentage.
Whether it be the change in culture, the newfound freedom to grow facial hair or a freshly lit fire in his chest, he is showing people his early success in New York was no fluke.
Willie Calhoun
Willie Calhoun’s career resurrection as a Yankee was not something many expected to be in the bingo cards for 2023, but he has been giving the team life this season, showing a level of elite hitting scouts thought he could reach when he was a top ranked prospect for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In his last 13 games Calhoun has 13 hits, five multi-hit games, two home runs and has driven in eight RBI.
“I am having a lot of fun,” Calhoun told MLBbro.com “It is the same game and I am having a lot of fun in New York. I have not made many adjustments, I am just trying to enjoy it as much as I can.”
With last year’s American League MVP Aaron Judge on the shelf, Calhoun is doing his best Judge impression and lately he has found his name as high as 3rd in the lineup.
“You are not going to fill the shoes Judge has on our team,” Calhoun told reporters. “He is the capitan, he is the MVP but it is definitely a chance to get everyone to step up and chip away together to get this thing done.
This year Calhoun is batting .240 with a .705 OPS. He did have a scare when he was hit by Carlos Rodon in the elbow in a live BP session Sunday afternoon, but he did not miss a game.
He’s played in 25 games so far for the Yankees, and is hitting .224, with three home runs, eight RBI, a .294 on-base percentage, and a .368 slugging percentage. Calhoun has mainly been the team’s designated hitter when he starts, with a few games played in the outfield.
Willie Calhoun Is Heating Up For Yankees
He’s not off to the greatest of starts to the season, but over the last week, there has been improvement.
He’s had a .353 on-base percentage and a .429 slugging percentage over this stretch, as he had three hits and three walks to only two strikeouts in the four games he’s played.
Early in his career, Calhoun was a very highly rated prospect, as he was rising through the farm system very quickly, earning All-Star after All-Star selections in the leagues he participated in. On July 31st, 2017, Calhoun was a centerpiece for a massive trade at the deadline when the Dodgers traded him and two other prospects to the Rangers for All-Star pitcher Yu Darvish.
Calhoun had a very mixed stint during his time with Texas. He would have spurts where he would show flashes of the highly touted prospect that the team traded for, like when he had a .269/.323/.524 slashline for the 2019 season.
However, there were also times where the game just wasn’t going his way, like when he had a .491 on-base plus slugging percentage in the shortened 2020 season, which was the second-lowest for any major leaguer who batted at least 100 times.
He also had an unlucky run with the injury bug during his time there, as he had to recover from both a fractured forearm from getting hit at the plate, and had to have surgery to restructure his jaw after getting drilled by a 95 mile-per-hour fastball during spring training.
He would constantly be brought up and then get optioned back to the minors during his last few years with the Rangers, and eventually got traded to the San Francisco Giants back in June of 2022.
He mainly spent time with San Francisco’s Triple-A team, and only played four games for them in the majors before being designated for assignment.
Yankees Give Calhoun New Life
The Yankees signed Calhoun to a minor league contract back on New Year’s Eve of 2022. He started the season on their Triple-A team, but was promoted to the majors back on April 8th, where he’s been ever since.
The Yankees are 29-20, and are five and a half games back from the top of the division. Now with fellow MLB Bro Aaron Hicks being recently designated for assignment, someone other than the big guns like Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton needs to step up. This is a golden opportunity for Calhoun to show his rough past is behind him, and that he can contribute on a consistent basis for the team.
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