Juan Soto got his ridiculous deal. The Mets are giving him $765 Million over fifteen years.
Dick Allen and Dave Parker both got into the Hall of Fame.
The Juan Soto bidding is officially above $700 Million. (Well. That didn’t last long.)
Tyler O’Neill went to the Orioles while Willy Adames went to the Giants. The Dodgers will get Blake Treinen. They also get Michael Conforto.
Former Angel Merv Rettenmund passed away.
Photos credit: Rex Fregosi
The Halos added Dakota Fanning on a minors deal.
But can she pitch?
Tomorrow in Dallas, Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 5:30 p.m. ET. Broadcast live on MLB Network and streamed on MLB.com. Our future awaits. Please…..please go our way.
Black Friday book sale, sent to Perry to reverse the curse. Year of the Ching Ching. Top pick coming our way.
Have a trade with the Cubs approved by the Trade Simulator:
Ward
Detmers
Total: 28.70
for
Cam Smith 3B age 21 overall 55 – Cubs #7 prospect
Jordan Wicks P age 25 lefty
Total: 28.80
Id rather keep Detmers and let Sal, Kyle & Barry fix him.
Fletcher news
https://www.ocregister.com/2024/12/09/angels-open-to-adding-a-full-time-third-baseman-despite-having-oft-injured-anthony-rendon/
Jack Mayfield? He meets the criteria:
Jack’s bat is rolled up Sunday LA Times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P3K0ICCtBw
The most shocking headline ever!!
i will let them know we are all available…..
I like this ..
The #Angels believe the addition of catcher Travis d’Arnaud and coach Sal Fasano will have a huge impact on Logan O’Hoppe. They’re also hoping that Kyle Hendricks and Fasano can mentor Reid Detmers to help him be more consistent. They still think Detmers can figure it out.
https://x.com/RhettBollinger/status/1866266152885723360?t=tvh6s7Pgo4_ed37DmX7VXQ&s=19
Not sure how I feel about this ..
Right-handers Chase Silseth and Sam Bachman will come to camp fully stretched out to start. But either could be moved to relief to start the season, if needed, Minasian said.
https://x.com/RhettBollinger/status/1866266425926537414?t=9pI0JLb54IVWxTJV-rCXug&s=19
Don’t like this at all lol ..
Still no update on SS Zach Neto (shoulder) from Perry Minasian or Ron Washington.
The company line is: Won’t say what his injury is, or how much of the season (if any) he is expected to miss.
A lack of transparency regarding their franchise shortstop.
https://x.com/SamBlum3/status/1866262974178238729?t=yrplKvvIGRH91y3Y2dVw7Q&s=19
Wish they’d just come to terms with the obvious and put Bachman and Silseth in the pen. Their health and durability would only benefit, and I don’t think Bachman in particular really has the repertoire to make it more than once or twice through a lineup.
My guess is that it’s the last stand for Bachman the potential starter. If he doesn’t make forward progress like Soriano, they’ll probably kick him to the pen at that point.
Our 9th pick overall in the 2021 draft had reliever risk labels at the time and parlayed with his health woes, looks like to be the case. Oh well. At this point, I’d be okay if he could become a lights out 1-inning reliever on back-to-back nights. Expectations are low.
Need to stretch them out as if they are a starter, so they can pitch all the extremely long relief opportunities when the starting pitcher barely makes it 2 1/3 innings.
Back up plan due to Suarez.
Soto contract is over the top. I also don’t understand why he would go to the Mets unless it was just about the money. Yankees have the cache, the short porch in left field, the better lineup protection with Judge, and an existing fanbase that already liked him. Maybe it was all about Boras.
I hope Perry makes some smart moves the rest of the way. Yankees will likely overpay for Soto replacements — likely pitching plus a hitter or two. It might be hard to get a deal on anyone the Halos might actually want at this point except via trade.
maybe he wants it to be his team, not a wingman
money certainly helps. Win as a Met, you’re in a class of your own in NY. Win with the Yankees, you’re in a class with dozens of others
Maybe he appreciated the vision the Cohen laid out more than others. Moves still to come.
