Sunday Notes: Angels Southpaw Samy Natera Learned From Andrés Muñoz

Samy Natera pitched for Mexico in this year’s World Baseball Classic, and he followed that up by having a stellar rookie campaign with the Los Angeles Angels. The recently-turned-27-year-old southpaw registered a 3.13 ERA, a 1.90 FIP, and a 36.6% strikeout rate over 28 appearances comprising 31-and-two-thirds innings with the AL West club. He was credited with three saves, and was also charged with a pair of defeats. The Ciudad Juarez, Mexico native entered the season ranked just 21st in what was then described as a below-average Angels farm system — although his scouting report did suggest promise. With a caveat that he is “wild and inconsistent,” Brendan Gawlowski stated that Natera “sits in the mid-90s and touches 97 with his fastball, a pitch that also has 19 inches of vertical break. He pairs it with an above-average slider that flashes plus, and both offerings miss bats.” Natera reined in his control upon reaching The Show. He’d logged a 16.9% walk rate over 57 minor-league frames in 2025, and he began this past season by walking Triple-A batters at a 14.1% clip. With the Angels — this after making his MLB debut in early June — that percentage was a stingier 9.9%. I asked him about the improvement back in mid-September. “There is a difference between here and the minor leagues,” said Natera, whom the Halos selected in the 17th round of the 2022 draft out of New Mexico State University, “In the minors you’re trying to prove something; here it’s about winning. My mindset shifted to just thinking about helping the team win, and that really made me attack hitters. It changed my approach on how to pitch.” The impetus to that approach predated his arrival in Anaheim. The seeds were planted in the WBC, where his teammates included an All-Star closer who has saved 66 games for the Seattle Mariners over the previous two seasons. “I talked to Andrés Muñoz and learned the way he thinks out there,” explained Natera, who made a pair of scoreless appearances for Team Mexico. “It’s pretty much, ’my stuff against yours.’ I really bought into that. I’m trusting my stuff, and trusting it in the zone.” Natera’s repertoire is fronted by his aforementioned four-seamer/slider combo, with an occasional splitter mixed in. Eighty-first-percentile extension helps his arsenal play up, as does the 19.5 inches of induced vertical ride he gets on his 94.9-mph heater. Muñoz noticed. “He liked my fastball,” recalled Natera. “I played catch with him and he was telling me about my fastball, how it goes up — the vertical, and all that — which gave me more confidence in it. The mental side is probably the biggest part of what changed for me. That change has allowed me to trust my stuff in the zone. “Playing catch with [Muñoz] was unreal,” Natera went on to say. “His fastball, just the way it looks out of his hand… I mean, I have much respect for him, being Mexican and looking up to him like I do. The mentality he has as a shut-down closer… again, confidence is a big thing. It’s huge.” ——— RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS Lu Blue went 28 for 70 against Urban Shocker. Rip Radcliff went 33 for 75 against Red Ruffing. Chris Hoiles went 17 for 31 against Jim Abbott. Fred Lynn went 8 for 12 against Mike Paxton. Dave Collins went 3 for 15 against Grant Jackson. ——— Braylon Payne has reasons to be confident. Drafted 17th overall by the Milwaukee Brewers out of a Missouri City, Texas high school in 2024, the 20-year-old outfielder is coming off a season where he slashed .277/.358/.552 with 28 home runs and a 127 wRC+ — as well as 25 stolen bases — between High-A Wisconsin and Double-A Biloxi. Ranked 12th in a well-regarded farm system, he grades out as a 45 FV. I asked for a self-assessed snapshot of his tool set at last month’s Arizona Fall League media day. “I’m a five-tool player,” replied Payne, who has been suiting up for the Scottsdale Scorpions. “In my eyes, I feel that I can do everything on the field. I would say speed is my best tool, and second best would probably be power. Not too many guys can hit the ball as hard as I do.” Payne went on to say that his top exit velocity during the regular season was 117 mph, and that his round-trippers tend to come when he is catching the ball out front. He doesn’t strive to drive the ball in the air, but rather “hit low line drives.” He described his swing path as “pretty flat,” adding that he doesn’t see a need to change his M.O, given that it has always worked for him. Which isn’t to say he is averse to making adjustments. As he put it, “I’m going to keep putting my head down and doing the things I need to do to keep getting better.” Going as high as he did in the 2024 draft isn’t something he expected. “I was kind of surprised that the Brewers picked me; I thought I was going to go a little later bit than that,” admitted Payne, who was selected directly in front of Theo Gillen — now the top prospect in the Tampa Bay Rays system — and current big-leaguers Carson Benge and Trey