Players and their families are unpacking boxes and moving into their long term rentals in Phoenix and Florida. One last weekend of free time before pitchers and catchers report for camps next week.
Crazy how the off season seems to both drag and go by so quickly.
What looks to be the strength of the team this year? The rotation.
What do I expect to be a strength by the end of the year? The bullpen.
And the Panda bullpen express looks to be getting started now.
The offense could be pretty strong as well, especially if Jared Walsh is back to form. He says he’s feeling great and ready to roll.
Meanwhile, there are some intriguing arms still sitting out there. Perhaps the price tags on Andrew Chafin, Zack Britton, and Matt Moore explain their continued free agency.
I’m confident asking price is why Michael Wacha is still available.
And let’s be real, we’ll need some lightning in a bottle to compete with the stacked Astros. Perhaps said lightning could be found in a now-healthy Ken Giles who held a showcase for teams on Wednesday.
Holding out hope Perry makes more moves? Yes. After all, he brought in Ryan Tepera and Archie Bradley after camps opened last year and the Angels are connected to every notable free agent.
Here’s Minasian talking about the team and his outlook for 2023.
One thing holding Perry back a bit might be learning the salary of Hunter Renfroe. The team and Renfroe had an arbitration hearing last week but the results won’t be released until other hearings happen.
MLB insiders are saying Perry won the Renfroe trade. Not hard when it is a salary dump. That’s the same reason people think he lost the Iglesias trade.
Where does Perry’s off season of building depth and keeping all our real pitching prospects land us? At about 85 wins per ZIPS.
Which is right in the thick of Wild Card contention.
A major reason for the lack of recent moves is that all but Houston has a full 40 man roster. However, we’re about a week and a half from teams being able to move players to the 60 day IL and open up roster spots. Here’s a look at the players likely to be moved to the IL and the teams that will open roster spots by doing so.
In the I Can’t Believe This Wasn’t Already Done, the Dodgers will retire Fernando Valenzuela’s number this season. Fernando is, by far, the most iconic player in the LA iteration of this franchise. This should have been done a couple decades ago.
Perhaps the Angels can get around to retiring #15 soon?
As Gitcho pointed out the other day, Ohtani is far from the only talented player in his walk year. Aaron Nola is going to get his bag next year.
The very popular and good Julio Urias is also on the verge of free agency. I’d greatly prefer keeping Ohtani, but as a hybrid baseball fan and marketing guy I can see a lot of value in bringing in a stud, popular, Mexican-American player. Urias could bring both wins and increase market share.
Family is more important than business. I love to see the Angelos family, owners of the Baltimore Orioles, dropping their lawsuits against each other.
One intriguing arm that was set to become a free agent after the end of the year isn’t going anywhere. Yu Darvish tacked on 5 years and $90 million to his current contract in SD. I’m fine on missing out on that.
Yes, I want to witness all of Ohtani’s career here in Anaheim, but the market has enough elite pieces to soften the blow quite a bit if he leaves.
Really, I’m a big fan of the win-win. So it is good to see Bo Bichette and the Toronto Blue Jays agree to a three year extension that provides the Blue Jays with cost certainty and Bo with life changing money.
I can’t mention Bo without thinking of his dad Dante. Here’s a clip of him hitting a walk off HR at the first game at Coors Field. That score indicated exactly what to expect from that ballpark.
Have a great weekend, all. Link what I missed.
