If I Were Perry Minasian, Part II

Welcome to the second installment of the If I were Perry Minasian series, where CtPG writers detail the transactions they would make for their desired Angels offseason.

In order to rosterbate responsibly, guidelines for this exercise are as follows.

• Angels end-of-year payroll (based on actual payroll, not the luxury tax) shall not exceed $200 million, giving the GM about $45 million to spend during the offseason. More info on how we came to that figure ($45,011,906) here.
• Factored into that projected payroll are arbitration projections from Cot’s. These are based on MLB Trade Rumor’s estimates, so there shouldn’t be any discrepancies here.
• When possible, use contract projections based on Fangraphs or MLBTR estimates, as experts from these outlets have a better pulse on the free agent landscape than most.
• Trades must be as realistic as possible. One popular tactic among baseball fans on the internet is offering a bunch of players you don’t like in exchange for some you do. In reality, that’s not how trades actually work, so that’s off limits. The Baseball Trade Values site can be a good resource for a sanity check often times, but each team values players differently and their wants/needs/tendencies should be taken into account, too.

Remember, no one has a crystal ball. Trades should be fair at the time they were made but can look very lopsided in hindsight. People on the internet will probably pull these up two years later and laugh at you. This can be very humbling! That is the nature of the game. —RS

Prior Installments

My Perry Minasian article from last year.

Part I: Jessica DeLine’s 2021 article

My Objectives

1. Starting Pitching, of course
2. Shore up relief pitching
3. Cheap Shortstop

Non-Tenders

I would non-tender Junior Guerra for a projected savings of $1.3M. I would have done the same for Franklin Barreto, but Perry already took care of that for me. I don’t think his projected arbitration salary of $700,000 was probably included in Rahul’s calculations about the budget. After being outrighted, Barreto elected free agency in late October of 2021.

Trades

Taylor Ward to the Marlins for relief pitcher Steven Okert

This trade is salary neutral so I should still have $46.3 M to play with.

Free Agent Acquisitions

Marcus Stroman for 4 years x $25 M per year

Think about it. Ohtani and Stroman heading the Angels’ rotation. One of them needs to be healthy and effective down the stretch because we might have to make do with a wild card game. If they are both on their game, Let’s go ahead and win the division.

Alex Cobb for two years x $10 M per year

I would love to bring back Alex Cobb. He was an effective pitcher when he was healthy, which is something the Angels rarely see these days. We’ll just need to stay on top of that blister situation.

Raisel Iglesias for 3 years x $10 M per year

I would also love to bring back Raisel Iglesias. He was also an effective pitcher, which is something the Angels rarely see these days. If I can’t get Raisel Iglesias for this cheap, I will have to go for Kendall Graveman instead. He’s a step down, but I have to make the numbers work.

Freddy Galvis for one year x $1.5 M

I don’t trust Rengifo. I looked real hard about a trade for a decent controllable shortstop, but I couldn’t find one that anybody would part with in exchange for anybody I was willing to trade. For example, Jazz Chisholm Jr. would cost more than Adell. The trade simulator says it would take Adell plus Sandoval, even if the Marlins could be talked into trading Chisholm. In the end, I punted by hiring Galvis.

Optioning Some Guys

Looking at the Fangraphs projected Angels lineup, I see I need to option Luis Rengifo, Jimmy Herget, and Sam Selman to the minors. As for Detmers versus Naughton, I am sending down whichever one has a crappier spring training. I think all this comes to $46.5 M, which is about $200,000 over budget, although optioning those three guys might help me get back within budget. If necessary, I can try to back load one or more of those free agent contracts just a little bit to get us through 2022 within the projected Arte budget.

Starting Rotation

1. Marcus Stroman
2. Shohei Ohtani
3. Alex Cobb
4. Patrick Sandoval
5. Jose Suarez
6. Jaime Barria

Lineup

1. Shohei Ohtani
2. Mike Trout
3. Jared Walsh
4. Anthony Rendon
5. Max Stassi
6. Brandon Marsh
7. Jo Adell
8. Freddy Galvis
9. David Fletcher

Bullpen

1. Raisel Iglesias
2. Austin Warren
3. Steven Okert
4. Mike Mayers
5. Kyle Tyler
6. Jose Quijada
7. Andrew Wantz
8. Packy Naughton

Bench

1. Chad Wallach C
2. Jack Mayfield Inf
3. Phil Gosselin Inf/OF
4. Justin Upton Inf/OF