Jordyn Adams got his first major league home run. It went into the Angels bullpen so I am sure he eventually got the ball. They might have hazed him a little bit, pretending to throw the ball into the stands or something. Here are some musings on what the Angels should do in the off season. This should be worth some discussion.
The Guardians just released right-hander Scott Barlow. The Dodgers Anthony Banda is the latest pitcher to break his hand punching something. James Paxton is deciding to retire. I suppose he will race Kevin Pillar over to the union office for his paperwork. The As designated Jack O’Loughlin for assignment.
Edwin Uceta got a two game suspension for throwing at Nick Castellanos on Tuesday night. He will not appeal.
Photo credit Rex Fregosi
#EXTENDNEEFO
For 2025, we need more production from 1B, 2B, 3B and the entire OF (LF maybe excluded). We need improved/consistent production from C and the SR.
That equates to rebuild, not two signings. When team BA is 220ish, you won’t win many games. Ironically, our BP has been very good lately, so we can maybe add another BP piece…wait a sec, we have one coming back from the IL.
Let the kids play and sign NO big names, just trash heap guys to fill in next year. Oh yeah, bribe Pillar to come back for one more year as a B/U OFer.
Curiosity question from the game yesterday. On the grand slam HR that became a ground rule double, The umpire said the ball was live and in play and then sent runners back out onto the bases. 3 runs had already scored and the batter was around 3rd. The angels did not make an attempt to get anybody out. Is it because it was ruled a HR before the play was over? Aren’t teams responsible for knowing the ground rules and don’t they go over those prior to the game? The ball is not live and in play if it is a ground rule 2B.
The umpired signaled home run, therefore no attempt to get an out. The play is dead at that point
I can’t help but to think that they are wasting the best days of Niko Kavadas’ career.
LOL…Kavadas is a non-prospect taking up a roster spot. I feel he is only getting playing time due to the fact Perry is desperate to prove he won the Luis Garcia trade. Like I really care, it was Garcia. Kavadas cannot throw, run or catch but he can swing for the fence and K. If NiKKKKo makes the team next year, it will be a bad sign of things to come.
Once in a while a few of his HR’s will travel all the way up here. That’s kind of cool.
https://youtube.com/shorts/hH3j0xvu4NA?si=kVik65UMri9Lyg-S
Back in the day, I heard Wally Moon hit one up there
I wouldn’t term his as that, he is one of our prospects and he seems to have some tools.
I think this is the last few months rendon is an angel. Perry cuts him after the season.
The one area of Perry that I like, cutting guys he did not sign and are worthless no matter what the sunk cost is
But he cuts them either late in spring training or early in the new season . neither of those time frames have occurred yet.
I believe Arte is locked in at the present salary total. He saw Ohtani’s leaving as a way of saving $30mil. We don’t have any big ticket players leaving this year so our free agent budget will be extremely low by MLB standards.
In my opinion—and I know plenty of people here know baseball better than I do—the Angels need to stick with the current direction. Like it or not, they’ve already started a rebuild, and they should focus on developing young talent until they’re just a few pieces away from contending. That’s when they should start targeting free agents to fill in the gaps.
As for Mike Trout, he’s the best player I’ve ever seen (outside of the steroid era and potentially a few more years of Ohtani), but unfortunately, he’s starting to follow the same path as Pujols and Griffey with injuries. I wish he had the same durability as Harper, but you can’t trade him. Trout is the greatest Angel ever, and that means more than just his value to the team—it’s important for baseball as a whole, similar to Tony Gwynn.
It’s a shame he may never get to play in a World Series, but he’s our version of Babe Ruth. Keep him, build around him, and hope he can string together enough healthy seasons before retirement. Then, you hang his number in the rafters and tell your grandkids how incredible he was in his prime. As for Rendon, it might be time to DFA him. At this point, he’s not worth the roster spot.
Agreed. Good post.
This. Build with the kids. Invest in development guys we will never know the names of. Keep Trout as a single, expensive nod to sentiment that can also, if ever healthy, probably still get us 30 HR. We can afford that luxury. Force the fans to sit through trying out 20 different kid/heap starters till we have a semi-solid rotation. More of the same with the pen. Maybe sign Yoan Moncada and/or some bruiser DH/OF/1B who will add a .700+ OPS to the line up. That’s about it.
It’s not fun. But it’s what needs doing.
Next off season, maybe offer early extensions to successful youths.
The irony is I think this team is missing one frontline pitcher and 1 major anchor bat…they’ll have to sign 2 people to big contracts so around 400 million. I get that it’s cheaper than 700 million but he could’ve just paid that off via merchandising and sponsors.