The Mets also have a very fun, loose Latin American Baseball vibe that the Yankees and Dodgers do not have. Get the most money. Stay in New York. Latino good times. Why not go to the Mets?
I’ll be happy with anything Perry does that improves the 2025 team as long as it doesn’t negatively impact 2026 and beyond.
The only QO player I’d consider is Burnes. Outside of that, the 3rd pick in the 2nd round is greatly needed on the farm.
I’d love for this team to be set up with an outside shot at contention but with lots of trade chips in the likely event 2025 is not our year.
Burnes or bust baybee
Soto’s contract is so insane, for someone who is not a 2-way player and a so-so defender. Obviously his biggest asset is his age, but I don’t think that is worth the biggest contract in sports ever. Still can’t wrap my head around it that he actually got a team that amount of money for a lot of years (yeah I know there are opt out clauses).
It seems just like yesterday when Mike Trout’s contract was being lauded as the first $400M contract in sports history. How time, and money, flies.
Soto had two big money, big mouth guys bidding against each other. That’s all he needed.
The problem is that Soto’s actual production isn’t 30% more than the entire rest of the field in the MLB. So now we’re gonna go through a period where every outfielder who has a couple 5 WAR seasons thinks he should at least get a 400M contract.
Man. Kansas City better name a park for Bobby Witt Jr right now…..
Witt is Legit, definition of a true franchise hero. Not a mercenary $$ like Soto and that other Easy Way guy.
We’ll find out how much of a ‘hero’ Witt Jr. is when he has his chance to test his market value.
?? Witt signed a 11 year extension with home team Royals.
Oh shit. Did he sign earlier than necessary? Haha
A surprise around league, gave up a much bigger payday.
The 30% production thing made me chuckle because he’s actually 67% better hitter than the rest of the league, career wise
True but he’s a bad defender and base runner. So every double he lets get by him in right field cancels out a double that he hits.
I meant 30% better than guys like Trout, Acuna, Tucker etc… “the entire”. I just worded it crappy
The Soto deal likely won’t age well. BTW the Mets are his 4th team. So despite the talent, he’s well traveled already. That’s unusual for someone that gifted. He isn’t a talented fielder or base runner. He can hit.
But Soto still got incredibly lucky that Ohtani got 700M before he was due for his own FA. Without that baseline, there’s no way Soto even gets close to that. Probably closer to Trout’s 400M, tops 450M, even with two or three loudmouths bidding for his services.
Perhaps. Ohtani is unique in the fact he single handedly brings in sponsorship money from Japan. If he’s bringing me $40 million per year in new revenue and I pay him $70 million, I’m really only out $30 million.
Plus Ohtani will pitch for part of his contract; the Dodgers hoping most of his contract.
Soto brings no new revenue streams and is essentially a DH who plays a bad right field. He’s nowhere near as valuable as Ohtani on or off the field.
I think the Yanks kept driving up the price on Cohen, realizing it would get ridiculous, and it did.
That’s why I still can’t wrap my head around it. It just doesn’t make any sense. Just seems to come down to Cohen not wanting to be outbid and lose to big brother.
Remember when Ohtani’s contract was rumored to be around the 500-600M early in his FA period? And then it became stupid with the 700M~ (and became even stupider with the deferred money). I imagine Soto’s probably started with 500M~, then it got stupid from that point forward.
Oh yeah. Soto is CERTAINLY all about measuring the wallet bulge for Cohen. BUT some of the arguments for Ohtani exist for Soto, though on a smaller scale.
Soto is REALLY popular among the Laqtinho Cohmuniteee in New York. And thus in the Latin American countries. Again, not like Ohtani, but he could be the next David Ortiz as far as popularity and jersey sales. That’s not a small thing.
