The Angels signed Kevin Padlo to a minor league contract. He’s a weak hitting corner infielder who has played a little bit of second base. Player agents are projecting that Shohei Ohtani will get the first $500 Million contract in MLB history.
The Giants signed reliever Ljay Newsome to a minor league contract. Meanwhile, the Tigers signed reliever Kervin Castro to a minor league contract. Philip Evans has a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks. Mark Payton, who had a minor league contract, signed with the Seibu Lions of NPB instead.
Craig Kimbrel goes to the Phillies for one year at $10 Million. Drew Smyly is going back to the Cubs for two years at $19 Million.
Here is a compendium of all the off season moves so far.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Last Correa comment tonight-What a long and horrible contract for someone that will probably only play SS for a few more years?
If he ends up with the Mets, he likely won’t play SS at all. This is a 300+M deal for someone to play out of position.
These are the moves an owner who is dedicated to championish makes because 300M dollars to a guy like him is not 300M dollars. This is wisdom.
My (un)educated guess is that Correa’s reflexes in that leg is irregular. he also admitted he slid (I believe last season) and it was numb for a while. IDC, we ain’t gonna take the bait….
Texas is building the highest injury risk rotation possible.
Eovaldi a Ranger.
Hopefully the rumors about Kluber are true.
They got him on a two year deal. Not a ton of risk.
2/34 for a broken down question mark. Crazy town.
Your 2017 and 2018 memories are hoping for Kluber. He will be 37 in April. Unless it’s something like 2/16, I would pass.
Maaannnnn. That’s another thing our cheap and evil owner who is selling the team didn’t buy me. What an asshole.
Talking reality the Rangers will likely finish above the Angels in 2023 barring significant injuries. They have too much pitching and the Angels couldn’t dominate them in 2022. The Mariners will be tough also. The Astros will be the defending World Champs. The Angels have improved and we can all hope for an incredible season. But a lot of luck must be involved.
But are all their seasons must win seasons? As apposed to all the seasons where the players start out ho hum and slide down to sleeping in the dugout.
Thank you, Oakland!
I kind of wonder if the Rangers interweb version of Coachdad Demandachamp is pissed when they don’t sign pitching that moves the needle but is also pissed when they sign pitching that moves it, but has injury risk. So he’s also pissed when the team doesn’t carry 12 MLB caliber arms on the 40 man cause depth. But really he’s just pissed the Rangers don’t go out and get one of the six pitchers who averaged 150+ innings with a WHIP under 130 for the past four seasons. None of whom are free agents. It’s very possible the Rangers are not run by real baseball people.
You can find out! Let us know. https://www.lonestarball.com/
Gross.
Rich Hill off the board. Woulda made mre sense to pitch in Florida or Arizona…..
Next up Yankees to enter Correa drama sweepstakes? I say the Blew Crew’s turn next!
He just might fall to us at 3/30m, but I’m sure we’d have concerns about his medicals
LOL, I don’t think he’s gonna fall that low. 😸
I just want to say that I have concerns with Correa’s prior injury history. I think he should work his way through another three or four teams in the next month or so.
I haven’t been able to sleep for days. What is the injury? How will it effect us all? Am I in a situation where I can handle his injury? On a social justice level, where does this injury land? What exactly is the injury? Can it spread to other people? Is there a shot I should get? Should I mask up? I’m afraid. Who do I blame?
As long as you don’t have a surgically implanted plate in your lower right leg, then you should be fine. As always though, consult your family physician.
I might have a plate…. you never know what Arte’s getting up to at night. Do you know for sure I don’t have a plate? Is my shin supposed to vibrate when a pitcher’s getting ready to throw an off speed pitch?
No but your anal beads probably are.
Hey it worked for the World chess Grandmaster, it probably worked for the Astros too. https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/chess-grandmaster-accused-of-using-anal-beads-to-beat-world-champion-likely-chea/
Here’s the thing; even though there was no physical proof that Niemann cheated in the game when he beat Magnus, nearly all the circumstantial evidence points to him being a cheater. Even the way he talks about chess and analyzes games draws the suspicions of GM’s like Hikaru who say he doesn’t display the knowledge that would be requisite to beat someone like Magnus.
