Angels Acquire Lefty Reliever Brian Moran

The Angels acquired lefthanded reliever Brian Moran in a Rule 5 Draft transaction. Instead of drafting him outright, the Halos traded for him with the team that did - the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Angels didn't trade a player to make the acquisition, though; they traded $224,000. Actually they didn't really have to hand over the cash for the 6'3" 210-lb southpaw out of the University of North Carolina. They simply shrank the amount hey are allowed to use on international bonuses and the Blue Jays increased theirs by that amount.

Even more creative of General Manager Jerry Dipoto, the Blue Jays drafted Moran away from Seattle and then the trade was made.

Moran has 85 strikeouts in 62.2 Innings Pitched in AAA Tacoma last season. In 2012 he had a WHIP of 0.94 in 37 AAA innings after a promotion from AA. He is a prototypical LOOGY (Lefty-One-Out-GuY) and slots to be the Scott Downs type who shows up late to face, oh say Prince Fielder or Robinson Cano, you know, the new lefties of the suddenly powerful American League West. He will come in, get one out and take a shower to the sound Angels fans are singing "Buttercup" (unless the team gets some sense and changes that terrible seventh-inning tune).

Moran held lefties to a .235 batting average and a .322 OPS in the Pacific Coast League last year.

The Halos grabbed another Mariners arm in the minor league portion of the Rule 5, taking Jose Valdivia and his 2.23 Low-A ERA.

In other Rule 5 news, nobody took reliever Jeremy Berg, left unprotected in the draft by the Angels, nor did anyone take A.J. Schuegel, who now heads to the Diamondbacks to complete the Mark Trumbo trade.