ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Catcher Travis d'Arnaud has agreed to a $12 million, two-year contract to join the Los Angeles Angels as a veteran backup to Logan O'Hoppe.
The Angels announced the deal Tuesday, adding their third veteran already in the offseason.
D'Arnaud is a Long Beach native and a 12-year major league veteran who spent the past five seasons with Atlanta. He batted .238 with 15 homers and 48 RBIs over 99 games last season for the Braves, who gave him an $8 million salary this year and declined their $8 million option for 2025.
D'Arnaud will turn 36 before next season, and Angels general manager Perry Minasian envisions him as both a mentor and a backup to O'Hoppe, perhaps the most promising player in the young core of his rebuilding club.
The 24-year-old O'Hoppe played 136 games for Los Angeles last season, batting .244 with 20 homers and 56 RBIs. D'Arnaud should give more rest next season to O'Hoppe, particularly when the Angels face left-handed pitchers.
“Travis just stuck out for us as someone that could not only play at a high level, but for his makeup,” Minasian said. “He’s been on winning teams. He knows what winning teams do. He’s got the ability to affect the locker room in as positive a way as anyone I’ve ever been around. He’s great with young pitching. He’s great with coaching staff. He’s great with manager. He’s just an awesome guy, and a hometown guy who lives 25 minutes away.”
D'Arnaud gets $6 million annually in his new deal.
He won the World Series with the Braves in 2021 and made the All-Star team in 2022. He began his career with the New York Mets before making brief stops with the Dodgers and Tampa Bay in 2019.
D'Arnaud knows Ron Washington well from the Angels manager's previous tenure as a Braves coach.
Los Angeles also acquired slugger Jorge Soler from Atlanta in a trade and signed veteran reliever Kyle Hendricks earlier in a busy offseason. Minasian worked for top Braves executive Alex Anthopoulos in Toronto and in Atlanta.
The Angels lost 99 games this year in the worst season in franchise history.
Right-hander Guillo Zuñiga was designated for assignment to make room. Minasian said the acquisition of d'Arnaud doesn't necessarily mean the Halos will part with Matt Thaiss, a backup catcher who has also played other positions for the Angels, who drafted him in the first round in 2016.
Minasian also said Sal Fasano has joined the club as an assistant pitching coach. The veteran major league catcher — who played two games for the Anaheim Angels during their 2002 World Series championship season — spent the past eight years on the Braves’ coaching staff working with their catchers.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
FILE - Atlanta Braves' Travis d'Arnaud rounds second base after hitting a walkoff home run to win a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Sept. 28, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jason Allen, File)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The person inside the Tesla Cybertruck that burst into flames outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel suffered a gunshot to the head before the explosion, officials said Thursday.
Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference that a handgun was found at the feet of the man who's been identified as Matthew Livelsberger. Officials believe the shot was self-inflicted.
Livelsberger served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the Army said in a statement. He had served in the Army since 2006, rising through the ranks with a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said.
He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Livelsberger was on approved leave when he died, according to the statement.
The FBI said Thursday in a post on X that it was “conducting law enforcement activity” at a home in Colorado Springs related to Wednesday's explosion but provided no other details.
The explosion of the truck, packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters, came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack. The FBI said Thursday that they believe Jabbar acted alone, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others.
Both Livelsberger and Jabbar spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to multiple Army special operations units. However, one of the officials who spoke to the AP said there is no overlap in their assignments at the base, now called Fort Liberty.
Chris Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, said Thursday that officials have found ‘no definitive link’ between the New Orleans attack and the truck explosion in Las Vegas.
Seven people nearby suffered minor injuries when the Tesla truck exploded. Video showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, canisters and other explosive devices crowded into the back of the pickup. The truck bed walls were still intact because the blast shot straight up rather than to the sides.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that “we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself."
"All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” Musk wrote.
Musk has recently become a member of Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas early Wednesday. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at his South Florida estate.
Authorities know who rented the truck with the Turo app in Colorado, Kevin McMahill, the elected sheriff of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, said Wednesday. He did not release the person’s ID, however.
Copp, Richer and Long contributed from Washington.
Investigators enter a townhouse in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)
Investigators stand outside a townhouse complex in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