In short, just because it has not been figured out HOW he cheated it does not mean he didn’t. What is the line? “Once a cheater, always a cheater.”
😂
And they thought Altuve’s buzzer was on his chest…
No. Sigh.
I left them at a mindfulness seminar.
Correa’s new nickname “Anal bead”.
Coranus
So this “previous injury” may have occurred during a botched extraction?
🤣
I think the metal plate is a cheating device, not sure. Maybe teams don’t want to be held up @ PSA lines, while he gets hand patted down?
If the Angels sign Ohtani and the numbers hold true to prediction, it would mean over $1 billion in total contracts committed to 3 players (Ohtani, Trout and Rendon). That is insane by any metric.
I actually think the bidding for Ohtani is going to be so fierce (presuming he does not decline in ‘23) that we could see something like 11 years/$575 million offered.
All you need to do is realize that, since one MLB owner has gone completely off the rails payroll wise, we can be certain that our new owner will do the same. So we should probably sign Ohtani for 12/600 to be safe and we totally should have a shortstop for 300+ over these past two off seasons.
F it. As it is not my money and it is some unknown kazillionaire’s, let’s bring the contracted payroll into the Cosmos. Karl Sagan can marvel at the majesty of such a payroll, saying ‘billions and billions’.
It’s just sooo reeeediculous Lucy.
And the Padres & Phillies aren’t doing the same to a lesser degree? Or what have the Doyers have been doing since the Guggenheim took over Hasn’t led the league over the last decade?
I would imagine anyone on this site would welcome the same level commitment in payroll spending and player development from a new owner . And let’s face it if you’re going to spend 3 billion on a professional sports franchise I doubt you’re not going to complain about spending serious money on your new toy.
Serious question- let’s say you are right and new owner goes bonkers and drops another $1B on payroll. All of these new expensive guys come in and the Angels make the playoffs.
Will you be happy? Because I don’t think I will. I have realized what I enjoy is young players being developed within the system and having them get to the big club and become contributors to the team. I felt such a connection to the 2002 team because I had watched those guys come up as rookies and develop into a great team.
Buying a bunch of expensive players and have them wear Angels laundry just doesn’t have the same connection for me. How about you?
It depends, I suppose. Vladdy and Torii fit right in and felt like “our people,” despite being expensive FAs. On the other hand, I, personally, never really felt Bartolo was quite like that. Then, of course, we had a lot of people with different issues after them.
Vlad and Torii grew on me over time. Their contracts were for 6 and 5 years respectively and became team leaders. They both got nice paydays but the deals were fair. So we did not perceive them as greedy.
It was a different time. Vlad signed for 6/80 I believe at age 28. I remember thinking that it was a fair price when I first read about it. He went on to 4 straight AllStar appearances. He earned the fans love and support. He was a character.
Torii signed a similar deal and quickly became a team leader on and off the field. He was easy to love.
Signing free agents to very short deals is good business but does not really allow them the time to engage the fan base as they are wearing so many different uniforms. Signing players to very long deals sets them up for failure at some point in their career which disengages the fan base. The Pujols deal was the first example of one where I just could never connect to the player due to the ridiculousness of the contract.
In the current version of free agency as it has evolved in the last 15 years, I just feel like focusing on developing young players who contribute is way better. Just my opinion.
My main issue with all of this “team is doing it” logic is that I have to ask, are they? It looks like, for the time being, Cohen is honey badger when it comes to money. OK, fine. At least he owns a team in New York. But the Phils? At least they have a larger dedicated fan base than we do. The Padres? They are the test case. Can they turn a big enough profit by exciting their medium sized fanbase (which they have done) and selling tons of tickets and beers and shirts? We’ll see.
There is, to spite what CtPG guy seems to think, no way to spend enough money to completely stop the Indians (or Astros) from kicking your ass in the play offs. So no sure ring… no sure ring money.
We can’t really say that the Phils, Mets and Padres have “done it” because they aren’t done. They haven’t won much of anything yet and we have yet to see what these franchises look like after a few years of this.
