For the past 5 years, defensive wizard Andrelton Simmons has held down the short stop role for the Halos. He became a free agent after this past season and the Angels had a hole to fill. Jose Igelsias is a great choice and only clocks in at $3.5 Million for the 2021 season. Of course this means kicking the problem down the road another year, but now – the Angels seem set with Iglesias at shortstop and David Fletcher holding down second base. Both players give them flexibility to switch things up if needed.
Iglesias doesn’t quite have the defensive prowess of Simmons but from 2016 to 2019, he racked up 20 defensive runs saved. Unfortunately, in 2020 his DRS were at -2 so it remains to be seen if he’s slowing down or it was a fluke of the 2020 season. Historically, this dude can field. Look up some of his Youtube videos and enjoy!
At the plate, Iglesias is coming off a banner year. Small sample size alert: Iglesias hit .373 with a .400 OBP. Those are huge numbers, but unless he’s changed his approach, I would expect those to come down a bit as his career slash line sits at .278/.319/.381.
In return, the Angels sent over 2019 5th round draft pick Garrett Stallings (RHP), their #21 prospect, and 19-year-old Jean Pinto (RHP) who was signed out of Venezuela in 2019.
Really like this move. Plus defender and can handle the bat.
I also think this signals the Angels might try to snag one of the SS in next years free agency class, which is pretty historic.
According to MLBTR, Iglesias had a “nagging quadriceps injury” and didn’t play as much at SS (15 of his games came as a DH). So, with better health, I’d say Iglesias is about as close of a facsimile to Simmons, for a quarter of the price, as there is. Plus (maybe even ++) glove, high-contact, around league average offensively, keeps Fletcher at his ideal position, in my opinion, and maintains their main resources for pitching.
It’s fine a move, but it doesn’t necessarily solve some of my questions for when even Andrelton was the SS: it has me wanting one more big, left-handed bat in the lineup…and the Angels actually need to get some SP’s who actually produce groundballs to make the infield defense worth it. Rendon/Iglesias/Fletcher should be a vacuum on the dirt.
Yeah, pretty happy. I’m a lot more comfortable with Fletcher at second. I think it is a little easier on his arm to make shorter throws. If Stassi plays the way he did last season, we look pretty decent up the middle. Now for actual pitching!!
I’ll repeat what everyone says and say that I like the move. This seems to make adding an offensive minded position player who can play middle infield desirable, tho.
Left-handed bat who can play some outfield and first base wouldn’t be a bad idea, but that also sounds like Walsh if he’s the real deal lol
I was thinking La Stella. Doubtful we bring him back, tho.
It seems likely that the bench will be Walsh/Pujols (depending on the day), Ward, Adell/Marsh (unless one of them starts), and Rengifo/Barretto. So, unless we replace those two IF, or shorten the bullpen, I see no place for La Stella (especially as a bench piece, he would want to start, I would think).
Schwarber available if that was an avenue they wanted to go down
Throw me in with the happy consensus.
Solid move. Great start, Perry!
Stassi, Iglesias, Fletcher, Trout as the defense up the middle is going to work just fine and means Perry can still go after less costly ground ball pitchers as well as the “ace” types that are available (where ever the hell those are). Get ready to be pissed at the lack of ace face as we sign Brett Anderson, Homer Bailey, Mike Leake and Trevor Williams.
Maybe we trade for an ace though. That would be cool. actually, I’d be cool with GB pitchers with a low walk rate too. Just give us some guys that can get through 3 innings without throwing 85 pitches.
I think we will see Minasian acquire another catcher, given how much he emphasized the importance of catching.
But, yeah – we have a potentially elite defensive infield, with Rendon at 3B, Iglesias at SS, and Fletcher at 2B. Walsh is actually pretty decent at 1B, too.
Add in a strong defensive catching platoon, and once Marsh is ready to play RF, we actually should grade rather well across the diamond, with the exception of LF (as long as Upton is out there).
I think another catcher will be acquired. We cannot go into next season with Stassi as the main glove. Odds are that he will revert to his feeble ways and the butt end of the jokes again. McCann – Casali – Molina. Realmuto won’t pain me either.
Oh absolutely, yes. I think that catcher is actually probably priority 1B for Minasian, with SP being 1A. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him being in McCann AND trade for a young catching prospect.