I think Perry is still two steps away from putting a truly winning team on the field. It’s #1) the acquisition of a really good veteran pitcher and a thumper in the middle of the line up. Another .900 OPS bat (in addition to Trout) and #2) the game day analytics that help you win matchups and moments. Unfortunately I watch a lot of Dodger games thanks to my 7 year old son, and I do see that they just win certain situations. Like Tommy Edman suddenly becomes good because they have him attacking the right pitches for homers. But then they move from you if you suck like Jason Heyward.
Andrew Friedman , Mr cocky, was on the telecast the other night and he keeps talking about winning every pitch every at bat… when they asked him about playoffs, he was still on the present. I don’t think Perry is there
yet.
I think he’s doing well to acquire pitching which has taken him 4 years.. but the bats are behind. I think Adell, Schanuel and O’Hoppe are league average at least but you can’t just have an entire lineup of league average. You need some stars to win. Neto looks ok as a co-star (right below superstar).
I believe you are smoking some sweet sticky weed if you think Arte is going to cough up $400 million for free agents. I don’t think he’ll spend $100 million much less $400 million.
You kinda get the sense this fella thought Ohtani woulda stayed if Arte just gave him monies….
I do actually think Arte will spend again when the team is stocked up enough for it to matter. Problem is, how many really good FAs will even be available by then? Wouldn’t it be cool to develop a couple of our own .850+ hitters so then we’d be OK just going after Matt Chapman type guys to fill final upgrades?
Cheaper too Arte…..
I’d like to see the club pick up one of the DH/OFs on the market, to settle in at cleanup, and eventually substitute for Trout when he’s inevitably injured again.
One of Santander, Hernandez or Pederson could add a lot without blocking any youth coming up. Kavadas is someone the team can idle with for a while given he has options, and I’m still not sure if he is McAnulty or Jared Walsh going forward. (Maybe Torii is having an impact on the kid?)
While I wish the team would play in the higher end of the pitching market (eg, Flaherty), at least getting one #3/4 type on a 2-3 yr contract seems critical, if they don’t want to rush/break more young arms.
Lastly, having a decent utility guy that can play most of the infield spots, maybe a David Bote or Ha Seong Kim, could be helpful, since they’ll probably want to give Rengifo a fair number of games at third, and Moore time at 2nd, but may not be ready to commit to either at each position yet. Matthew Lugo might become such a utility/bench resource, but time will tell.
IMHO, If the Angels are going to spend some money, I’d like to see it be on a true ace. I’d prefer they save that money, but if they do, get the top free agent. It’s been way too long since they’ve had a top SP staff.
Why would we want a true ace right now?
It’s like me buying a BMW M5 while I will have to park it under a tree on the street in a shit neighborhood across from a building full of people who have no citizenship papers, no DMV papers, no insurance, don’t speak English, often carry knives and drive drunk all the time and simply ditch their unregistered cars in the cul de sac when they hit something…. but are still friggin great people full of magic and wonder. Plus, their kids like to play soccer at everyone’s cars as well…. but they are also wonderful jewels that the community couldn’t possibly get by without.
I do indeed want an M5. I don’t really need one right now at all.
We have a surfeit of No. 3/4-type arms tho. Arguably, all of them, except for Soriano, who pitched like a No. 2 and could be an ace if he held up for a full season. If I was Perry and had the resources for either a 3/4 starter or a middle-of-the-order bat, picking the latter.
The best thing about a Bote/Kim, or extending Rengifo too for that matter, is they are flexible, so kids can still play, they are trade bait if we want, AND they are actually useful AFTER a rebuild has hopefully taken hold too. even if, next year, a young infield of Fontenelle, Neto, Moore and Schanuel has magically exploded on the scene the team is only stronger with a guy like Kim on the roster and he’ll see plenty of playing time still.
Same with a DH/RH1B/Bad OF thumper. I actually like Santander. Git heeem too.
Pitching…. get ready for some Brad Keller folks….
Another thing I would like to see going forward is more transparency with injuries. Recently Washington said Ben Joyce didn’t pitch in a late inning situation, but was fine. The next day he’s on the IL. I didn’t like the Christian Moore injury report either. It’s a pattern that I would like to see reversed.
It will never happen as long as the current management is in charge.
It’ll never happen. I currently follow about six teams. All of them are like the Angels and all of them have those fans that believe there’s some magical franchise out there announcing “Yep, I didn’t pitch Jones tonight cause he’s fked. Pretty much can’t open a Pepsi. Won’t be seeing him again.” when a guy is hurt.
