The Angels already had a full 40 man roster so they could not make a selection under the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft. The Rule 5 draft results are here. It doesn’t appear that any Angels farm hands were drafted in the major league portion. Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani both made it onto the All-MLB team. Taylor Ward didn’t.
Pitchers
Kenley Jansen is off the board. He’s bound for Boston. Jose Quintana has a two year deal with the Mets for $26 Million. The Mets also acquired Brooks Raley in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays. Andrew Heaney signed a two year deal with the Rangers. The Mariners signed right-hander Casey Sadler to a minor league deal. Cole Hamels hopes to pitch in 2023. Good luck with that. The Phillies selected Noah Song in the Rule 5 draft, even though he is on active duty with the U.S. Navy.
Outfielders
The Padres reportedly offered Aaron Judge $400 Million and it was apparently not good enough. Instead, he went back to the Yankees for nine years at $360 Million. The Red Sox landed the recently posted Masataka Yoshida.
Infielders
Aledmys Diaz will sign with the Oakland Athletics. The Cardinals signed Willson Contreras for five years at $87.5 Million.
Registrations for Pitch, Hit & Run plus the Jr. Home Run Derby are now open.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Xander to Padres. I imagine they now trade Tatis- maybe to Angels to get Ohtani (perhaps at midseason)? Just musing.
Why are trying so damn hard to trade Ohtani, lol ??
Ha. It’s because I think he’s gone after this season. And the worst thing that happens is he leaves without getting anything for him.
Nope. The worst thing is if you trade him and get crap back in return and miss out on another great season that could have propelled us to our first playoff appearance in 8 yrs.
That is worse
Trading Ohtani aside, I just have to say FUCK NO (December) to Tatis. Dude’s a cancer.
So if the start date of the regular season in March 30, that means there is approximately 3 months left to complete a transaction of this size in order for the new owners to be in place by opening day. I would think with that timeline, we should know the identity of the buyer in the next 30-45 days.
Man. It’s been days since Perry did something to make me feel alive inside. Why is he so stupid?
Eppler busy tonight…
Bummer. I wanted Robertson.
According to Roster Resource , The Mets are now projected to be at $332 Million next year based upon CBT calculations.
I believe that the Mets are a 3rd year repeater , so based upon my elite uncommon core math skills that will put this years CBT penalty for the Mets of an additional $89.5 Million.
Thats insanity
Wholly smokes!! That’s outrageous. With luxury tax it’s north of $400 million. I wonder what their income is. Totally nuts
I’m going to guess that Cohen didn’t lose a bunch of money in the FTX scam.
Unlike his predecessors , The Wilpons in the Bernie Madoff scandal…
Manfraud saved them from losing the team while all of the Madoff investors got dick.
No my friend, THAT is a champion. An owner who doesn’t listen to his accountant or the marketing department. A saint. A real baseball man. A true unicorn. And THAT’s why they will be hoisting a World Series flag on opening day!
His 18 billion net worth doesn’t hurt. He can throw away 2/3 of it and still be so stinking rich it doesn’t matter.
Cohen can raise ticket prices to cover. It’s all funny-money anyway, I sincerely doubt any team actually pays the full tax amount reported.
I don’t think Manfred was eyeing the A.L. Homerun record when Goldilock balls were poured into Yankee Stadium. Hitting 33 HRs before the All Star Break gave Manfred hope that Judge could eclipse Bonds, but Judge even with juiced balls wasn’t up to that task.
Without the Goldilock Balls, does Judge have the A.L. record? Does he even hit 25 HRs in the second half?
It sure didn’t help Fletch!!!!!
Man this site is hungry for some baseball.
We all just want to see some exciting big moves happen!
And reserve the right to complain about all those moves 6 months from now!
Law: The Yankees bring back Aaron Judge and bet history won’t repeat itself – The Athletic
Good article on why Judge is not somebody any team should have signed. I’m glad the MFY’s signed him. Might mean they won’t win a WS for the next nine years.
Shhhh…..I had this on Friday’s links ha ha.
Sorry, my hate for the Yankees got the best of me.
Just joking around.
I linked another one with “albatross” in the title for you.
I’d really like to know what Perry was up to when he bid on Contreras. Supposedly, you wouldn’t do that when your own top prospect is a catcher who has already tasted the big leagues, unless you were going to trade that prospect.
The prospect would become depth…which Perry wants
pretty simple really:
Cardinals gave him 5 years, I would guess our offer was 3-4 years, so I don’t think this would impact O’Hoppe at all really
5. Stassi sucks and we’re still stuck with him.
Last year he played like he had “Stiff Person Syndrome”..
