The Angels are supposedly in the hunt for right-hander Robert (don’t call me Louis) Stephenson. They say they expect to win now under Ron Washington. Washington and Perry better get out their magic wands. I mean seriously: Adam Kolarek?
Shota Imanaga is now posted. So is Naoyuki Uwasawa according to Bob Nightengale (grain of salt alert). Well OK. Joel Sherman says it too.
Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda are probably off the board. Sonny Gray’s deal was reported as completed about mid-day yesterday, in fact. The same goes for Maeda, according to Jeff Passan. Jason Heyward is going to the Dodgers for one year at $9 Million. Jose Ruiz, the relief pitcher, is going to the Phillies organization on a minor league deal. Jose Castillo got his minor league deal with the Diamondbacks.
The Marlins claimed pitcher Ryan Jensen off waivers from the Mariners.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Hi editors. I submitted my IIWPM article
I also submitted my sad ideas for review….
Looking forward to them both.
You all need to calm down with the Yamamoto fever. NFW is he coming to the Angels and that is just fine.
Fine for you. But you would rather see they Angels pay some over the hill, burt out, tired arm and exceed their loss total from 2023. You need to join those in the losing tent and take your losing mentality over there.
I think it’s just reality rather than a loser mentality. I te d to agree that Ohtani and Yamamoto are extremely unlikely to be in Anaheim. So why set yourself up for a buttercup?
So… we should all just go directly to mainlining the hopium, and pine for a pitcher, who if he has any sense at all, will pass on the dumpster fire?
Pollyanna mentality is not the same as being a “positive winner”.
Steve Karsay, bullpen coach!
With all these new coaches, we’ll be unstoppable! 😀
😄
Can he still pitch?
So any word on a bench coach yet or did Arte just decide to replace the position with a ChatGPT account ?
These 2 thoughts in my head kind of puts things in dire perspective…
Regarding purely the free agency side of things..and how potentially spending so much would achieve little gain in 2024.
1) If we signed Yamamoto only, and he is as good as hyped, all that does is replace the pitcher Ohtani next year.
2) Go ahead, go crazy.
Sign both Yamamoto and Ohtani?
At best, Yam is the real deal. But if so, the team only gets marginally better in 2024 with Yamamoto and Ohtani still here hitting.
2025 is the reward for the spending risk if they both pitch at all star levels.
That’s a big if..
Nope.
Let the kids play
I’m a fan of signing Yamamoto and not Ohtani, even though it saddens me to not have Ohtani be a life-long Angel.
Ohtani will command way too much $$ and we’ve seen what a top heavy payroll does already.
Yamamoto is super young and is a good long-term signing, even if we’re not playoff-bound this season. He is my top target.
Regarding other moves: I feel a lot comes down to if we truly are rebuilding this year or not. We assume, of course, that Arte won’t rebuild. If he was, I’d trade away Rengifo or Drury or both this offseason and get peak value for them.
If we’re “going for it” as usual, we need to sign more.
“going for it” for this team is usually scary…
Another opinion piece, sorry (Not sorry):
I don’t think MLB should allow the Padres to make any plus-salary moves this offseason. MLB can cancel any trade, team sale (Partial or full), business practice or signing in the overall interest of the league. In a business sense, a team that had to borrow $50M to make ends meet should not be able to increase their expenses, Business 101.
I find it distressing, from a business standpoint, that the Padres are even mentioned in discussions with any FAs before they shed some payroll.
Remember the circus in Montreal?
The Padres lost their cable TV money mid season last year. MLB needs to make sure they have that revenue stream replaced.
Yeah. Padres will get some slack till they get their TV money strait.
MLB almost never gets involved in actual roster and operations…. unless it’s to end the careers of guys who make the virtue meter beep red. They’ll let an owner dig his own grave with debt knowing the guy will be forced to sell if the debt gets too high…. and MLB owners will make bank off of the sale of the team.
IMHO the Yanks may not be so enticing for Ohtani. That zoo continues into the off-season and he knows he’ll be supplanting Stanton as DH and would probably cause Stanton to mis-play in RF.
I know the Halos were not noted as scouting Yamamoto, but such a signing could signal a change of course for the Halos org to Ohtani.
No complaints here. I am enjoying watching nothing happen. I am hoping to watch all you mouthy smart piles find a higher and higher pitch as the off season rolls on, Ohtani shocks the world by signing with the dodgers, time goes by, and still the Angels biggest signing is Joey Wendle.
PTP will do what all good GMs do and say we aren’t rebuilding. Mostly because CTPG Guy will die of dehydration from having his mouth open too much if he doesn’t. The platypus is merciful.
Hopefully he does more to build the organization up and we see prospects blooming and guys like Ramiel Tapia coming in and putting up 4 WAR seasons.
Then we sign some semi large FA contracts.