Personally, a move I would love to see is Adell to LAD for Ruiz and Gonsolin. Stud young catching prospect who is ready to play now and likely very solid SP3 with 6 years of control remaining.
Can he pitch?
Maybe
Good enough for me.
That witty exchange brightened my evening. Oh, the simple pleasures.
Love this move. 1 year deal so he’s super incentivized to prove that the ridiculous offensive production of 2020 was no fluke. He is coming off back to back years of solid production at the plate though and appears to be a bit of a doubles machine. Bartender! Defensively not sure there is anyone with a faster transfer from glove to hand release. This coupled with the non tenders should allow us to just get silly with spending some stupid bucks on pitching.
Yeah, he’s not an absolute wizard like Simmons, but he’s a really good fundamental SS. Unless his offense just goes into a hole I doubt we will see much of a drop off from Simmons to Churches and at at least half the cost Simmons will probably land.
Yup! 100. This also has a bit of that pesky Doyer feel to it. Where they find a guy who is a little later on his development but still has some untapped potential. Feel like there may be a lot of people saying who the F is Joey Churches by mid season. Even in spite of him making the All Star game in 2015. Also I’m not sure if Joey Churches is already his nickname, but if it’s not it sure as hell needs to be. If not everywhere at least around here.
And he can sing.
Church’s Chicken, official chicken of the Angel’s infield.
Seems to make clear that we won’t make the bigger splash of Lindor or Semien which is fine by me.
Fine by me as well, assuming the saved money goes to top notch SP.
I like the move, Iglesias’s bat has gotten better with age, not a thumper at all but will not embarrass himself. Simba was never an option.
Nice to see us sweeping out the bullpen too.
Finally some movement! Imagine my surprise to open MLBTR to see articles posted 16 min and 4 min ago. I like the trade. I’m glad we’re not attempting Fletcher at SS.
All those nontenders make me nervous though. We have a LOT of bullpen slots to fill now. Recall that Bedrosian is gone too. I personally am glad Ramirez and Pena were kept. And I’m sure we all assumed Buttrey and Mayers would stick around.
Yeah, I’m glad we kept those guys. The only guy we might miss is Andreis and he’s fairly replaceable.
Love this move. We get a solid SS with a decent hit tool at an affordable price and keep Fletch at 2nd where he is probably more effective. Save those $$ for pitching!
I definitely prefer Fletcher at second.
Anderson, Middleton, Robles were non-tendered, among others.
Seems some rumors were true a few weeks ago
I thought Anderson still had some upside, but i’m okay with him gone. He drove me nuts with how long he took to throw the ball. An inning would seem like an hour for how many guys he walked.
Reds non-tendered Brian Goodwin. Maybe we could get him back?
The Athletic says we send pitchers Garrett Stallings and Jean Pinto to the Orioles
Forgot to ask – which of these guys will become Clevinger?
Don’t know much about Pinto but I did interview Stallings. Big guy, successful in the SEC, was said to be doing well at the alternate training site.
The O’s have accepted six of our farm arms the past two years. For their sake I hope one of them pans out.
None of them cause Eppler. Even if one of them wins seven CYAs he will stick suck if he was an Eppler draft pick.
Solid move, free up money at SS for pitching.
Very happy with the move. He’s here at a serviceable price, and SS wasn’t going to make-or-break the season. Pitching was. Iglesias provides solid defense, and the bat won’t hurt the team. We have other offensive weapons…we seem to do a lot of good business with the Orioles. Keep going, Perry!
Now, time to find out what we gave up! =)
P Jean Pinto and P Garrett Stallings
Good call Jessica, I knew someone had this trade in their plan and it’s YOU (though we don’t know our contribution yet).
Yes it was me. Thanks! We gave up less than I did in my offer so even better. I nailed all the non tenders too except Barreto still exists..
Yes. You are the most Perry of all the Platopi.
Can we flip Barreto (or Rengifo) for someone? A bullpen piece or a long-term prospect?
I don’t think he has much value.
He was dealing with a hamstring issue early in the year. I’d expect the bat to cool off but the glove to come back.
Still, Iglesias at $3.5 million per year creates a solid defensive middle infield and leaves plenty of money for pitching. I like it.
Yep. My first thought when reading this was “maybe this means Perry is saving $ to go after an ace SP.”
Any chance the O’s kicked in some $$? Sounds like every little bit helps.
None that I’ve seen reported. I highly doubt it.