Baseball’s Winter Meetings kick off on Sunday down in San Diego. Normally this is a time full of trades and signings. The sports media loves it and the advent of social media has made all the wheelings and dealings more real time and accessible than fans of previous generations could have dreamed.
While we are absolutely not going to melt down over the happenings at Twitter, I will say to be careful when looking for the real accounts and the fake ones.
Most Angels-centric, authentic handles:
Or you can do what I do and let MLBTR watch them all for you.
Be extra careful this year with reports from national writers. So far, the twitterverse has fallen for a fake Aroldis Champman signing and Lebron James trade request, among others.
We will do our best to follow actual journalism and source things to the best of our ability, but it is a crazy, unverified world out there.
About the only team that has been busy this off season is our Angels. Here’s what the free agency thus far means for the meetings.
All eyes are on Aaron Judge and many folks think he will sign prior to the meetings ending. Will it be with the Yanks or Giants? Pretty interesting read on what previous free agent signings might tell us.
I think the real hold up in free agency will be the robust shortstop class. Yes, their agents are waiting to see who has $300 million burning a hole in their pocket after losing out on Judge, but with 4 of them and arguments pro and con for each of them.
The news changes daily, but as of now the Phillies are expected to nab Turner. Other outlets are saying they’ll land one, but won’t name a name.
Back to that Jeff Fletcher handle, he’s put out an outstanding series on the Angels problems at the minor league level and what Perry Minasian is doing to correct them. Pretty hard hitting stuff from a guy who is usually just the facts. (salty language in that link)
Those are your longform pieces for this weekend. Go ahead and grab a second or third cup of coffee and read them. Really good stuff from Fletcher.
Speaking of the farm, Perry added to it this week with some minor league deals. Jonathan Holder and Chris Devinsky will join Jacob Webb out in Tempe to show what they have then likely catch a plane to Salt Lake together.
Jameson Taillon is a guy I really considered for my Perry piece and he’s getting a lot of attention. I wonder if signing him would let us trade Sandoval for a stud SS. It would be cost effective. Or kick Tucker Davidson to the curb and have a truly studly 1 through 6.
FanGraphs did their annual catcher rankings. If you didn’t like O’Hoppe before, you will now. And you’ll see why I want another catcher brought in.
Centerfielders have long been huge stars in the game, but very few are now. This is the weakest centerfield group since I’ve been a fan. What happened?
We don’t have that problem in the AL West with Mike Trout and Julio Rodriguez. We do have a problem with Houston. Their signing of Jose Abreu puts them into Evil Empire territory.
Let’s see what the Angels and the rest of the division does over the next week to catch the Astros. Please link anything I missed.
In the meantime, watch this tribute to Gaylord Perry. I met him at Spring Training a few years ago and got a ball signed by him. He was with George Foster who I’ve met a couple of times and is as great of a guy as he was a ballplayer. Those two were having genuine fun together and took time to actually chat with the fans as we came to their table. My dad and I spent a few minutes with them and both truly enjoyed the experience.
David Vassay of 570 AM Dodger Talk says the Dodgers will go all out to get him……should trade him to THE HATED ONES (Vic Jacobs nickname for the Giants a preempted strike!!!!) Let’s not make this Zack Greinke 2.0!!! See if we can get Logan Webb and Brandon Crawford with his wet long hair since we don’t have “Marshy” anymore.
💪 💪 💪 …….BYE!!!
Brandon Crawford & Logan Webb ? Wow Thats craptastic .
Please God give us some real trades to talk about
I’m waiting for that 29th pick in the 2024 MLB Draft as compensation, heck we can’t even get a top 15 pick right let alone a bottom 5 pick in the first round. Somehow I don’t believe we’ll pick the next Aaron Judge, Austin Riley, or Shane McClanahan with that pick, all late first rounders and not Angels!!!, BECAUSE WE’RE THE ANJELS WITH MLB’S WORST PHARM SUSTEM POST MIKE TROUT. Make the move Perry since you’re not good at your job.
💪 💪 💪 💪 👈
Would you PLEASE leave and go back to “Lookout Landing” and root for your Mariners.
We don’t need your stupidity and negativity here. Vassay is a Dodger Lover and clearly has an ulterior motive for planting this stuff in the media.
Crime Dog is in the HOF, McGriff was the only player elected by the veteran’s committee.