Yesavage. “But they ended up taking me, and I’m very grateful that they did. It was God’s plan.” ——— A quiz: Who has the highest batting average over the past two MLB seasons (min. 1,000 plate appearances)? The answer can be found below. ——— NEWS NOTES The Major League Baseball Players Association honored David Cone with this year’s Curt Flood Award, which — per the MLBPA’s release — commemorates Flood’s historic judicial fight against baseball’s reserve system, which paved the way for the advent of free agency in 1975. Jerry Koosman died last Sunday at age 83. A southpaw from Appleton, Minnesota, Koosman was credited with 222 wins while taking the mound for four teams — mostly the New York Mets — from 1967-1985. He went 21-10 for the Mets in 1976, and 20-13 for the Twins in 1979. Notable among this past week’s coaching staff changes was Joe Torres being hired as the new pitching coach of the Cincinnati Reds. A 44-year-old Bronx native who spent this past season as the assistant pitching coach for the Cleveland Guardians, Torres is a former first-rounder. Drafted 10th overall by the Anaheim Angels in 2000 — five picks in front of Chase Utley, and 19 in front of Adam Wainwright — Torres ultimately topped out in Triple-A. ——— The answer to the quiz is Chandler Simpson. The Tampa Bay Rays outfielder has batted .302 over the past two seasons. Luis Arraez has the second-highest batting average at .301. ——— Jake Cook has been one of the top hitters in the Arizona Fall League. Across 74 plate appearances with the Mesa Solas Sox, the 24-year-old left-handed-hitting outfielder is slashing .343/.405/.373 — and he has swiped 14 bases to boot. Wheels are his carrying tool. As Eric Longenhagen explained when I inquired about under-the-radar players I might want to talk to during my recent AFL trip, Cook is an 80 runner on the scouting scale. The erstwhile University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagle can fly. He can also really throw. As Eric also informed me, Cook not only roamed the outfield prior to the Jays calling his name in the third round of the 2025 draft; he also toed the rubber. I asked Cook about that before a recent game. “I was two-way in high school,” said Cook, who hails from Madison, Mississippi. “That’s what the team needed me to do — pitch and hit — I was good enough to get a shot at both in college. I ended up having a labrum tear in my non-throwing arm [as a sophomore]. I couldn’t swing, but I could throw, so I just pitched that year. I had surgery the following summer, then just hit my junior year.” Cook told me he was clocked up to 96 mph, and that he augmented his heater with a “pretty good splitter and a decent little gyro slider.” Much for that reason, one of the things he heard while attending the Hattiesburg institution was an admission of uncertainty. “Every year at Southern Miss, my head coach would tell me the same thing,” recalled Cook. “He would say, ‘When we scouted you, we knew you were going to be something. We just didn’t know what it was going to be just yet.’” What does the speed-burner aspire to be now that he is a position player only? Along with stealing 22 bases — that number would have been higher were it not for a hamstring injury — he homered five times for Low-A Dunedin while posting a 102 wRC+ over 328 plate appearances. Moreover, at a listed 6-foot-3, 185 pounds, he isn’t lacking in size. Does he see himself as a guy who will add more power to his game, or instead be more of a Chandler Simpson? “Developing more power,” said Cook. “I’m working on that as we speak.” ——— FOREIGN AFFAIRS The Samsung Lions are this year’s KBO champions. The Daegu, South Korea club lost the first game of the best-of-seven series, then won four straight against the KT Wiz, who had logged the circuit’s best regular season record. Lewin Díaz and Chris Paddack are notable former MLB players on the Lions roster. Jesús Made has gone 17-for-54 with one home run for the Dominican Winter League’s Tigres del Licey. The 19-year-old switch-hitting shortstop in the Milwaukee Brewers organization is No. 1 on The Board. Radhames Liz has made three appearances and allowed four earned runs over nine-and-two-thirds innings for the Dominican Winter League’s Leones del Escogido. The 43-year-old former Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles right-hander is in his 22nd professional season. ——— Tai Peete, whom the St. Louis Cardinals acquired from the Seattle Mariners last February, was featured here at FanGraphs earlier in the week. Left on the cutting-room floor from my conversation with the 21-year-old outfield prospect was his response when I asked who most stood out among the pitchers he faced this season. “There were guys everywhere,” said Peete, whose 2026 campaign included stints in the High-A Midwest League and Double-A Texas League. “Especially playing against my old organization. It was fun facing them. Facing Ryan Sloan… I mean, he’s the man. He’s got it all. Tyler Cleveland is another great guy with a great arm. I’ll see those guys more