Then there’s the Dodgers. Who have NOT done things the same as the Phils and Mets and are currently trying to get under the tax (which doesn’t matter I’m told?) even though they make more money than any team but the Yankees. They really only paid the type of contract we’re talking about to Betts…. and they are currently crying uncle, albeit with a bunch of young cheap talent and the ability to sign meh and make it good. So we’re supposed to count on being able to do that, and absorb bad contracts the way the Doyers have, and that’s the ticket? We’re gonna get that together in how many years? Will it be faster than just developing cheaper talent?
On top of all that, aren’t we against Arte-esque big splash contracts? I swear I’ve read that over and over again somewhere…..
But no. Everything is apparently different because there’s just no way someone will pay 3 billion for a team and not just maintain a 400M payroll for six or seven years. It’s unpossible. NewOnwerz the Unicorn is like Jesus, making all things new, and we can all feel free to be Red Sox fans.
Oh yeah, the Red Sox…. who also seem to be pruning their payroll tree even though “huge billions” and at least three times the number of fans as the Angels.
Well put. Oh and for the CTPG guy – enjoy your new seat pricing (where it’s not inconceivable that the cheapest tickets in the place will be $75 and upwards from there) and $10 hotdogs, peanuts and crackerjack and $20 beers and $15 shitty pizza. A game for 4 in crappy seats could easily approach $750.
Owners are not charitable. They are not paying $1 billion for 3 players without an expectation of recovering all that money and maybe making some profit. Where will that money come from?
As an example, in 2002 my really good season tickets on 3B cost $19 per ticket. In my last renewal, those same seats averaged over $135 per ticket per game (with big games being $200 per seat).
That’s a 7x in 19 years – WAY over the inflation rate. That would be the equivalent of gas being nearly $20 per gallon today and going up from there.
All of you CTPG folks are the ones who will be asked to pay the tariff for the owner’s sins. And for what – to lose in the Wildcard game?!
But haven’t you heard? Our TV revenue for the next 9 years is almost enough to pay Trout, Rendon and Ohtani as long as we don’t spend it on anything else, like toilet paper.
The real question is, after having bloated our payroll to 400M and raised ticket prices accordingly, will CtPG guy complain about higher cable bills, MLBTV.US.ORG.COM prices and the cost of a trip to the ballpark being closer to an NBA game (Burdt Balmer guyz…) just to watch an above average team? even though it’s basically an admission that demanding Ohatni + “competitive support players” = wrong?
When to bitch basically ads up to admitting you were wrong what happens to CtPG guy? Do his eyes go blank? Does his nose bleed? Does he go all Scanners and his head explodes? What does he do when he realizes he’s basically a Red Sox fan with a tan? Will it be like that crap movie The Happening?
There is always a way to entertain yourself with Angels baseball, Trout window or no.
Is bitching entertainment, and the pastime of the over 50 set? You bet your a— it is!
But never underestimate the need for the over 50 set to also always be right.
Just think of the storm that will rage within some of these people…. beautiful in its power.
I have no idea what you’re talking about because I’m never wrong. (Just ask Mrs. Cowboy)
Unless we sign LeBron James, Yes. I’ll be very happy.
1980’s George Steinbrenner proved long a go that you can’t consistently win let alone dominate in Major League Baseball of you try to strictly build your team through free agents and prospect dumps.
But if you have the means to spend like a drunken sailor AND develop a top notch and deep farm system you be pretty successful.
Conversely if you’re not willing to address deficiencies and Market prices by paying top dollar for a high profile free agent you are not building the most complete team.
As much as it pains me. The Doyer model is probably the best example of this successful strategy.
Build farm. Got it. I’m sure we’ll get that done within a couple of years and make The Billion Boyz totally doable.
They have a billion dollars tied up in 3 players? And play in the Anaheim of Los Angeles with local plumbing supply dealers as their major sponsors? If you want to stack a team like the Dodgers did, or the Padres, Mets and Phils have tried to do, you need a farm…. there’s also a big slice of champiham’s difference between say 32M a year for a player and 50M.
And…. look what the Dodgers are doing now, all be it successfully because they have prospects that don’t wash out.
It’s a stupid idea, and I don’t want to count on a person who’s made well north of 3 billion being stupid.
And now add the Rangers to that mix of big spenders, they’re on the cusp of the CBT limits with a payroll just shy of $230 million and admittedly more to spend this season.