The winning starts when the Rangers start to collapse under the cost of buying a WS.
CTPG Guy is still pathetic and angry…. finds some reason the Angels are still not “doing it right” because Arte is still alive and Rendon is still rich.
I enjoy myself…. as do many individuals of intelligence and taste.
Jetpacks.
Exactly. Just let the current roster of kids mature. Sign under the radar FAs and not go big years. Take a stab at Jack Flaherty and I would be satisfied with the off-season.
One top pitching signing won’t dampen the development of the youngins.
In the end, I hope we go the modest route of Brandon Drury & Gio Urshella level FA’s signings and yes, let the kids play.
That said, Yamamoto would be the one big splash I would get on board with since he’s 25 and would anchor our staff.
We all think … no, wait… many of us think a 7 year, $25 mil per yr deal for Yamamoto is a good idea but if 15 clubs are offering him that deal what would make him choose the Angels?
It’s the same with all free agents. I’ve read that Wacha could/should get $11mil per yr/3 yrs. What if 4 teams offered that? What gets him to Anaheim? Perry’s charm?
We’ll have to overpay, I believe. Or punt 2024 and figure out how to effectively build our system
Exactly.
If I can find a little time this week I’ll write a piece the combines a few ideas into one comprehensive plan for the organization. The Perry pieces are easy because we only look one year in advance in most cases.
I’m always going back and forth trying to see if we’re talking about:
I often wonder if we mix these different avenues of discussions here in our posts, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it leads to some disagreements that don’t really exist…
I’m not dying on the Yamamoto hill, I’m simply saying that IF, I’ll repeat IF, the Angels “go big”, Yamamoto wouldn’t bother me.
Perhaps the Angels brand may carry some weight in Japan. I’m grasping at straws here.
Signing a 30 year old to a huge contract so he can just start to fall apart and cost a fortune as the kids get good is a bad idea though.
I’d rather see five or six young players really take root around Trout. Rendon’s contract ends or gets close to it. Then go out there and spend big on the best pitchers in 2026-27…. and a big bat if we need it… but really nail the “finishing touches”.
Agree with everything you said, HOWEVER….. Yamamoto is 25,
not 30.
Look, I’m cool to go the youth route and play it low key this offseason, but should we go “big”, Yamamoto at 25 wouldn’t piss me off at all.
You are on the right track even if you are Banned.
There’s the makings of a decent core here. Adding a few veterans to surround it and maybe give the team a shot at a Wild Card or turn into lotter tickets at the trade deadline would be the smart play here.
I can see locking in a Yamamoto or Lee to be around in 2-3 years when the young core and new lottery tickets are actually ready to compete.
But trying to build an actual contender in 3 months isn’t happening.
It’s a weird spot the team’s in because I look at several roster spots and think “we should sign/trade for X for this” but then I think of the guy we have their currently and I kind of want to see if he can get it together…. which means he’ll need playing time.
This seems like the season to do it. There are three teams in division that are just plain better.
I’ll commiserate with you Grandpa. Perry is starting to sound like the knight in “Monty Python and The Holy Grail” who gets all his limbs chopped off. The team finished 16 games out of the wild card last year with 5 teams between them and the final wild card spot. Several of those teams will be much improved this year. They also finished 15 games behind the 3rd place team in their division.
They did all of this with Ohtani having a career year. At least for now, they no longer have Ohtani or a number of other players who were positive contributors. They are much worse now than the team they finished the year with, and yet, somehow none of that matters and they are winning now and not rebuilding. They have done virtually nothing to improve their roster. They did replace their entire coaching and training staff with what on paper looks like an improvement. I’m obviously missing something.
I think the IIWPM contributors are far superior to the real Perry and those people have day jobs that have nothing to do with baseball. Perry could do a lot worse than reading CTPGs. The creative thinking by many of you on this site causes me to remain optimistic that Perry could be kicked by a mule and have his eyes uncrossed.
There are so many unknowns. Who is the real Moniak, can Schanuel maintain his OBA and increase his SLG%, can Neto stay healthy and can he hit, can Trout stay healthy and what is his current level of performance, and what about Ward, Adell, and Rendon?
Perry says “it’s merely a flesh wound”. Everyone have a wonderful day. I still love baseball.
So we should get all angry because the Tigers signed 36 year old Maeda and the Cardinals signed 36 year old Kyle Gibson soon to be 37 year old Lance Lynn and 34 year Old Sonny Gray?
Please.
LOL, you got it Cowboy!
Maeda and Gray would have been nice for a short-term investment. Capable. Not shutdown types to win WS games but the Angels are not getting there anyway with this roster. There are other arms still available, looking for low-commitment types.
