ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Angels swapped one Weaver brother for
another Friday, designating right-hander Jeff for assignment and
replacing him with right-hander Jered from Triple-A Salt Lake.
Jeff Weaver was 3-10 with a 6.29 ERA in 16 games this season.
Opponents were hitting .309 against him.
He got pounded in his most recent start, giving up six runs in
two innings of a 12-4 loss to Colorado on Monday.
"No one took his performance any harder than Jeff did,"
manager Mike Scioscia said. "He had shown some signs of throwing
the ball much better his last six starts up until the last one. He
was encouraged he was going to keep moving forward. He's got about
a half-season under his belt and the performance we would have
expected wasn't quite there."
Jered Weaver was 6-1 with two complete game shutouts and a 1.99
ERA in 12 games over two stints in Salt Lake.
Jered originally had his contract purchased by the Angels May 26
and was optioned June 17. He is 4-0 with a 1.37 ERA in four starts
for the struggling club. Opponents are hitting .170 against him.
"This was the only direction we could go to get Jered in our
rotation," Scioscia said. "Jered is ready and hopefully he's
going to step in and give us a boost."
He was expected to join the team later Friday and will start
Monday at Seattle.
"It could have been anybody creating this opportunity,"
Scioscia said. "It's really just coincidence right now it's his
brother."
According to the Orange County Register, the Angels are resigned to eating the remaining $4 million owed to Jeff Weaver on his $8.325 million 2006 contract. The club, which would have 10 days to trade him, had been shopping him for weeks.
"We've had a lot of conversations," general manager Bill Stoneman said. "For the time being, there wasn't a deal to be made. We'll see if we can get one
done."
"There are so many teams looking for pitching and so many teams in the race, somebody will take this guy," one veteran NL scout told the Register.
Stoneman described 29-year-old Jeff as "subdued" upon hearing
the news he was being dropped for his 23-year-old brother.
"He understands that his brother's time is now and he sees the
depth of our rotation," Stoneman said. "We have a lot of guys
that are pitching at a very high level now."
The Angels didn't want to send Jeff to the bullpen, either.
"He appreciated the fact that we weren't going to just burn him
in the bullpen," Stoneman said. "That would have been probably
the worst situation for Jeff. He's going to pitch well for some
club. You can see it's in him."
The continued progress of Bartolo Colon also played a part in
Jeff's demise. Colon made his third start Friday night against the
Dodgers since coming off the disabled list with an inflamed right
shoulder.
"Colon has come out of his two starts fine and hopefully is
going to continue to make progress," Scioscia said.
Jeff pitched for the Dodgers last season, going 14-11 with a
4.22 ERA before signing a one-year deal worth $8.3 million with the
rival Angels after rejecting a one-year contract via arbitration
from the Dodgers.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.