Yah. I’m glad McGriff got in. He was quietly really good for a long time, another “If he’d been a Yankee or a Red Sox” guy who even played for good teams… just not in the right cities. Less than 3 WAR less than unanimous first ballot godking David Ortiz. Just didn’t wear the right hat. Would have probably had more dingerz too if he’d juiced up and hit to Fenway’s right field corner regularly too.
And 19 career WAR less than Bobby Grich.
F.U. Veterans Committee.
Come on MLB Overlords. Its 7 PM EST. The winter meetings have officially started. Where the hell are all the trades and signings?
Tomorrow the deals will start being made.
just not by the Anjels
our strategy is to wait for everybody else to get worse while we don’t get better. Hey it worked vs the A’s!!! Heee
💪 💪 💪 😢 😠 …..BYE!!!!!
Oh hey. Jeff n other fine fellows who were discussing the massive increase in screeching bias from both sides in all forms of media down to friggin comic book fan forums with me below, this guy does interesting Youtube vids on political philosophy and his take on how “old time” media worked is a really well done example with footage and print examples etc that explain a lot of the contrast with today’s new yaps…
Bored on a Sunday, take a look….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgZPJpdmw3A&ab_channel=RyanChapman
This is an excellent summary.
Pretty cool. I think media used to try appeal to a broad audience. Now the population is large enough to make big coin off a select demographic.
Yeahhhh. hadn’t really considered that, but it’s true. Being “niche” doesn’t really mean making less money now days.
I wouldn’t discount new technologies making diffuse niche audiences become able to be marketed to as a factor. I would never have been able to maintain my Angels fandom from a distance without this tech – both this (still the best out there) blog and broadcasting of games live direct from MLB.
Yea? https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/12/angels-sign-cesar-valdez-to-minor-league-contract.html
Bullpen is locked up.
SS or C next!!!
🙄
He’ll be in the Mexican League by May.
Wait a minute. I’m not sure if this move makes us a champion. I’m starting to suspect that we may not win the World Series next year. It’s also looking like Arte isn’t going to buy us a title. Obviously that means he’s evil and Perry is a moron. I am displeased.
Time to pull the goalie
Time to board the team bus.
Fkn Dutch.I bet both the team and it’s fans were all nice and consolatory while they kicked our ass, then offered everyone in the stadium a warm pastry…. to lull us all into a false sense of security while, behind the scenes, they were doing Dutch things.
Arte is probably Dutch.
Dutch football/soccer fans may include some of the worst, most vicious, and violent hooligans out there, at least in my exp.
They deserve a Dutch Bastard. Too bad we lost Tommy Lasorda. He’d take care of em all.
They deserve a dutch oven.
The herpes makes them angry.
the Russians and the Brits who had a big melee against each other at the last WC.
At least being a Halos fan has prepared us for being USA soccer fans. The losing is so familiar.
I don’t care about Soccer, or the Olympics for that matter. In those sports, I always root for the athlete or team from the smallest, most obscure country. I love upsets.
I know. I spend the whole WC thinking it would be great if Poland or Japan won… though I do know a lot of Brits and I’d be happy for them if England won. It’s like knowing that your friend would be over the moon if they received the deluxe boxed set of the Twilight movie series DVDs you were given as a gag gift.
Easy goals for the Dutch was hard to take, porous defense this match
Defense Dont matter if you cant score
Team USA was just not very championish and didn’t move the needle.
I blame Arte.
If we work hard enough we can find a way.
The Rangers will be lucky to get 100 starts from deGrom over 5 years.
If we’d made that deal I think the board would be melting down.
True, but they don’t know about TrAdition
No. We need to melt down because Arte needs to show me he cares about my emotional needs by buying me the most expensive stuff.
Even if I was just saying ten days ago that Arte shouldn’t/wouldn’t buy me a bunch of expensive stuff this winter.
Especially if a month ago all I was demanding is that he agree that some future people pay Shohei Ohtani half a billion dollars…. and somehow force Ohtani to take his money.
Imperatively six weeks ago I stamped my feet and huffed my cheeks and said that I don’t care if we just sign a Mexican League pen arm for the whole off season as long as Arte and all his secret evil UCL slicing, pitcher drugging, Trump loving, MiLB player starving, stripper sniffing, marketing team attentive, land grabbing, cheap Christian, billboard sales enjoying ass sells the team.
Ohtani. Correa. Rendon. Give me em or tantrum! Give em or they will be on other teams and their fans will feel like winners whose dads love them not me. Arte needs to make me feel like a winner this winter!