Have you ever seen Max Stassi and Celine Dion in the same room at the same time?
He’s the ultimate keystone cop. I have seen alot of bad baseball at the big A over the years but Stassi’s 9th inning against the Mariners last year takes the cake.
It was the single worst performance by a major league
catcherdefender in person or on T.V. that I have ever seen. https://defector.com/i-am-begging-the-los-angeles-angels-to-please-just-lose-in-normal-ways/I was referring to SPS. Celine just announce she has it.
Pretty sure Bench & Fisk didn’t platoon back in their heyday.
He’s adding a premium player at a position of need.
You need 3 catchers or so to get through a year. And if O’Hoppe gets to timeshare with Contreras that’s an ideal situation.
And as cookmeister says above, Contreras can be moved around a bit.
Premium player? Are you saying Jeff Mathis is available?
I think it is a case or trying to remove risk. Just a year ago, we had Adell and Marsh in the OF hoping for some magic. Sure O’Hoppe is the top prospect but will he make the big club and hit above .200? O’Hoppe is not going anywhere.
Our best young players aren’t even our own.
Good Gawd do we have a deplorable farm system. Where top draft picks become utility role players……Matt Thaiss PLZ standup. Austin Riley, Shane McClanahan, and Pete Alonzo need not apply.
BYE!!!!…….. 💪 💪 💪
I understand where the four of you are coming from in your replies…
I suppose the part that gets me though is that we really need SS, SP, and probably backend RP. Catcher was not as much of a hole. But he was willing to go big to get the premium catcher. So I mean that seems interesting.
Was he still going to spend a bunch on those other positions? Or was he going to decide “well I know we really needed SS, SP and RP, but I found a great Catcher so I’m done now”.
I can’t answer the second part. Most likely at that point they say some combination of Fletcher, Urshela, Rengifo, and Soto can be used to cover the two middle infield spots.
He’d add a plus bat at a position that is usually weak so we could handle a meh bat at SS.
Catcher is a bigger hole than people realize. Stassi was horrid last year, O’hoppe is unproven, and our minor league depth is non existent. Hence my stumping for Christian Vasquez all off season. I never thought we’d be in on Contreras.
Dont forget Squid. Perry likes his calamari.
Yes, I can agree with you about catcher. I guess it is easy for me to feel more comfortable with catcher now that we got O’Hoppe (and Quero?) too, but you are right to point out that we shouldn’t feel “too” comfortable.
Quero’s probably a year away.
I agree.
I just meant in terms of signing a star to a multi-year deal that would clearly “block” both O’Hoppe and Quero.
If it was a 1 year deal for Contreras, that would actually be perfect.
Maybe that is what Perry tried. Who knows.
Que lastima.
Angels have 3 contracts worth 30 million plus, in a smaller market the Padres have 3 huge contracts.
I think Machado will be the first to flame out for the Padres, though Tatis is already using a Google maps route towards contract fail as his destination.
Padres looking at Machado opting out next season, if for nothing else to re-set his AAV. Maybe this isn’t such a strange move, and they let Manny walk.
As of 11:11am Perry has not signed Swanson as of yet. 🙃
A travesty, I say!
Weeeelllll…. in the MiLB portion of the Rule 5 draft PTP seems to have kitted out the AAA depth. I actually like the cheap pick up of Ronaldo Flores, 20 year old catcher from the Giants. Giants have tons of catching prospects. Catching prospects are good to have. Grab one from them. Makes sense.
Oliva, the 2nd pick, is a lame outfielder.
I do understand taking Riley Unroe off the M’s. Versatile contact hitter who we can stash for depth.
Willian Suarez is a flame thrower out of the Giants system who is 24 years old in Rookie ball because he either strikes out or walks everyone apparently. He will either get magic fixed and be our closer or we will never here of him again after today.
And that’s it. None of this makes me feel like Perry is serious about winning the World Series in this must win season, but we could conceivably get some use out of Unroe or Flores in the future.
Have to ask. Why do you think this is viewed as a must win season? The narrative from the team has been ‘be competitive’ for the last 6 seasons. The narrative has not been ‘must win’.
One word: Shohei
I don’t. I don’t view any season as “must win” unless an asteroid’s heading our way. But it seems like plenty of other people have called every season since Trout was three years away from free agency “MUST WIN” so I’m just rolling with it now.
Really, every season is “must get better/luckier” to me. As for this year’s “must win” thigh squeezer I think people mean Ohtani (see below). Honestly I wish we traded him and I don’t really want to extend him…. so maybe this is a must lose season for me?
How about to save his job before he becomes a landscape company owner in the DFW County area of TX.