I agree on Maeda . I would much rather have a 2 year commitment to him vs Tyler Anderson right now . But 3 years $75 million for Gray including the loss of a draft pick and $500k in international bonus pool money? No thank you
Now if you want to make a major commitment to Eduardo Rodriguez ? I’m all ears
Oh shit! ! Did not realize Gray had a QO. F-that. Easy pass.
Maeda gets hurt a lot. He’s aging and isn’t anywhere near as effective as he was years ago. No thanks. Gray’s situation was summed up best below. Way too expensive. It’s a bad market.
Frustration Meter running high today as other teams are signing players and we are frozen in place with fingers crossed waiting for a decision from Ohtani on his future. No one player should ever be able to do what Shohei Ohtani is doing right now to any team in sports and most teams would either not allow it to happen by getting this far or they would have traded him. But most teams would have seen the writing on the wall and started a rebuild in in the Winter of ’16-’17. That fits the old adage of cut bait and move on. Today would be, better late than never.
Since the start of the 2015 season how many winning seasons have the Angels participated in? How often have the Angels made the Playoffs? Answers are One and None. Is it time to stop signing long term deals for mega bucks? Rebuild from the bottom up and stop collecting Baseball Cards and develop our own.
Not all teams that set out to rebuild are successful, the White Sox have tried twice and failed in recent history. Cleveland the same, Cincinnati too. But we have seen the Braves, Dodgers, Astros, Royals, DK’s, and Red Sox make it work. First thing you do is gut the roster and, in our case, we are stuck with Rendon no matter how you look at it. Allow Trouty to move to a winning team, take what you can get for Ward, and Stassi, Rengifo. Allow Fletcher to reestablish some value and trade him. Develpe a huge scouting department and rebuild development.
In trading Sandoval and Detmers and Canning get pitching prospects in return and in the end, what is the worst thing that can happen? You lose, well what are we doing now, so hire those with a game plan and vision and invest in the future.
If Ohtani makes his choice in the next 2 weeks I think it is reasonable and can’t be viewed as leaving the Angels high and dry for ‘24. But if it extends into late December or January…..
According to Japanese media, Yamamoto is expected to make a decision either during or shortly after Nashville GM meeting, which concludes December 7. It is of note that Shohei announced his decision to join the Angles on December 8, 2017. I think Shohei will wait at least until he knows where Yamamoto ends up.
Hideki Kuriyama, the manager who convinced Shohei to stay in Japan to play for Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (who actually won NPB championship with Shohei in 2016) rather than moving to US after graduating from Hanamaki East high school and the current winning manager of WBC (WBC championship will be voted the most important sporting news of 2023 in Japan) mentioned that he would love to see Yamamoto plays either with Shohei or Lars Nootbar. Whatever that means.
The Yankees sure as hell think he’s theirs.
https://twitter.com/snyyankees/status/1729549681682723045
Of course we dont have no 18 available as we gave it to Shamwow last September.
“18” is considered to be the ace number in Japan; one of my heroes for Tokyo Yomiuri Giants, Tsuneo Horiuchi wore that number when he pitched with Sadaharu Oh at first base and Shigeo Nagashima at third base. But, Masahiro Tanaka did not insist on “18” when he signed with MFY as Hiroki Kuroda already had 18, displaying his respect for Senpai (senior) pitcher.
I still think Yamamoto will go to the highest bidder, and I predict that it will be one of NY teams.
So, that means we should hope that Perry is trying to make a deal with St Louis?
Detmers and Moniak for Nootbar. Cards need pitching and Moniak and Nootbar are both CF who can spell Trout. Maybe one can do this with Canning or Sandoval (Detmers is our best, imho). Nootbar has injury history, so maybe Detmers is an overpay, but if it nets us Yamamato …
I like the way you are thinking. Nootbar is injury prone; since he got his genital whacked last year, I would highly recommend (as his girlfriend would be concerned) sperm count test. But, Nootbar is one of few MLB players who have ability to text with Shohei and Ippei. And he would be either good lead off hitter or 2 hole batter in addition to being above average OF. If the Angels can get Yamamoto and somehow trade for Nootbar, that would increase the chance of Shohei resigning with the Angels for short term (as short as one year deal).
Or St. Louis may surprise us all by signing Yamamoto, (quite unlikely in that Cardinals would never put up $200 million plus for one player, right?).
Substitute Sandoval for Detmers and you got a deal.
I also like the way you are thinking.
You made me curious so I checked.
The simulator pegs Nootbar at 50.7 in value.
Detmers + Moniak = 54.2
Sandoval + Moniak = 39.4
Sandoval + Ward = 49.4
That is why I had Detmers + Moniak, even if I think Detmers is legit and Sandoval needs to learn to temper his emotions (though if he can, he is quite good). Canning has some value too.
Kidding of course. Nootbar sucks.
Yamamoto is on a time clock to make a decision. Shohei will let him have his stage.