Also, New York is a huge market and if they can steal even 5% of the Yankees market share by winning a WS soon…. that’ll be big. The other thing I don’t think people get unless they have lived it, the Mets fanbase is huge. Their TV contract isn’t as big as NYSN but it’s large. The Mets draw just as well as the Yankees and actually draw in a really wide area because they don’t smack into Boston up north. If you run around more of the NY area than just Manhattan you see really fast that there is a LOT of orange and blue going on there.
If buying Soto (and others) leads to the Mets wrangling a Championship before the Yankees it’s gonna be a gamble that pays off pretty big. If having Lindor, Soto, Diaz, Alvarez etc as the face of all that makes them culturally relevant to a big group of people, even more cash.
It’s a stupidly huge contract. But the Mets may be the only team where the gamble is right right now.
Oh hell yes.
Happy for Dave Parker – for being an incredible player for the Pirates.
As far as dosing Hopium, I think my most euphoric moment was the day we got the 39-yr old Cobra in 1991 for some young kid named Dante Bichete – I was sure the 1991 squad was going to make a great run. Sadly, we cut him before the end of the year and Bichette became a Rockies legend.
TrAdition!
I remember as a 16 year old being really pissed about that trade. I did understand the point of trading what looked like a young talent in Bichette for a 40 year old Dave Parker.
For a 40-year-old Dave Parker that we were told still had 19-year-old wrists.
He didn’t. They turned 40 with the rest of him, right after we traded for him.
trAdition.
I was just a kid, but I loved Bichette because I’d hung out with him in Palm Springs, back when nobody Angels players just kicked it in a park after ST games with everybody. Dante and I had the same t-shirt and I thought I was cool AF. Only famous dicks like Dave Winfield ran strait to their cars. Blyleven showed my child hands how to throw a curve ball. I talked about hitting with Tony Gwynn, John Kruk and Roberto Alomar (they seemed to eternally play the Padres then). Brian Downing felt like a pal.
Spring Training sucks now.
That trade sucked even more. And I like Parker. Mike Port…. how easily we forget.
I love Dave Parker. Glad he got in. Now get Gritch in.
Dante is regularly seen coaching kids at Wilson park in Torrance. Happy to sign autographs for people who recognize him.
Tomorrow could be a franchise altering day depending how the ping pong balls drop.
Definitely comfortable in the top 5, but if we can nab the #1 or #2, it could dramatically change things
It really could. At 2 you get either the top rated bat or arm on the board. Either way it is a great piece to add to what is starting to look like a decent young core.
Unless, of course, you try to go way under slot and spread the money around.
Given our (lack of) scouting, I don’t even know that we’d take proper advantage of the #1 or 2 pick.
any second grader could identify the proper first round choice and even us at CtPG will be bonafide experts at day break on Wednesday, but to your point, its the later rounds that most clubs would sadly do much better than us.
speaking of scouting, I was reminded the first scout of the team was pretty much Casey Stengel.
64 years ago this week, they handed out the franchise on Dec 6 and named Haney GM on Dec 8. Everyone wanted Stengel to be the manager but he had a book deal and couldn’t, but 64 years ago today, he was advising on who to draft for the MLB team in 5 days later.
lol. sorry, but this is dumb.
scouting isn’t like it used to. There is video and data on every draft eligible person. Scouting nowadays is more at the high school level
To say our scouting will cost us draft TOP 2 is asinine.
I think they really need a top guy. This organization hasn’t gotten near ROY in a long time. They need a young superstar not just from the point of view of winning but just to get some people in the seats.
I think you only get those if you draft 25th in the first round.
you can also sign the right professional guy from overseas, who is deemed a “rookie”
The current GM leans heavily on drafting low ceiling college players. No young superstars are coming anytime soon but there is more chance they make the 40-man roster. Even his later round picks tend to be from the college pool.
They will likely change that low ceiling approach, at least the first couple rounds if we get top 5. Though there are low ceiling college OF guys I’d be glad to get stuck with if we pick #5…..
If they get a top 3 and try to go underslot my head will explode.
To be fair, they could do almost anything and it would make your head explode haha
My head explosions are reserved almost entirely for this two-bit Organization. So, in some ways I agree with you. But the “what comes first” thing definitely applies. This Org does something stupid first and then my head explodes. So there is definitely cause and effect.