BYE!!!! 💪 💪
Judge as a Padre would be more like 30HR at best. That short porch is a stat creator.
Don’t forget the juiced balls, maybe 25?
Yeah. I think the Yankees should have been required to sign Judge instead of some other team paying that contract to an admittedly good player who is getting paid more because he launched 62 in a short porch stadium with special “Yankee Game” fat n juicy baseballs.
The statcast data shows Judge would have hit 67 HR if he hit exclusively in Angel stadium, 66 if he played exclusively at Yankee stadium, and 63 if he played exclusively at Padres stadium, compared to his actual number of 64 (regular + post-season data – I don’t see a way to remove it): Aaron Judge Statcast, Visuals & Advanced Metrics | MLB.com | baseballsavant.com
However, his xHR (expected HRs based on balls hit across all stadiums) matched his actual HRs of 64 this year. Statcast Home Run Tracking | baseballsavant.com (mlb.com) The math for the post season is pretty easy to self-calculate as 2 HRs, so his regular season only xHR also matches his actual HR of 62.
Judge would have hit 62 or more HR (regular-season only) at 18 of the 30 stadiums (assuming he played exclusively in a single stadium), including in San Diego (but San Diego would have cost him 1 of his 2 post-season HRs).
All in all, I don’t think Judge’s success can be fairly attributed to the dimensions of Yankee stadium. Of course, it does look like MLB sent some goldilocks (mildly juiced) balls to Yankee stadium in late August/September to help make sure Judge broke the record.
He likely would have lost a few in the Big A to straight away RF but would have gained more due to the yellow line in RCF. Also, CF is deep in Yankee Stadium so he likely would have lost a few there as well..
We can fix that. Just make the balls we use in Yankee games out of SuperBall stuff with some white leather on top…. perfect.
Or use the Stuff that Dan Ford and Sammy Sosa used to put in their bat.
Shhh! NO ONE in a Yankee, Dodger, or Red Sox uniform can ever accomplish anything without being a CHEATER!!!! Don’t you read the experts here?
Except he hit more HR on the road.
All of you need to stop using facts to defeat my humor and emotionally driven comments.
Love “…emotionally driven comments”
Perry knows this lineup needs another bat + SP to compete. He has some money to spend a couple areas of prospects including C and maybe some pitching. Wherever he signs, he will fill the other position via trade. I.E sign Contreras and trade O’Hoppe or Quero in a package for SP.
Also, if they’re spending money, it also goes to show that the future owners are calling the shots, aka create a winner that we’re buying. Remember a long time ago we talked about winning = more buts in the seats? If the prospective buyers are already in the last stages then it signals that they’ve given the directive to Arte to spend x amount and x yrs of commitments.
Also, there is little doubt that the Dodgers and Giants will be in the Ohtani sweepstakes. Let me remind Shohei that they booed you on an intentionally scheduled “Japanese night” in 2019.
Contraras became a Cardinal a couple days ago.
There also isn’t a single buyer to super secret direct Arte. Not yet. There doesn’t need to be. If all the prospects seem OK with a higher payroll that Arte doesn’t even need to cover then he’ll spend on his own cause why not?
Cole Hamels looking to make a comeback at age 38.
Oh God, please no trips to Anaheim!!
Padres in a race to sign most future regrettable contracts. They got a ways to catch up to the Halos though….
Only time. They got the contracts.
Of course, given some of their new signers, Rangers may get there first.
Got a feeling the Padres are going to trade Tatis.
With our current Ownership/Management group, he aint coming here
Good
Like Tatis is ever healthy (And smart) enough to trade.
He’s gonna play OF I would guess.
Perfect for the Angels. We love big money contracts, scandals, legal ramifications, and drama.
You left out relapses and photography hobby fails as well….
So what do y’all think of this idea? O’hoppe, Neto and Guzman for 3 years of Murphy. A’s get a catcher they can use now and develop. Neto projecting high and a huge give-up, but it’s a win-now move.
Put in the trade simulator and get back to us . You might want to throw in Bush and Detmers while your add it too.
It’s pretty even there.
I don’t think they will touch Neto, just wondered what others thought. I think they have him way higher than the Trade Simulator has him.
According to the TS, If the A’ss throw in Cole Irvin with Murphy and we throw in Guzman they can have Ohtani.
What a deal.
Gah I would love that, just as an FU to the world. Trade Ohtani to the A’s, or Detroit….some place all the suck ass press guys just don’t want to have to watch.
Chef’s kiss.
Survey says?
XXX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7teTvq2MHH0
Our farm is too weak to give up O’hoppe and Neto. I really like three years of Murphy, but I think the combination of minimum wage O’hoppe and a few million on another player is better.
