Angels News: Halos Lose RHP Dominic Leone to AL West Rival

The veteran returns to the team that drafted him.

Dominic Leone has been claimed by his original team the Seattle Mariners after the Angels waived him and many others on Tuesday.

An ex-Mariner alert becoming a Mariner?

Dominic Leone, who was drafted and his debut with the org, will be coming back to Seattle on a waivers claim.

— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) August 31, 2023

Leone is returning to the team that originally drafted him in the 16th round in the 2012 MLB Draft.

Leone spent two seasons with the team in 2014-2015 and tossed 77.2 innings with a 2.71 ERA during that time.

Dominic Leone was a last-minute trade acquisition by the Halos to help bolster a roster that was looking to compete for a Wild Card spot and prove to Shohei Ohtani that the Angels could win October baseball games.

Unfortunately, that did not happen as the Angels had one of the worst records in the month of August and have officially waved the white flag by waiving many of their trade deadline additions and offseason signings.

Leone pitched 13 innings for the Halos to the tune of a 5.54 ERA. Like many of the other additions by this Angels team, he struggled and the team's inability to win games did not help in team morale.

Sitting at 64-70 the Angels are 11.5 games back from the last Wild Card spot and now will most definitely not make an end-of-season push for the playoffs.

The complete reverse of the Angels right now is the Seattle Mariners who actually traded away their starting closer in Paul Sewald but have gone on an absolute tear since the trade deadline only losing 6 games in August.

The hot streak that the team has gone on has catapulted them into the AL West lead and with the addition of Dominic Leone, they will look to separate themselves.