BTW, I have expressed interest in N. Eovaldi.
Eovaldi has talent. The injury issues are of concern. The Sox gave him a qualifying offer so he likely cannot be had for less than $21 million per year or for multiple years. Despite being a big fan, I’m unexcited about both options. He’s much better than Syndergaard when healthy. But the Angels already paid Anderson so I see them more as tire-kickers regarding Eovaldi than real bidders. Who knows though. I guess if the team is planning on Ohtani leaving, Eovaldi on a two year deal could make some sense if healthy for 2023 and 2024.
I think that Perry has to be in the mindset that there’s a strong likelihood that Ohtani won’t be with us after 2023. Assuming we don’t have a meltdown like last year, getting a wildcard spot is very attainable which means we don’t trade Ohtani at the deadline and he simply goes into free agency. So with that, getting starting pitching for a couple of years (like Eovaldi) makes sense.
Wouldn’t it be hilarious if PTP was CtPG guy in FO meetings regarding Ohtani? Where he shits on any idea that hints at Ohtani leaving cause it makes him feel less championish and loudly declares that you never trade Bade Root? When people ask what his plan is he just stamps his foot and states that we MUST sign him, there is no compromise because champiham sandwiches are delicious. Some assistant suggests maybe we get a plan for if he leaves and winds up working as a janitor. Another guy suggests it may not even be a good idea to pay him all that money and he’s never seen again. Freidman calls and offers Pages and some pitching prospects and PTP cusses him out and slams the phone down….
Cause fans are always soooooo much smarter than a mere GM….. who has a job that is totally different than a POBO.
Emotion is so reliable in decision making. It is always so logical and leads to the best long term decisions. Just ask all those folks with timeshares and jet skis that they can’t afford.
It’s also why it’s important for politicians of all stripes to get as many voters who don’t actually read their ballot out to vote as possible.
Imagine if the education system was still evil and forced high school kids who are all about to go get jobs and start voting to take government and finance courses…. thank Gah that national nightmare has ended.
VOTE FEELZ!
But he only listens to you Gitcho
That must be what happened to the bullpen last year.
I suspect Perry’s mindset as to Ohtani is based on the actual negotiations with Ohtani’s camp and that Perry’s plans for Ohtani is based on those same negotiations with adjustments to account for any instructions he has from Moreno.
If I had to guess, I would suspect Ohtani’s agent has passed along information such as “Ohtani’s number one priority is to win the World Series. He would really like to stay an Angel, but he is concerned whether the Angels are truly committed to winning. Making the playoffs would go a long way toward easing Ohtani’s concerns and allow him to properly consider an extension offer that reflects Ohtani’s considerable value as both a pitcher and a hitter.”
Source?
Feelz.
“If I had to guess…” Essentially, based on the very limited information I have about Ohtani, I think he wants to make big bucks playing for a playoff team, so if the Angels aren’t in contention at the deadline and don’t make the playoffs this year, he’ll be gone. As a tiebreaker between competitive offers, I think Ohtani will prefer the team with a shorter and easier flight to Japan.
For what its worth, I was on record predicting Trout would rather be an Angel for life at a fair price than to maximize his earnings on the free market.
Sooooo… the Royals are out.
I actually think the market for Shohei will be pretty thin, just very rich. The list of teams that are both competitive AND can pay him include….
The Dodgers.
The Yankees.
The Mets.
Teams that are competitive and may be suckered into paying him, but probably won’t…
The Mariners
The Phillies
The Blue Jays
The Padres
Teams that probably have the money but are building…..
The Red Sox
The Cubs
The Giants
The Rangers
Of those teams the only ones I am sure will kick the tires are the top 3…. and us. The other 8 teams, 1/4 will probably just not be where he wants to play and 1/2 will find it too rough to pay him.
It will very likely be a four team market with some rando like the Cubs “checking in” and making Jon Heyman twerp. I’m not sure that means it’s smart for ANY of them to pay 50M a year for a player. They can’t all be Mets, and honestly teams like the Yankees, Cubs and Red Sox may be too smart to do so.
So there is an outside chance we can get Ohtani for a not too crazy AAV…. but should we? And if that AAV comes down, then teams like the Mariners are far more likely to get involved.