There are actual reasons a team does this stuff but I’ve reached my limit on how many times I’ll spell it out on Halos Gates of Kevin.
Trout is owed 37M/year for the next 6 years. He’ll be 33 next year. Probably unlikely he’s very productive for the last 3 years ages 36, 37, and 38. You would have to cover pretty much all of that. What do you think someone would be willing to pay him for the next 3 years?
Correct. No team, especially a contender would want even half his owed salary. And It would be stupid for Angels to pay majority of his salary to play for another club. He is the face of the franchise, future HOF, kids love him, dedicated to this team, and probably be the first player statue in the stadium. Better to embrace Trout then pay to give him away.
There is always a possibility that we get 3-4 productive years out of him if we’re lucky.
Maybe half due to the gamble he won’t be on the field consistently.
Trout is our Ernie Banks. I don’t want to see him play for another team.
When healthy, he’s also still a significantly better than average hitter.
Oh, I wholeheartedly agree.
So let’s play zero ?
Trading Trout is idjut talk. As brighter folks around here have noted, no team will take on his contract at this point without massive subsidies, and getting prospects back is unlikely. Just as pertinent: None of our current MLB-ready OF prospects (or Adell, Moniak, et al) in their most glorious fantasies have a chance of matching the production of a healthy Mike Trout, so the “let the kids play” argument is performative. If we had a Roman Anthony in the wings, maybe let him play. Jordan Adams? Eat a d*ck. Stick with the Hall of Famer.
Yeah. I’m not sure why a healthy Mike Trout doesn’t belong. A .900 OPS belongs on most teams…. unless you are a sports writer who needs every bad team to trade every good player to one of about six teams that actually have EastSPiN.
Kavadas on the road to .250, wow, we gotta get a nickname for him. Moose was already taken. Maybe…..Brick?
“Kingman”
The Greek Freak from Juday Creek.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEiDPGoMhMw
I’m for a full commit to rebuild through next year. 2026 is the last year of Rendone’s anchor contract and if by chance we go over the threshold that one year, making a wise FA signing, then there is no penalty.
Arte’s probably gonna get lulled into signing another broke down, “Gonna get us over the hump” position player (For 3-5 years) who won’t even put up league average numbers, then hamstrings future signings.
Next year we’ll see if they’re truly committed to a rebuild if they trade Anderson, Canning, Rengifo, and Ward.
Keep Neefo!
You realize it’s not Neefo right?
You keep confusing folks.
Frisco did us a favor signing Chapman before Arturo got the idea to sign another aging infielder to a huge terrible contract.
I agree but that aging infielder would be the best hitter on our team right now and be playing gold glove defense at 3B. And they’re only paying him 25M a year as opposed to the 39M we’re paying our 3B for no production and bad defense.
But we have Tony Tow-bags!
I believe at least the last three years of that contract would be ugly and I don’t want to throw away 25 million a year on one of those guys.
You buying futures on that contract they signed him to? cause everything you just said may be true but wouldn’t mean shit this year.
Chapman is solid and intense. He does not belong here.
I seem to remember when Pujol’s contract was the limiting factor. Second verse, same as the first!
I dearly love Trout, but I just have to say this. Arte & Perry need to realize next year also needs to be another “Let the kids play” and grow the farm. Then they need to basically tell Trout, while they respect him, he needs to be on the field or they will never win, and he will need to get over a quick (Non-Oakland A’s type) rebuild.
What’s he gonna do, demand a trade?
yes
No takers though.
I meant “yes” in regards to agreeing with everything you said haha. My b for being unclear.
Selfishly, I wouldn’t want to trade Trouty, and like you’ve mentioned no team is taking on that contract.
I figured so. I got little sleep last night, so I really need to stop posting as my posts sound all, “Get of my lawn!”
“Get of my lawn!” Is a way of life for us old guys.
move trout to full time DH.
he’ll still blow his hammy running to first, but this might get him to june.
His career numbers at DH parody Rendone’s best, in other words, Trout is a terrible DH.
It’s true that Trout only has a career OPS of .745 as a DH, but Trout has typically had DH days when he’s either played a bunch of days in a row or is nursing a minor injury. He’s never been a full-time DH, so we don’t really know how he would perform as primarily a DH.
This is true my friend.
Cheap Arte not having the radio team leave Anaheim for away games results in terrible play-by-play, such as the banter below, from last night”….chopper (Pause)…fielded by….(Pause)…Schanuel…(Pause)….Schanuel fields the throw from Wagaman.”
Nah Arte is responsible for nothing. Its whiny AngelsFan juju leaving the radio team at home.