DeGrom’s old stable mate was Thor and he cost us 22 mil and a 2nd rd pick, cheap in comparison to what DeGrom is going to cost the Rangers.
Verlander is looking for a 3-year deal, some team may cave in for that, crazy stuff.
Judge is not worth 7 or 8 years either. No team has learned from our mistakes. any deal over 4 or 5 years is very risky, but agents are cleaning up just the same.
I have been advocating for signing Swanson, but not for 7 or 8 years. Maybe for 61/2 yrs. 😀
American League West is going to be tough no doubt about it, but the one advantage we could have is a healthy Trouty and Rendon playing 145-150 games.
Trouty must be having a lot of fun attending Eagles games this year. Super Bowl may end up Eagles/Chiefs.
USC football just stumbled at the wrong time, oh well, it happens.
If I were to rate who will stay the most healthy the duration of the contract, it would be Trout, DeGrom, Rendon.
If there was ever a time to fully go for it, this should be the year to do so. Sign Rodon and Swanson. Pair that with team health, they will be a force. Plus signing Rodon will benefit if Ohtani doesn’t sign.
???You realize he’s trying to sell the team right???
Indeed I do. Hopefully he sells quick so the owner can build an actual front office and build a winner on the field rather than a marketing ploy. Team health is just as important.
112 comments already on a Friday nite and we’re still about 36 hours out from the official start of the winter meetings?
This is going to be a real ball burner weekend
And we haven’t even started talking about the World Cup!
Team USA’s offense is about as non existent as the Angels’ last year.
At least they cut down on the strikeouts
Tasty LOBsters….
I think the Mariners deal for Wong hurts us more than the deGrom deal. Jedi gave up nothing to get a 3 WAR player. $37M per for 5 years to a hard throwing pitcher with injuries the last couple of seasons is not going to be pretty.
These FA deals the Rangers signed up for this year and last will not age well. It’s almost like the Rangers are going through their Moreno phase of roster creation.
I agree. Texas is throwing a ton of money at what will eventually become horrible contracts. Maybe they’ll be interested in acquiring Rendon.
They are real horrible contacts, absolute trash. Semien and Seager, good lord. But a 5-yr on DeGrominator is worth a shot. I say he is not as washed as people think. Rendon at $38M or DeGrom at $39, who you got? I’d take the latter as Rendon is not a game changer like Jake can be.
Both are great, when they play. Both have also proven to still be good when they play post injury. If I had to bet the life of a darling puppy on it I’d bet on Rendon still. It’s also common stat geek knowledge that a single high value position player is more valuable than a high value pitcher over a season and we aren’t in a position to worry about the compressed value of pitching in post season series yet. So if I’m gonna cross my fingers and mutter prayers for the next four years I guess I’d do it with Rendon.
I just remembered that we’ll be playing all 29 other teams next year and won’t face the Rangers the normal amount of games. deGrom won’t actually have many chances to hurt us, hopefully.
It’s still about 12 games against each division rival ( versus the previous 18) so it’s still a crap load of games versus the other teams
Well, the good news is that the Rangers had to sign deGrom because they couldn’t pry Rodon from signing with the Angels…..
… and then I woke up.
deGrom to the goddamn Rangers. I’m gonna be sick.
Does this put us in 4th place in the A.L. West?
I would have enjoyed Jake joining the Angels. If I had to give up a draft pick, go BIG or go home with deGrom.
Hes averaged only 75 innings over the last 3 years (There’s relief pitchers that have averaged more) and now you’re going to give him $37 million a year for 5 years through his age 39 season?
Yikes.
Meanwhile, Max and Verlander keep rolling
Verlander has a new arm . DeGrom does not
It’s a big boy move. Team is serious. It may flop, but the team wants to contend and not nibble with average FA starters. Queue up Perry puffing his chest over Tyler Anderson.
#rangerssochampionish?
I am glad our team’s not “serious” if this is serious.
Jake is doing fine at State Farm 😂
Don’t know but the only teams that seem to be doing anything are the rivals of the Angels. Why??
yeah. we haven’t done anything this post season.
Not the point. The issue was simply to note the oddity that the Angels rivals are the most active teams and much of the league is doing little now.
My point was that you’re point is wrong. The Angels have been just as active as the Rangers, Astros and Ms. Which is actually surprising. We all seem to forget that not much of anything was supposed to happen this winter for us.
I think his point also is that Perry has been setting the bar all off season while all of our evil rivals (except the A’s) are constantly trying to catch up because gall darnit we’re going to win that vaunted off season championship trophy.