PTPs mindset should be “If Ohtani’s that worried about a ring here’s a 10/300 contract. If he signs it we can afford to spend more on the rest of the roster and get that ring.”.
That would be a mistake based on my hypothetical. That last line saying the offer must reflect Ohtani’s considerable value is agent speak for “playoffs + show me the money.” There are plenty of teams that will offer both.
The idea that players should accept less money so a team can spend more on other players never works because the MLBPA takes the position that the owners already make too much money compared to the players and the owners should therefore be the ones to sacrifice money to win.
Yeah, I know. But if all this “the ring is what matters” chatter isn’t bullshit (and thus we need to pinch our legs together and keen about MUST WIN SEASONS) then he’ll want the best roster possible and will Tom Brady the MLBPA.
There’s no point in paying him if it cripples us…. not much point for him either.
That only works if: a) the offer self-destructs if not accepted within 5 minutes, and b) it’s issued from the Del Taco on Katella Avenue.
The Del Taco is at State College and Orangewood.
Isn’t the “famous” Del Taco in Corona?
Good because Rich Hill is off the board after agreeing to a 1 year $8 million contracts with the Buccos today
Was glad to see Hill go elsewhere especially for $8 million. Are they kidding?
It scares me as to what Kluber or Eovaldi will cost. Hill is a $4-5 million guy tops and isn’t reliable at that price.
It makes no sense for Pittsburgh to sign him. They should be developing their young pitchers.
Correct. Unless he is basically a glorified coach. If so, he is overpaid. They would have been better with Cueto.
Cueto…. I think Pitt may be the only city he’d rather play in Korea than go to.
Humerous. You may be right also.
Carlos Korea? Is that what’s next for him ?
and to the Rangers he goes. That’s a high risk/reward staff.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/12/rangers-to-sign-nathan-eovaldi.html
Good morning Halo faithful!
If anyone deserves a $500,000 million contract, it’s certainly Shohei Ohtani. And if he continues to pitch and hit, he’s worth every cent of it. But I just don’t see him doing both as well as he is in five years from now. And a $500,000 million contract will be a for ~10 years. That scares me as an Angel fan…
$500,000 million would indeed shatter any salary record known to man. The good news: Shohei could buy the Philippines upon retirement.
Yes That would be sizable since Ohtani would make about 310 million for every game he played in
I think Ohtani will be doing this two-way thing, successfully, for at least 3 more years. And that is with the caveat that he’ll be continued to be blessed with amazing health (like the last 2 years). After that, he’ll be a full-time DH. Maybe he’ll be able to do some relief pitching, who knows? I don’t even know how that will work IF it will work.
So if the predictions hold, a team will pay $50M+ for a full time DH by the 4th or 5th year of his contract onwards. The window for success to take advantage of a great two-way player Ohtani is very small, max of 3 years tops.
But hey, if someone can afford to do it, and they win a WS in the process, maybe it’s all worth it.
But if your observations are keen and your faith is strong he becomes a gold glove outfielder because he can do ANYTHING. So you get a 50M a year left fielder who can also pitch some. If they don’t have to protect his ability to make starts on the mound he can likely be a meh defender someplace.
That’s actually pretty cool…. just not 1/2 the Brewers payroll cool.
He is an outstanding athlete. I don’t see why he wouldn’t be able to play RF after he gives up pitching–unless he pitches much longer than we expect. Barring unexpected injuries, of course.
I give you Jo Adell. Outstanding athlete. You need to see a reason he CAN do it, not no reason he can’t. Short of missing a leg, yeah, they can put him out there. Will he be any good? Don’t know. But since good is much harder to find than meh I’m guessing meh.
If he does suck it will be fun watching CtPG guy, who shit on countless OF before him, try to ignore it.
I don’t understand why you would predict Ohtani as DH only after just a few more years. Unless he blows out his arm, he should be able to pitch as a starter for a long time. Further, if he couldn’t pitch for some reason which isn’t a total arm blowout, a team could play him in the OF at least part-time. If they are paying him, they will get creative.
If he is only a position player (under your scare scenario above), he could easily play OF. He doesn’t now for scare of injury to the arm – if that is out of the picture, why wouldn’t he.