I’m just teasing, F71.
My head would too explode if we get a top-3 pick and go underslot
It’s true. The best thing about the draft for CtPG Guy is you can find something to bitch about no matter what.
You mean when they get a top 3 and go underslot.
I would be pretty comfortable with any of the current top four. There’s a lot of focus on Holliday and LaViolette, but either of the top two college arms – Bremmer and Arnold – would be excellent as well.
The board opens up after that, but I’m sure there will be a number of new names floating up in the next six months.
Today could be too if they signed Fried, Bregman, Burnes, and Alonso.
The Angels promoted Joey Prebynski and David Haynes to AGM.
Prebynski will still oversee player development in the org.
They aren’t adding anyone from the outside to the FO, so it’s a still a smaller operation. But Perry Minasian didn’t rule out additional hires.
https://x.com/SamBlum3/status/1866186082150150390?t=vlHKZ_XNdq_tNhRTExu4dw&s=19
Hopefully the Angels hire people to fill Prebynski and Haynes old positions. That would be a cost effective way of growing the front office.
Hopefully they’ll find some FAs and get Perry out of bed this morning to sign them.
All lies. I thought our FO was just Perry and two high school kids with laptops that have i7 processors.
Happy Ohtaniversary
I was there with my son. He was able to snag some autographs, but not Ohtani’s that time, as he was kept away from the public.
I was there. I chatted with Vic before the presser which is what gave me the confidence to ask him for interviews. It was a great day.
I blame my parents for “keeping me away from the public”… This held me back socially, and it led me eventually to make the horrible decision to become an Angel fan. Doyer fandom right there in front of me and I choose this life.
Set your son free SteelG, he’ll thank you. The children are our future, teach them well and they won’t become Angel fans, show them the beauty they posses inside. Give them a sense of pride, make it easier……. to be a Doyer fan. It’s the greatest love of all…….and my parents didn’t love me.
Too late. He has a ball from that day with Scioscia, Eppler, Jose Mota, and maybe another one with Gubi. He has Trout, Ohtani, Tim Salmon all on separate balls, as well as Skaggs, Fletcher, and a few others, like Heaney.
Soto’s contract is insane, even for a guy as talented as he is at 26. He’s not Ohtani—and let’s face it, even Ohtani might not be Ohtani depending on how he comes back from his surgeries. Whenever a top free agent doesn’t sign with the Dodgers, I take it as a sign they’re not worth what they got paid. Good luck, Mets.
Remember when I said I hoped the Doyers would break baseball to force a salary cap and floor? Well, it can’t hurt to have another team throwing around absurd money. No deferred payments here either—Soto will make $4 million more per year than the entire A’s opening day payroll. One player, more than a whole team. Let that sink in.
On a related note, I saw Anthony Santander ranked 7th among the remaining free agents in The Athletic. That .307 OBP is a dealbreaker for me. If his power drops off, he’s worthless. Sounds like a classic Angels signing, doesn’t it?
Crazy stupid deal IMO. Soto has always been focused on his next big contract and while he’s a gifted hitter, he’s not a good defender who’s not likely to age well on defense.
He’s a money-first mercenary who will become fat and happy to coast when money is no longer a motivating factor.
I’m impressed that the Dodgers knew their limitations and did not get drunk and disorderly on the bidding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG2cux_6Rcw
The Mets will regret that deal within 5 years. We’ve seen this play out too many times now.
In 4 years you’ll be giving him an 11 year/561 million deal. At 30 years old.
Good luck with that.
Remember when you could get two top 5 players for $51,000,000 a year?
All it will take is some kind of stupid motorcycle crash in the D.R.
Or just a freak incident in a game that he never gets back to 100% from. So many ways for disaster to strike.
they just punked the Yankees and if that continues the next five years, it’ll be worth it.
all it takes is just one World Championship.
Or five years of Mets Rule//Yankees drool, ala the 1980s
We’ve heard it all before. Hardly ever works out. We’ll see.
