The Los Angeles Angels released righty reliever Ryan Madson on Monday after five frustration-filled months, reports Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com.
Angels release RHP Ryan Madson
The Halos have finally pulled the plug on the failed Madson experiment. The right-hander never took the field for the club.
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Madson, 32, signed an incentive-laden $3.5 million contract with the Angels over the winter with the idea that he’d take over as the club’s closer. The right-hander was still recovering from the Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for all of 2012 at the time of the signing, but he and the Halos were hopeful that he could join the club’s relief corps by sometime in May.
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The Angels sent Madson to their training complex in Tempe, Arizona, in the hopes that working full time with the club’s medical staff would help restart his stalled recovery, but the right-hander was never able to graduate to full-intensity bullpen sessions.
Madson now holds the singular and rather awkward honor of having made $9.5 million over two seasons with different clubs without throwing a single pitch for either team. (Pedro Feliciano, you've been one-upped.)
With both Madson and their other free-agent bullpen addition, Sean Burnett, sidelined for much of the year, the Angels have had a tough go of things on the relief front in 2013. Last year's bullpen savior, Ernesto Frieri, has turned back into a pumpkin -- posting a 4.44 ERA and a walk rate of five per nine -- and the bullpen's overall 4.13 earned-run average is fifth-worst in baseball this year.
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