Yesterday, the Angels picked up Shane Victorino to serve as the right-handed portion of an LF platoon, presumably spelling Matt Joyce against left-handers. Today, though, the team imported two left-handed part-time outfielders, making Joyce particularly redundant. In a pair of moves reported at virtually the same time, the Angels have acquired David Murphy from the Indians and David DeJesus from the Rays.

Murphy and DeJesus are basically the same player; both are low-strikeout, gap-power types that provide roughly league average offense and are best used in part-time roles. For his career, Murphy has hit .274/.335/.433, while DeJesus is at .276/.351/.415. DeJesus is the better defender, so I’d guess that he’ll end up splitting left field with Victorino, while Murphy will serve as the strong side of the Angels new DH platoon, sharing time with C.J. Cron.

Certainly, neither of these acquisitions are major upgrades, but simply having decent performances from LF/DH will be big steps up from what the Angels have gotten from those positions this year. With the Angels making a strong run towards a playoff appearance, these marginal gains could end up having an impact in October.

To acquire the pair of platoon outfielders, they sent Eric Stamets to the Indians and Eduar Lopez to the Rays. Neither one was included in Kiley McDaniels write-up of the Angels top 19 prospects, though Stamet did warrant a comment in the others-of-note section. Here’s what Kiley wrote about him in the spring:

SS Eric Stamets – He’s an easy plus defender and runner and he’ll be in Triple-A next year, but the bat is light and there’s very little power, so the upside is utility guy and he may be more of an emergency, glove-first type.

Lopez is a 20 year old who hasn’t made it out of rookie ball yet, and has put up a 5.03 FIP in 33 innings this year. Suffice it to say that he wasn’t likely to appear on any top prospect lists next year either.

So the Angels basically got two decent part-time big leaguers for nothing of real value. These aren’t the sexiest additions of the week, but they should improve an Angels team that needed these upgrades, and they come at essentially no cost.