Angels release veterans Jon Jay, Jesse Chavez

The Angels have released outfielder Jon Jay and right-hander Jesse Chavez from their minor-league contracts, per a club announcement. Both are once again free agents. As Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic points out, Jay’s release makes it quite likely that Juan Lagares, another non-roster veteran in camp with the Halos, will make the club as a backup outfielder.

Jay and Chavez become the latest in a long line of veterans to either opt out or be cut loose from minor-league deals around the game, as teams whittle down their camp rosters with Opening Day looming. Both Jay and Chavez were Article XX(B) free agents — that is, players with six years of service time who were in camp on a minor-league deal after finishing the 2020 season on a big-league roster — and could have been retained into the season had the Angels been willing to pay a $100K retention bonus. Instead, they’re now free to pursue opportunities with other clubs.

The 36-year-old Jay struggled quite a bit this spring, going just 2-for-29 with an uncharacteristic 10 punchouts in 33 plate appearances. Jay, who can play all three outfield spots, is typically a contact-oriented lefty bat with a good approach at the plate, but the past couple seasons haven’t been particularly pretty.

He’s coming off a rough showing in 18 games with the 2020 D-backs, when he posted just a .160/.211/.240 batting line through an admittedly tiny sample of 57 plate appearances. Jay hit for a solid but fairly empty average with the ChiSox in 2019 when he batted .267/.311/.315 in 182 trips to the dish.

Like Jay, Chavez struggled this spring on the heels of an ugly 2020 showing. He was tagged for seven runs in 4 1/3 innings with the Angels during Cactus League play, and he was knocked around for a 6.88 ERA in 17 innings with the Rangers last season. The veteran righty had an outstanding season as recently as 2018 but has labored through 95 innings since that time.