and more in the coming years, and it will always be fun to face them. They’re good competition, for sure.” Sloan currently ranks ninth on The Board with a 55 FV. Cleveland, whom Brendan Gawlowki has described as “a submariner with a funky delivery,” ranked 23rd in the Mariners system with. 35+ FV prior to the start of the season. ——— A random obscure former player snapshot: Rogelio Moret had a curious and concerning incident in the last of his nine big-league seasons. Slated to pitch for the Texas Rangers against the Detroit Tigers on April 12, 1978, the string-bean left-hander instead went into a catatonic state in the clubhouse and was taken to a neuropsychiatric facility. He recovered from the episode, eventually take the mound six more times — but that was it for his career. Still just 28 years old, Moret threw his final MLB pitch in mid-June of that year. He’d previously had a pair of outstanding campaigns with the Boston Red Sox. Bookending a season that saw him go 9-10 with a 3.74 ERA over 173-and-third innings, Moret went 13-2 with a 3.17 ERA in 1973, and 14-3 with a 3.60 ERA in 1975. The last pitch he threw in a Red Sox uniform came in an all-time classic. Working in relief, Moret hurled a perfect eighth inning in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, which ended on a Carlton Fisk home run off the left field foul pole. Two months later, Moret was traded to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for a southpaw whose story is every bit as notable as his own. Not only did Tom House catch Henry Aaron’s 715th home run in the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium bullpen on April 8, 1974, he went on to become — as chronicled here at FanGraphs six years ago — “The Father of Modern Pitching Mechanics.” ——— LINKS YOU’LL LIKE How busy will the MLB offseason be before the likely lockout? CBS Sports’s Julian McWilliams queried insiders on November’s uncertain urgency. Lookout Landing’s Kate Preusser weighed in on the Seattle Mariners’ hiring of Jason Kanzler as their new manager. Purple Row’s Cory Cohen looked at the competing philosophies that led to the Colorado Rockies’ firing of pitching coach Alon Leichman and the subsequent hiring of Ethan Katz as his replacement. Why does Korean baseball care so much about players’ character? Tai-In Chun addressed that question at the SABR Asian Baseball blog. ——— RANDOM FACTS AND STATS Dusty Baker had 1,981 hits, including 242 home runs, and 2,183 managerial wins. Lou Piniella had 1,705 hits, including 102 home runs, and 1,835 managerial wins. Bill White, who is one of eight candidates on the 2027 Contemporary Baseball Era Committee Managers/Umpires/Executives ballot, had five All-Star seasons and won seven Gold Gloves during his playing days. He slugged 202 home runs, logged a 117 wRC+, and won a World Series with the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals. Bruce Bochy batted .239 with a .685 OPS over parts of nine big-league seasons. He batted .306 with an .829 OPS in the month of July. George Brett slashed .337/.397/.627 with 10 home runs in 184 postseason plate appearances. He went 19-for-51 (.373) in World Series play. The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Darryl Strawberry as a free agent on today’s date in 1990. His best days already behind him, the 29-year-old erstwhile New York Mets outfielder proceeded to log 28 home runs and a 140 wRC+ in his first L.A. season, only to then see his career go south. The Dodgers acquired Shawn Green from the Toronto Blue Jays as part of a four-player trade — Raúl Mondesi was the most notable player going north — on today’s date in 1999. Green went on to play five seasons with the NL West club, hitting 49 home runs in 2001, and 42 more in 2002. Players born on today’s date include Rey Palacios, a corner infielder/catcher who played in 101 games for the Kansas City Royals across the 1988-1990 seasons. The uncle of present-day pros Richie Palacios and Joshua Palacios, the Brooklyn native batted .193 over 125 plate appearances. One of his three home runs was a 10th-inning walk-off grand slam on a pitch thrown by Boston’s Jeff Reardon. Also born on today’s date was Wayne Ambler, a middle infielder from Abington, Pennsylvania who appeared in 271 games for the Philadelphia Athletics across the 1937-1939 campaigns. The son of a speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Ambler entered pro ball after graduating from Duke University. He had a 51 wRC+ and negative WAR for his career. “Big Ed” Reulbach, who had gone 79-25 with a 1.81 ERA for the Chicago Cubs across the 1906-1909 seasons, went 21-10 with a 2.23 ERA for the Newark Pepper in 1915. Also taking the hill for the Federal League club that year were Charlie Whitehouse and Gil Whitehouse — they apparently weren’t related — who along with Len Whitehouse are the only players in MLB annals sharing that surname. The most recent Whitehouse was on the mound for the Minnesota Twins in 1983 when Reggie Jackson became the first batter to amass 2,000 career strikeouts.