As to 2025 and the preview, I don’t see Trout being traded and I doubt he would want to leave the Angels like this. He will be back next season and hopefully stay healthy for most of same. BTW what contender is trading for a guy that’s been consistently hurt and is under contract at $35 million a year for many years? The lineup next season looks very much the same with Trout and Rengifo back. Plus they need a quality guy that can fill the Drury role.
I disagree with the article as I think they need a number 1 pitcher. Detmers hopefully has figured it out finally so he could be ok. Soriano is worth hoping for via his talent level. Koke fork last night might be good enough for a back end spot. Canning? Does it matter? Dana might emerge but next year is a little early to rely on him.
They need starting pitching and bullpen help. They cannot rely on Moore, Strickland (age), or others except Joyce and Quijada. Stephenson likely still won’t be back and effective (worst move ever perhaps).
They don’t need an innings eater (read—bad starter that throws a lot of innings). That’s always a bad idea (remember Blanton?). But a real starter who can be good for 3-4 years and go from there.
Internal pitching options are pretty obvious imo —
Detmers, Soriano, Anderson, Canning, Kochanowicz, Aldegheri, Dana, Silseth, Bachman (order them however you wish).
Joyce, Quijada, Burke, Zeferjahn, Stephenson.
The burning question is — how good can these internal options prove to be? The only way to find out is by running them out on the field in 2025.
The bullpen looks bad. They need better guys. The starters are a grab bag. Various health issues exist and talent is a question too. Anderson has one more year. Sign a top starting guy for 4-5 years. Then work with the rest over the next few years.
The innings eater is Anderson. One of those is enough.
Worse moves than Stephenson off the top of my head are RenDone, Gramps, Vernon’s, Hamilton, etc.
Correct on Anderson. Vernon Wells deal was awful. They knew he had lost it before making that deal and still made it. Brutal.
Niko Kavadas in September:
24 ABs
.375 / .464 / .667
2 HRs
Ryan Zeferjahn as an Angel:
9.1 IP (5 games)
1.93 ERA
0.64 WHIP
11 Ks
3 BBs
These are extremely small sample sizes, but extracting any value for Luis Garcia needs to be studied by historians. We will take a LH power bat and hard-throwing middle reliever for free any day.
I agree. Minasian didn’t go enough at the deadline, but what he did do appears to be excellent.
Perry is building a solid track record when he sells.
I expect a good return for Ward in the winter.
Not so much with ALL the trade deadline trades last year. A total and complete failure.
we bought in 2023. When Perry sells, he usually does well.
That Yeferson kid might be the best of them. Near unhittable in low-A and supposedly flashes 98-99.
Dont sleep on Lugo. He had a breakout season this year in AA/AAA and I was really excited to see him get an opportunity in our organization.
Yeah, when that trade was made, I thought, Lugo seems like a high probability bench guy, which has value, but Vargas is the under the radar pickup here.
Honestly, I expected little from Kavadas or Zeferjahn. But if the Angels get one Jared Walsh year from Kavadas, and 2-3 Luis Garcia years from Zorro, this was a sneaky loaded trade that planned out beyond anyone’s expectations (certainly not Boston’s, given they saw most of these guys as castoffs not worth the 40 man).
I’ve been very vocal about my belief that they should trade Mike for a few years now. I’m not gonna pretend that I know what that deal would look like, but I definitely think it’s time to let him go.
And he’s probably got a better chance of extending his career with a better training staff than can be found in Anaheim.
Remove the pressure of needing to make moves to win for him in the short term.
And might as well DFA Tony while we are at it and put him out to pasture.
Sign a CF and a 3B. Let Moniak and Adams fight for the 4th OF spot.
Count on Detmers, Soriano, Silseth, Anderson, Aldegheri(?), Bachman(?)…
DFA Rendone would be the easy thing. Trading Mike Trout would probably have to start with Mike Trout wanting to be traded, without that, it won’t happen. And that begs the question: live in Philadelphia or Newport Beach? Hmmm. Summer in Philadelphia or summer in Newport Beach?
If Arte couldn’t see the way to trade Ohtani, it’s unlikely he’d let go of his last “generational” talent by dealing Trout. The amount of money Arte would need to eat to facilitate a Trout trade would be prohibitive. In addition, admitting that the franchise failed with Ohtani and Trout on roster by losing both players for minimal return (Trout is not going to bring a haul of talent in return) would be a really big matzo ball for the egos residing on Gene Autry Way to deal with.
If Arte won’t deal with the Rendon situation, do you really think he’ll desl with Trout? Although it’s the smart play, I don’t think Arte would sign off on making it happen.