☺
Looks like we were a finalist in the Contreras deal. That means there might be more money out there. Let’s go for it. It’s now or never.
Ya that would seem to confirm that Arte is not worried about a budget he’s not going to be paying for.
It also tracks with Perry saying he wanted the 5-7 spots in the lineup to be more dangerous. If another bat like that isn’t out there its no guarantee they’ll spend that same money.
Unless it’s not true which is always a possibility these days.
We need a God damn leadoff man.
We already have one and he can pitch too
We need two leadoff men!
We got two, too. Unfortunately, we have nobody else.
Only if you have a fetish for solo HRs.
I need it to be 1994 again.
In other news : there has been a WNBA trade !
The Russian Federation sends Brittney Griner to the US State Dept., and in return they receive Viktor Bout.
Britney Griner is a dumber than a post intitled athlete. I wonder what she now feels about the USA government if and when the deal is completed, and she has her feet on our soil once again.
The trade is done. She is/was on a plane back to the US.
Can she pitch?
Can she hit a curveball?
Heck, even Jesus Christ can’t hit a curveball. Only Jobu can do that.
I’m an innocent in all of this. Please either leave me out of it or at least get me some live chickens.
Next time, can she get all the illegal drugs out of her luggage before she goes to a country everyone knows has beef with her country instead of fking around, finding out, and getting a murderous arms dealer released from prison?
That would be great. Do better Brit.
All these folks acting like Nelson fking Mandela just got out make me sad.
anyone know if someone brought into the USA exactly what BG did (some hash oil cartridges), what would be the penalty?
I’m thinking its over 5 years here too – though not at a penal colony.
I wonder how long she would have been incarcerated if we immediately locked up Alex Ovechkin in retaliation?
I’m glad she’s back – even if there are bigger problem in the world.
up to 5 years imprisonment if she was caught coming into USA
Are you asking for a friend?
She cost us putting a very dangerous Russian back on the street. What will she now do for our country to repay that cost.
Work on her Free Throws?
I’m sure her stay in Russia has made her even more determined to speak toot too powah and change everything that’s wrong with this horrible country.
She’s been given a massive gift. Unfortunately, she won’t do anything differently aside not returning to Russia ever.
Hope she does something good and try to get the other more deserving American back.
Every MLB GM would have gotten a better deal.
Agree. Bout is valuable; he’s a middle of the order kind of guy. He should have brought back both Griner and Paul Whelan.
Jedi certainly would have. We’d be frantically searching the WaPost for the stats on the dissidents he got from the Siberian Gulags along with Griner.
I’m not sure about that . He typically doesn’t do as well on international deals . Now if he could have gotten the Russians to take Baldoquin off of our hands that would have been something .
LOL
Yeah…. but then he would have turned around and traded ol’Brit to Spain or something.
Hate bringing politics into a sports board, but that exchange is truly an embarrassment to the We the People here. Leaving a military vet behind is unacceptable. Reminds me of the prisoner exchange for the deserter that went right back to the enemy during Obama times
Yeah, agree. This was clearly about politics and optics. Biden/Harris get to look good to their constituents, which includes the LGBTQ and the Afro-American community… Bring her home for Christmas etc. Meanwhile Whelan is not a name in the media so they treat him like shit.
I think everyone is being too hard on her, I am sure that when she gets home to the loving bosom of her family that she will work tirelessly (including donating time, giving up her WNBA career and money) to the cause of bringing any American that is being held in a foreign country home. And the slime ball that we exchanged for her who was selling weapons to drug dealers to kill Americans, will turn over a new leaf and denounce violence in any fashion, join with the WNBA supporting bringing home any and all American servicemen held overseas home again donating his ill-gotten gains to the cause.
But I believe in Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, Unicorns, Pots of Gold at the end of Rainbows, Arte Moreno is a wise and generous man that gives to the poor and downtrodden Angels fans.
You lost me at Arte.
CNN actually did several pieces on Whelan being left behind including a long interview with his sister. That network is usually pretty supportive of our current administration.
I think the media might care about Whelan more than expected. I hope they do. I hope he’s home soon.
Russia definitely won the off-season. They get the Merchant of Death and we get someone who averages 10+ points /game. They could have at least thrown in a player to be named later
Obviously newsworthy and we’ve been good about discussing it, but let’s move on please.
There’s a great potential for this to go sideways.
I’ve bit my tongue several times already
Was the reattachment surgery a success?
He got a lot of recs for it. Not as many as that Designatedforassignment guy, though.
Yeah, I get it. We were primarily having fun with this topic and keeping it light…. I think you saw that and therefore let it go. But I do know what you mean…