I KNOW, RIGHT!!!!! I mean, I wish they would make a trade for someone like Hunter Renfroe or sign a free agent SP like Tyler Anderson!!!! C’mon Perry, DO SOMETHING!!!!!
Also not the point. The Angels finally made some moves. And did so early. Immediately the other teams respond. Where is the rest of the league?
AL west is certainly the most active probably because none of them are going after Judge or big4 and don’t have to wait.
*Except us?
That would certainly explain why Perry hasn’t announced any moves in the last few days.
Everyone hates the Angels. It’s truly a demonic plot.
I just hate their fans… actually, I just hate their “real” fans.
Of course. Why even play the games? As any Angels fan can tell you, if you win the off season then you are pretty much assured a division title.
We’ll see how many games he is available to start before we get too doom and gloomy.
3rd or 4th most likely
Interesting. So this makes their roster about as top heavy as ours? Between deGrom, Seager, and Semien, that’d be almost 100 million?
Dont forget Gray
I suspect that they are hoping that DeGromm has one of his healthy years at the same time that some of their young prospects hit their stride. So even if he’s hurt some, if he is ever long term healthy that’ll be a year they are REALLY good…. they hope.
Let them experience our last 10 years. I’m cool with that.
They have a damn good pitching stable in the minors and farm is well stocked with position players. With this depth coming, not as horrible situation as the Angels.
They are hoarding pitchers.
I’d still put our rotation against theirs any day. Gonna be a lot of Shohei/deGrom showdowns.
Rangers are loading for the future. They also have Leiter and Rocker coming up, possibly end of 23 or in 24.
We’ve got a lot of young arms in the pipeline, too. Who knows how we’ll look in 2-3 years once the owner takes over.
You’re not allowed to like our pitching prospects, just other team’s prospects.
Rockers looking like a bust . I doubt he’ll be up before his impending TJS is completely healed in 2025
It might be a bit early to bestow upon him the moniker of “bust”. That will not be determined for at least 4 to 5 years from now. Last year’s hoarding of infielders got them nothing because of their lack of pitching. Now they are fully attempting to address that.
Welp the Rangers still need to horde a couple of outfielders too as last year, their collective offensive stats were Nava Pilesque. And while they’re at it, their hot corner still aint very hot so they still got a ton of holes to fill.
Has Perry made any moves today at all?
Come on.
Only move is a bowel movement.
Yikes. No GIFs please.
Source?
GOLD!!!!
No, Corn!!!!
Gotta love this time of the year
And the Red Sox signed the frontman from Coldplay.
I hope they have the time of their lives.
He’ll have to watch the clocks this season when he’s on the mound.
Hopefully the Chowd fans like him. Getting lit up at Fenway is no Paradise.
I’m sure if he gets in Trouble, the pitching coach will head out to the mound and tell him Don’t Panic.
I kinda wanted him, around that price too since relief seems to be getting paid this year.
$17.5 million for 2 years seems about right for a market in need of relief this year. Interesting that Martin’s contract is about 20% more than what Tepera got last year and almost identical to Loup’s contract amount that he signed last year as well.
JER JER JENIUS traded for Kolton Wong. Not a bad pick up really, but he gave up Winker and Toro to get him so he got mildly fleeced on a mild trade. Thing is, he kinda gave up some value and took on heavy contract debt for these guys. But still, mainly meh.
WTF? How does the JeDi continue to project his evil mind tricks on to the rest of the league’s GM’s/POBO’s ?The M’s pick up Kolten Wong ( the only MLB right Wong) For asshat Jesse Winker, Abraham Torocaca AND $1.5 million in cash. A neutral dollar trade with the cash strapped Brewers.
What does Jer Jer Jinx have on the rest of the league?
this isn’t really a good trade for either team. If anything I think the brewers made out because they got Toro (not that he is great, but he is serviceable and controllable).
Wong straight up cannot hit lefties. His value lies in his defense, which declined last season. For a team looking for offense, does Wong really move the needle?
Only reason this is a good trade for the M’s is it gets rid of Winker and frees up a couple roster spots for more moves (potentially)
3 WAR (Wong) for crap looks pretty good to me…..
They traded before for 2B Adam Frazier. That didn’t work. Now they re-boot. Some of this looks fairly circular.
Jedi was smart to move off of Winker and Toro. Wong teases with talent but can fall back some years. Looks like they will not sign a big SS as a result of this trade.
