LA Angels Weekend News Crash: Thanksgiving!

On behalf of the staff here at CtPG, a big thank you to all of you for making this such a great community. A really special thank you to our Patreon supporters who financially make this all possible. We appreciate you.

As we enjoy our day of thanks, there is much to be thankful for in Angels land.

GM Perry Minasian added a big bat to the outfield, picking up the Brewers Hunter Renfroe.

Renfroe is fresh off an offensive season that was 24% better than league average and is projected to be 17% better than league average in 2023. This should be a huge upgrade as last year Angels left fielders combined to post a .208/.259/.339 line, which is more in line with a backup catcher.

The addition of Renfroe gives the Angels a host of Ren’s. Ren- don, -gifo, -froe. Per BB-ref we have all the active Ren’s in MLB so we can set our sights elsewhere.

The Renfroe acquisition is the third in a week as the Angels added Gio Urshela and Tyler Anderson right out of the gate. The Athletic looks at how the unpredictable Angels are being unpredictable again.

These three deals eat up $33.4 million in payroll and push the team to a new high water mark. I’ve been holding out hope that Arte will push a little further than expected to try to go out a winner. It is either that, or we’re about done. We’ll find out.

Our offseason Perry pieces are rolling out. Keep up with them. John Henry dropped his creativity and unpredictability, Charles had a very interesting take, Jessica built a stacked lineup, and I totally nailed trading for a Brewers outfielder.

Ok, so that was the wrong outfielder. But I did name Renfroe as a target in this piece.

Elsewhere around the league, we are waiting for moves.

EastSPiN published a fun roundtable predicting where the best free agents will land.

Aaron Judge met with the SF Giants and an offer could be coming by the end of the week. He already has a new offer in hand from the Yankees which I can assume tops the 7 year $213.5 million offer he turned down last Spring.

It is good to be king.

Shockingly, MLB found no collusion between Mets and Yankees ownership when it came to Aaron Judge. I was really looking forward to seeing how MLBPA tried to claim a man signing a $300 million contract was financially harmed.

Fresh off a World Series appearance, the Phillies extended team president Dave Dombrowski for three years.

In a fun little piece, FanGraphs takes a look at who hits good pitching. Stuff like this is my favorite part about analytics. Things are said in sports so often they become accepted as fact. But now we have the numbers and ability to actually look at them and see if they hold water.

In that vein, here’s a great piece on how MLB banning the shift will impact the game next year. Enjoy your coffee with that one.

SI had a good week for MLB links. In addition to the one above, they have two solid pieces on Rafael Palmeiro. One looked at the end of his career, the other is an interview where he opens up about his PED use.

Keep in mind, Palmeiro’s son is an Angels farmhand.