I tend to agree but part of what we do here is analyze “should happen” versus “will happen”. With Arte the latter category is always a reality check.
Well, I love Trout, but he’s now an “Occasional talent” as he occasionally plays during the season. He’ll now never get to 3000 hits and probably go down the path of, “What could’ve been” like so many other athletes.
You can live anywhere for 81 days a year.
Apparently, you’ve never been to Cleveland.
I could make just about anywhere livable with his bank account.
I’ve had to play some cold @ss games early and late in seasons back east, lemme tall ya, that is brutal. There’s no surfing in Cleveland Mia…..sorry……..LOL
I’d build a goddamn wave pool!
🤣
I went to Cleveland once. Toured Jacobs Field and went to the Rock & Roll HOF…it was great!! Having said that we were only there for about 24 hours.
But his family would be living there 190+ days, and he would be there far more than 81 days. Best to just tell Trout he is now the full time DH, and may make a spot start every so often in a corner outfield position.
If he got traded to the Phillies i’m sure his home base would be wheee his family is in NJ. Which is an hour commute to Philly. It’s not too crazy.
The Angels might very well have insurance on Rendon’s contract that pays them if he’s injured. If he gets DFA’d, then they wouldn’t get that insurance money. If that’s the case, then the smart thing to do is play Rendon when he’s healthy because if he gets injured, then they get paid by the insurer.
From a strict baseball standpoint, I think I agree with the general principle that at this point, Rendon is probably taking the roster spot of a better player. However, if they can get a significant portion of his $38 million back when he’s injured, then they should play him next year and wait for the injury.
I agree with this strategy Mia. Of course it’s not my money so I’ve got to acknowledge that it’s costly. But purely from m a baseball strategy standpoint, I’d get rid of Rendone (don’t let the door hit you in the ass). I’d then very transparently advise Mike that the team is rebuilding and that part of that was trading him and ask his permission and where he’d be willing to play. To maximize what might come back in return I’d be prepared to eat up to $100 million of his salary going forward.
This is all theoretical. It’s expensive. But if it takes a few seasons to recover the lost assets then so be it. I really believe it’s time to move on fully from these two players and rebuild around a young core.
P.s. with the above plan, Arte will probably not sign any big free agents for awhile and the team might suck for a few seasons. But they suck now and this would at least provide some clear direction.
I dont disagree with this. I just don’t think Moreno called off the team sale just to ship out Trout and receive no actual prospect value in return (which realistically is what this would be – eating some big % of Trout’s money solely to entice someone to take on the balance)
Arte twice passed on an Ohtani trade which was a slam dunk that would have accelerated the rebuild. Hes not going to dive into a more complicated salary dump with no real value coming back to the on-field product or farm system.
Neither do I. But the article posed the question of what the Angels should do, not what they will do.
For sure. I wish it wasn’t on the Dodgers but I’m happy to see Shohei thriving. Would love to see Mike get a fresh start and experience some better days.
Some financial flexibility would be nice if they used it to lock up the young guys at discounts. But we know it’d probably get spent on Pete Alonso or something.
I was with you until the last paragraph. The Angels need one or two solid starting pitchers added to the roster. Without that, it will be another mediocre season.
Sure, some of our current pitchers show promise, but we can’t necessarily rely on them to come through. We can’t hope them to success.
What the team needs are a couple of actual proven winners.
I’m always open to signing starting pitching!
Good logic. If they want to turn it around, they need to do something. A multiyear Snell deal last off-season would have looked nice right about now.
With his contract and where he’s at now with not being on the field 60-70% of the time, a Trout trade isn’t going to happen. If anything, the Halos would get schlock in return and pay 50-75% of his contract.
DFAing Anthony Redoomed is something for late next year unless a 3B rises to the occasion during ST.
I agree with your basic outlook and suggestions. I think it’s highly unlikely Trout gets traded primarily because he can’t stay on the field and he seems perfectly happy to be here. I would definitely DFA Tony because he has no value or future and is a sunk cost. I’m not optimistic about any of our younger players right now other than O’Hoppe and Neto. I believe next year will be a repeat of this year and after that they will have to start making some decisions. Trout is not a long term solution in CF, and they have no one other than Rengifo, who will likely be traded, to play either 2B or 3B. They need to start moving forward incrementally. With that said, there are some additional players to look at next year including Adams, Moore, Fontenelle and Kavadas.
Derp.
I love how you fleshed out your thoughts here.
Was perusing the remaining schedule…no October baseball for us.
not exactly going out on a limb there when we were mathematically eliminated yesterday
Thank you Captain Obvious.