I’m laying $5,000,000 Ippei Bucks they eventually trade him and eat hundreds of millions of $$$$.
I’m laying another $5,000,000 Ippei Bucks on the under, date he’s traded.
Over/Under trade deadline 2029 Season -110
It’s gonna be like the Marlins moving Stanton to the Yanks after his mega deal.
Cohen will just have to commit more fraud to buy more players.
Apparently fraud is legal now if you’re rich enough.
Everything is legal now if you’re rich enough. Quite literally everything.
Baseball is already a sport struggling for market share and, arguably, relevance. Under those circumstances, this contract is completely asinine and could impact the sport irreversibly. It’s one thing to give Ohtani $700 million. At least he brings in International attention and money – not to mention fills the seats and sells oodles of merch. I just dont see that with Soto.
Unfortunately, this deal will not be treated as an outlier. It will now become the standard bearer for every player and agent. I can just see Judge being resentful of his paycheck and feeling underpaid.
Meanwhile the average family is struggling with inflation and often cannot make ends meet. But a guy who can (sometimes) hit a fastball gets 3/4 of a billion. Jeebus. It might be one of the signs of the apocalypse.
2025 Draft Lottery Eve
Dakota Hudson on a minors deal. Only 30. Not bad.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/angels-dakota-hudson-agree-to-minor-league-deal.html
Apparently Dillon Peters or Picky Naughton weren’t available.
Last year Hudson was lit up at home but perfectly fine on the road. He’s definitely on a downward trend, but I can see why Perry made this move.
Away from Coors, the slash line against him was .212/.304/.306.
Continuing a trend, baseballsavant rated him really high on ground ball and barrel rate. Just don’t look anywhere else.
Great point JJ. He had one start against the Doyers Last year .
7 IP 4 Hits 1 BB 3 K’s 1 ER. adding to his career 1.42 ERA in 4 starts at the Latrine
Hell thats worth a minor League Contract and NRI right there.
Probably just as well we ignore his PCL bandbox numbers this year prior to his inevitable mid season call up.
All of these groundballing weak contact guys make sense when it’s Neto and Newman up the middle, but what happens when it’s, say, Moore or one of the Angels’ depth gloves?
Would it make sense then to go after the Unhyphenator Kim considering all of our groundballers?
Someone’s got to play third and I’m not sure that Rengifo would improve his defense enough to make him a defensive asset.
If it’s Ha-Seong, it’s pretty hard to know what you’re getting after shoulder surgery. 3B would likely be the most affected of the positions – I suspect he’d play best at 2B, where the Angels seem currently covered between Newman and Moore.
Fwiw, the overall defensive metrics picture on Rengifo at 3B suggests he’s roughly league average there, and probably a tick better than he is at 2b. I’ve tended to think he provides most value at third, and if it weren’t for Rendon, the Angels should just give him longer rope and see if he can become an above-average defender there with more constant reps.
He’s already had years of rope. Stop trying to fit a square peg…
As a utility guy bouncing all over the field.
I don’t get the ‘gifo hate. The guy has been an above average bat for multiple seasons, is a switch hitter who plays six positions, and 3b is one of his better ones.
He’s only 27. With some positional stability, the glove might be more consistent.
Mighty unfortunate that Rengifo has caught the injury bug the last 2 seasons.
Durability is my only concern because he’s proven to be a 2-3 WAR utility stud when healthy
Unless he’s spending an inordinate amount of time with the fillies, Rengifo is not a “stud”
He’s pretty studly when classified as a utility player.
Over the last 3 seasons, Rengifo is averaging 2.2 WAR per season.
I’m pretty sure he’s referring to the Kim that was recently posted. Primarily plays second, supposedly has a great glove and speed.
In this case Moore likely becomes the outfielder several scouts thought he might become.
Maybe – I just assumed it was Ha-seong as Cowboy mentioned 3b, and the elder Kim has MLB experience there, whereas the younger Kim doesn’t have much, and is so light-hitting that it’d be like returning Fletcher or Izturis to the position.