Well Duh. Winker has the worst defensive outfielder in baseball the past few years while making $8.5 million and Toro can’t hit his weight ( even the defensive metrics are not kind to him at 2B) but still he’s making about $1.5 because he’s arbitration eligible . I can’t believe the Jedi found a sucker to take these two off of his hands while getting some actual infield value in return .
Was responding to someone else’s comment, was not challenging your superior knowledge
Ha . I don’t know about that but I know I would never challenge you to a cerveza drinking and knowledge contest . ( Although I might enjoy losing that one)
Winker is a bust.
A DH type with hitting upside. I just don’t want him on my team.
A winker bust would be just as good of a fielder.
I watched him a lot on the Reds. A guy who has a positive WAR and OPS+ every season until last year isn’t a bust. I think he’s much like many of us. He hates the Mariners. I am also pretty sure that if I were traded to the Mariners I could also not bring myself to hit any pitches.
He is a God awful outfielder though. We complain about Ward…. or even Adell… but Winker is no bueno. He’ll probably still wind up being a 2-3 WAR guy for the Brewers though.
I am glad that after months of feeling alone on a leaky raft that so many today have posted their accepting PTP as having a vision. The real margins he has to maneuver in are real and stifling and yet there is headway and promise. He has had his mistakes as it is hard to hit a thousand doing what he does. But I think he is the best of the last 4 GM’s.
Not sure you’ve been alone GPa. The success at Rocket City & the IE last summer have made a very compelling argument for increased optimism. After reading Fletch’s series of articles now we know it just wasn’t a change in fortunes.
This team cannot be fixed in just a season or three, but we are better off at all levels except maybe for SLC. My optimism showed up last season in the pitching staff as it was the best one, we’ve had in many years.
This coming season I can see our bench will be much better. Our two weakest holes are at SS and Catcher. I hope Adell can put a decent season together with Ward following up a good year.
OT: Wore my Rocket City shirt when I flew into HSV for Space Camp.
His so far excellent current off-season doesn’t make his past mistakes go away but it must also be balanced against Arturo’s toxic influence. Let’s see how we do this year. Anderson cost us yet another pick, and let’s hope we didn’t pay for another career year. I completely approve the other two moves, and if we are able to do something about shortstop, I will tip my hat.
Zack Eflin getting paid more than Anderson kind of puts it into perspective.
During this slump in ML Centerfielders, it is fun to know that through the 60+ seasons of Angels Baseball our history is filled with some wonderful memories of some truly talented players patrolling the #8 position.
Albie Pearson comes to mind as my first favorite on the Halos. To me at that point he was just the most exciting player on the team. Like Shohei I always thought that he was having a lot of fun out there.
I can’t remember all the good ones, but Pettis, and White and Edmonds and Erstad and Trout have all been very good in playing CF for us. I did not care for trading Edmonds and White away, but it wasn’t my decision and they had wonderful careers away from the Angels.
The best has been my favorite player of all time, Trouty.
The position is the hardest to play and requires some great instincts and don’t forget speed, which can’t be taught. My top CFer’s that I’ve seen are Trout, Mays, Mantle, Willie Davis, Flood, Maddox, White and Edmonds.
We will see the position come back around to having some greats out there for sure. I wish that I could have seen Cobb and Speaker playing CF.
Great list, just don’t forget Torii! 😉
Guys, I did forget Tori and I wish I had remembered him. Miller and Rivers were really good also. Ken Berry was like Miller, good field, no hit. Rivers had the speed. All the good ones could and did steal bases too.
Miller got a bad rap as a no hit CFer. he just didnt have much power but in his 3 years with us he put up a slash line of .276/.352/.347 Berry on the other hand had the same lack of power but walked much less putting up a slash line of .269/.319/.346
Not defending Berry, but the teams he was on were really terrible.
Rick Miller was an unsung Angel in his years in Anaheim.
Fred Lynn was good too.
Hula Dula the Domino Rulah!
Freddy Lynn & Torii Hunter definitely deserve an honorable mention. I also enjoyed watching Rick Miller and Mick the Quick man the middle outfield position
I just never got excited about Lynn after his first year here, I had the feeling that he relaxed after taking the money. He did add to the legacy of our CFer’s though.
Ken Griffey Jr.
My youth had Mickey Rivers and Gary Pettis
Me too. Albie homered in the first game I went to a Wrigley in 1961. I almost caught the ball.