Shohei Ohtani’s arbitration hearing is coming up pretty soon. One way or the other he will be getting a good raise. Of course, they are conducting the arbitrations by Zoom this year. The Angels claimed infielder Robel Garcia off waivers from the Mets. Will they use him to plug a hole in the outfield?
Minor League Deals Plus Invites
Wade LeBlanc has a minor league deal with the Orioles and a spring training invite. Meanwhile the Athletics have signed Reliever Deolis Guerra to a minor league deal with spring training invite. Left hander Francisco Liriano has a minor league deal with the Blue Jays with an invitation to major league spring training. Kyle Barraclough is yet another reliever who has a minor league deal with spring training invitation. This time the deal is with the Yankees. The Rangers signed veteran right handed reliever Nick Vincent to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. The Indians have added relievers Bryan Shaw and Heath Hembrees on minor league deals. At least Shaw got an invitation to spring training.
Other Signings
The Minnesota Twins signed Nelson Cruz to a one year deal worth $13 million. We need to sneak Odorizzi away from those guys. I need some kind of good news and I don’t seriously think Bauer is in the cards. The Phillies will sign free agent right hander Chase Anderson. Left handed reliever Andrew Chafin got a major league deal with the Cubs. The Phillies signed free agent left hander Matt Moore for a $3 Million base salary plus incentives. The Brewers signed Kolten Wong to a two year deal at $18 Million. The Diamondbacks and Joachim Soria have come to terms on a one year deal. Reliever Alex Colome has a one year deal with the Twins for $6.3 Million. Gerardo Parra has a minor league deal with the Nationals for $1 Million.
Garrett Richards passed his physical, whereupon the Red Sox designated pitcher Joel Payamps for assignment to clear a spot on their 40 man roster. The Garrett Richards contract with the Red Sox looks pretty complicated. Here is what the Kike/ Hernandez deal with the Red Sox looks like.
Links That Are Not Deals Or Ohtani’s Arbitration
With the rejection of the 154 game proposal, we default to what was once normal. Spring training starts February 17, 2021. Opening day is still April 1, 2021. Presumably the Angels will still be on Sunday Night Baseball shortly thereafter. Jackie Robinson is on the cover of MLB The Show 21 Collector’s Edition. That’s a nice looking cover. He’s wearing a proper Dodger hat. Joel Reuter thinks Jake Odorizzi will end up with the Red Sox on a three year deal. With teammates like this, who needs enemies?
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
I get not signing Bauer for absurd dollars or years, but if we don’t grab one of Odorizzi, Paxton, Walker, etc, then holy shit this is gonna be a rough first half.
Or a normal first half. Whatever.
Dexter Fowler now an Angel…..
https://twitter.com/FabianArdaya/status/1357531333174595585
Guess this means Goodwin is out of our price range?
Great move ….. 8 years ago.
Official. Angel’s FB account posted it.
For Cash or PTBNL
Nah, we are getting cash from them.
Needed insurance in case of Upton/Adell not panning out. Not sexy but helpful
I’m confused. I had actually mentioned Fowler as a bilge contract the Angels could take on in a trade for a pitcher, but just getting Fowler on the cheap? Yo no se.
Whew, this post is not nearly as heavy as the other one today. Back to Angel shop talk!
Let’s go Perry, don’t sit on your thumbs while the Callaway pandemic is surrounding the team, be aggressive and grab us some ballplayers. Players are going off the board.
Trevor Bauer is officially part of the New York Mets.
Angels fans, rejoice. The Mets overpaid.
And…never mind. Boob Nightengale strikes again.
so we don’t know?
He’ll get along great with the fans in NY. He’ll appreciate their criticism, especially on social media.
That’s going to be fun. Possibly the most vocally self righteous and self sensitive junior genius in the MLB is going to play in…… Queens, which is pretty much the Trevor Bauer of cities, but with a sleeveless t-shirt on and a deep dark memory of having fooled around with its cousin buried deep in its psyche.
Oh no. Now Jackie Robinson is going to suck this year.
I’m getting ready for the Bauer and Odorizzi announcements. For no good reason I expect them to happen in the next two days.
I read a great article where Perry says the rotation is in good shape. OC Register!
https://www.ocregister.com/2021/02/03/angels-gm-perry-minasian-says-alex-cobb-trade-puts-rotation-in-a-decent-spot/
So I’m totally prepared for us being done.
The bottom is a spot. Whether it is decent or not is very subjective.
Only a team as incompetent as the Angels could completely waste a once in a generation talent
I’m with you on the Bauer, Odorizzi, Paxton dominoes falling quickly.
I’m puzzled as to why we had to pull the Cobb trade this week instead of seeing if one of the latter two fell to us a bit.
If you want to cry, pull up baseballsavant.com and compare Cobb and Porcello side by side. The one that was better in 2020 and has been more durable in recent years is still available. We traded a prospect for the other.
I took this to mean as we are done as far as the starter market. I would expect some more Guerra types of invitations handed out. But certainly anticipate bullpen signings.
yes, that’s what I think, too
I would never have believed that GRich would have landed a $10 mil per deal. Pitching is expensive no doubt about it.
8.5 mil first year, 10 2nd + possible increase.
I wish he was still an Angel especially at those prices.
The stacks of Free Agents are dropping fast, but we got ourselves one. Now tell the truth like me, I never heard of him, have you? Robel Garcia, infielder by trade.
Never heard of him but he sounds and looks interesting. He washed out early and went to play pro-ball in Italy. He got scouted and came back, crushed AA and AAA and earned a call up to the MLB all in one year – 2019. His MLB numbers look like crap, until you look at the splits. He has a 109 wRC+ against lefty pitchers. Oh, and he can play the corner outfield positions.
It’s small sample size and he most like never makes a real impact. But since he makes MLB minimum, has an option left, and there was room on the 40 man roster, there is absolutely no downside. The upside is a guy who can platoon in RF and a HR threat pinch-hitter against lefty relievers.
That’s potentially partially filling 2 areas of need (RF and v. lefties) at the lowest possible risk. It’s not a big move or a game changer, but it’s a smart move.
Reminds of the dude Eppler got that hit monster foul balls in between strike outs.
It’s a low risk move that I hope pans out!
Now there’s a Blash from the past.
I felt awfully bad for Blash, especially when he fell down trying to get back to first base. But…um…that was only slightly different than Jo’s 2020 season.
I dislike bs sales tactics like the Show’s “will donate $1 to the Jackie Robinson Foundation for every collector’s edition sold.” Instead, I urge everyone to buy the Fernando Tatis Jr. version and donate $5 to the JRF yourself. You’ll save money, the JRF will get more money, and you’ll get the tax deduction instead of PlayStation.
What, you don’t think a bunch of video game business people spend their off hours pondering the plight of African Americans and who they can put on their boxes to help fix all their problems for them?
The Brewers scored so they can be Wong.
That’s one way for the catcher to tell the pitcher to get his head in the game.
The opposing batter seemed to have more empathy than the catcher did, based on body language.