I don’t this is what both of you mean but Ohtani can make whatever decision is best for him on whatever timeline. It’s perfectly rational for the Angels to just move on and not tie themselves to a single player’s timeline and start signing player’s now. I think you are saying this in your post but this is all self-imposed by the Angels (and dumb) I might add since 3 years of having MVP Ohtani has yielded 3 straight sub .500 seasons so from a pure baseball standpoint why would you continue to walk down the same path (and for a lot more money I might add that will just limit the rest of the roster).
Added – sorry, posted before reading the posts below. lol
Correlation (3 straight years) does not equal Causation. Ohtani and/or Trout cannot carry a baseball team. No one individual can.
We can debate the value in bringing back Ohtani, mostly revolving around costs (real millions, and opportunity costs of using them on him), but suggesting that signing Ohtani would be ‘walking down the same path’ ignores so many other factors (injuries galore, Giolito forgetting how to pitch down the stretch) that it becomes almost silly.
Treasure Island? Likely no. Hopefully, the Angels get someone though. They need to preserve the Asian market by getting someone posted if Ohtani leaves. Arte will likely overspend to keep him. Some of the other “bidders” are probably just raising the price.
Let’s hope for positive news soon.
Fantasyland? Shohei is not returning, won’t happen. Honestly would you return to this dysfunctional team? As for signing top Asian players, their Agents-councilors-Lawyers are not going to sign here either, why would/should they. Maybe someone down the food chain may sign here, but certainly not top shelve players.
Besides, what good other than tickets and marketing is Shohei to this team, with three players pulling down 130 million a year and no minor league top 25 players in sight to move up, how the heck can you make out a winning team? The sorry part of this story was the thinking that was behind not trading Shohei when the gettin’ was good.
You are spot on her Grandpa.
Grandpa, do you actually root for the Angels? We all know the various problems and possible mistakes of the past and future. The gist now is to hope for better and imagine the executives are trying to put a winning product on the field. That’s what being a fan is about – unless your team is the Pirates or the like. Even there, those fans hope for a year like the DBacks just had.
If a fan isn’t going to harbor some hope and potential joy over certain moves, what’s the point? There are other teams, other teams, and other activities in life aren’t there?
I was for years the most positive poster here and all that pushed back was bad decisions, bad choices, bad signings, lots of injuries with a shallow minor league system and I came out of the ether and saw the team sinking deeper.
This narrative that the Angels can’t land big time free agents is laughably false. They’ve signed numerous bit tickets guys over
the years. Wether or not the results were good is a different matter entirely.
Remember, Ohtani’s camp will be well aware of the drama that the Stankees went through last year and the recent DM dig on Stanton. Add in the fact that Ohtani knows he’d be bumping Stanton out of his main role as DH and the Yanks may seem to not be such a desirable destination. IMHO
Hmm Ok.
“For Sale” One West Coast Major League Team with no Stadium Deal, aging Super Star that doesn’t play much, a 38 million a year third baseman, ditto. Oh, and since you agreed to, 30 billion for the team -take on the Lawsuits pending. Oh, and no Ohtani. What a deal. Dumb Arte.
Did you not think your two long posts made the point? Now you move to bold? Having a bad day Grandpa?
Are you Special? Or maybe you are a guest also.
Seriously? Now you are questioning how long I have been here? I read each and every one of your long posts, but you have, just recently, become negative and repetitive. I never did, however, question your identity, right to be here, or Angels fandom. Why do that to me?
Charlie Leblanc signed a Milb deal with the Angels. WHO? He has strikeout issues, so the Angels said you can be with friends here.
End of November – the Angels – have done nothing about the holes in the roster, they are in the same place they were in yesterday, nowhere. Wait – – they have a new manager and some new coaches and are expecting a winner – why? Because just like a bank in the 1930’s they are being held up. 🔫 Put your hands up and so far, the Angels have obliged. The Angels brass has been held up now for two years and they seem to think that by being held up the Ohtani and his gang of agents and lawyers that everything is Ok because Ohtani has not said yes or no, too anything. Arte’s posse doesn’t even call him with pleading, begging, or crying while they wait. Arte is the dumbest owner in MLB and his high-ranking posse are the “Gang” that can’t shoot straight, heck they even ride their horses backwards.
We should have traded Ohtani in July of ’22 for a haul, but we offered 30 million for one more contract and the thinking then was this gives us one more year to make a deal, so how’d that work out?
You do know it is November, not April, right?
You do know the winter meetings are still coming up, and few teams have signed many players, right?
You do know that signing players on minor league deals is usual, and rarely moves the bar (so why on earth is it worth your time to complain about it), right?
Right?
You do know very good players are signing now don’t. Winter meeting may turn out to be as good as. Well as good as the GM meetings. While other teams are filling-in we are waiting on a guy that is not returning. You do know working on the roster starts the day after the World Series.