Unless he’s already hurt in ST all these machinations are moot cause Rendon will be our starting 3B in 2025 and the womenlike lamentations of CtPG Guy will continue on the webs. And yes. When he gets hurt he’ll be replaced with a scrub, not some stud most likely.
The teams got about 10 problems right now. I hope to fix six of them this year. 3B will likely not be one of them.
Not necessarily according to Perry today:
https://x.com/Jared_Tims/status/1866234194248233159
I just look the way the club has used Rengifo, and it reminds me of Chone Figgins. Figgins was viewed as a sub-par glove (and often merited the perception) when the team was bouncing him all over the field. Then in ’08-09, they basically made him their everyday third baseman, and he suddenly put up 10 WAR combined over those two seasons, with sterling defensive metrics.
With a healthy season, and a single position like 3b, I could see Rengifo putting up a 20hr/30sb year, and answering a lot of questions about 3b in the process.
You must be talking about Mizuno Schanuel and Rawlings Rengifo?
Or the Olympian Greek Glove of Kavadas!
Honestly, it’s hard to know how many of these GB guys will be pitching for the Angels in 2026, so it may be just a lark at the moment.
The Greek god of strikeouts had a pretty good September after a disastrous MLB debut in mid August: Last 18 games:
.255/.369/.455 3 HRs 2 DBL 8 BBs 21 Ks in 65 PA’s
So, basically the type of “can we fix him” play that every GM who is trying makes. And also exactly what we’d complain about NOT doing if Perry didn’t sign a couple of these guys.
Let’s go ENRIGHT!
Haha, finally. Dakota was my pick for the Angels in the 2016 Matt Thaiss draft. Only took nine years and some post-peak and park factor decline to get him here.
Ironic that it would come in the year they’d cast off Thaiss for a roster refresh.
SO NAH STIR MAH NEEDSLE! AH HATE ARE TEH!
I’d rather we sign Dakota Johnson….
Here’s my hope:
Trout comes back, is productive and keeps it together health wise to the trade deadline. Then his deal looks “affordable” and we trade him to the Yankees for some decent prospects.
In my dream of dreams Rendon dies the same and the Yankees take him too. (No way but a man can dream).
Trade the greatest player in franchise history to the Yankees? Hard pass.
As long as he wants to, Trout deserves to finish his career in Anaheim.
I’m only looking ahead to not behind.
I get that, but I never want to see Trout in a Yankees uniform.
Rendon is a bad contract but I don’t hope the man dies, ha ha.
(I know it is a typo)
We need a awesome organization guy who’s also young too.
Sean McVay is awesome and he proved it last night. Sorry CTPG fans of old and tired.
The Soto deal is mind-numbing. Is he currently a top 5 player in the game?
Anyway, time for Perry to get in the kitchen with an apron and start cooking.
:
Looks like Perry’s neck has been slashed – just like his budget.
Just need a couple bolts in his neck and it’s FrankenPerry
Perry is about to get yelled at by Gordon Ramsey and thrown out of Hell’s Kitchen.
Hell’s Kitchen?
So thats what they call Crapino’s office these days.
kitchen? cooking?
by the looks of it, Perry is in the drive-thru lane at Del Taco asking what budget burrito deal they have available.
Very glad
to see Dick Allen get in.
You and me both. He was a hard, hard hitter. He and Dave Winfield could hit those 25-ft frozen ropes over the wall.
99% yes. Except for this.
Nolan, one out in the ninth, just needs two more outs for a no-hitter.
https://youtu.be/wS6B32vrFh8?si=nV9eyD3ufeUEMSQQ
and of course, the Angels and him would lose this game.
Who was that sure at 3rd base? Dickie Thon? He cost Nolan another no-no.
Allen had wheels, just was not a base stealer. Nice White Sox uniforms.
Chalk.
yep Rendon would have had him
Me too. I saw him hit a pitch off his shoe tops at the Big A that I thought the shortstop might be able to leap to catch but it kept rising and landed about 440ft away in left center.