Nothing much happened this weekend, so I had a choice between a large selection of “are interested in” or “how can they fix this” articles. Actual news is limited as of the time of this writing. Hyeseong Kim got a three year deal with the Dodgers for at least $12.5 Million. Charlie Morton signed with the Orioles and will get $15 Million for one year.
Athletics President Dave Kaval resigned. The resignation will take effect tomorrow.
Cavan Biggio has signed a minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Wow this seems like something we could have done . Lux for a 2024 3rd rounder who’s never played professional baseball and a 2025 Comp pick seems a little light https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/01/reds-finalizing-gavin-lux-trade.html
I guess it Also opens up a 40 man roster spot for the incoming pitcher Roki Sasaki
Per the sim, Dodgers got hosed, so you aren’t alone in thinking this is light.
The third rounder was drafted by the Dodgers out of high school but chose college and ended up in Cincy. They must be really high on him.
What does Cincy do now? They had an infield crunch, traded India, now added an infielder. Is another trade coming?
I don’t think the Dodgers make a similar trade with the Angels. I think they want abject failure of the other Los Angeles franchise particularly after how Arte attempted to ‘steal’ their fan base in the early and mid 2000s.
I dont think the Doyers care one way or another about their cross town rivals which maybe worse for us than if they had extreme blinding hatred.They probably consider the Angels to be irrelevant and inconsequential to anything involving their operation.
Now Arte on the other hand, probably wont trade with the evil blue empire ever again. In fact he probably took extreme pleasure when Perry grabbed their Rule 5 pick, Garrett McDaniels.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think the Dodgers got hosed at all. Lux seems like a guy who still has that dodger-shine propping him up a bit.
Lux had throwing issues and arm strength issues after injury, so most likely limited to 2b. He is a guy with only 2 more years of control who has struggled to stay healthy, limited defensive flexibility, and an inconsistent bat.
The Dodgers basically replaced him with a faster version in Kim, and got what is arguably almost 2 first round picks for him.
https://x.com/jeffmlbdraft/status/1876414905412415953?s=46&t=aBK1MPhSIvfd0DTl6snnFw
This reputable guy is saying Sirota looked like a top 10 pick in the draft. And the Dodgers get a supplemental pick on top of that. Again, for a guy they basically replaced on the FA market with Kim.
That’s how you keep adding guys to your farm. I wish we were able to do things like that.
With a 2025 projected $2.5 million Arbitration salary for GLux, Kim is actually costing the Doyers twice as much
Flexing your financial strength to build up the farm further.
Isn’t that another version of taking on bad contracts in exchange for prospects, an idea that is often discussed on this site? And it’s not like they’re taking on a useless player on a $40M + contract to do this.
With the Kim signing, I expected Lux to be the odd man out but did not expect the Reds to pay so little for him. I guess the Dodgers really wanted the roster space or maybe Lux hasn’t fully recovered from his injury, but the bat seemed okay last season.
Yeah, seems like we could have done that. Lux might have been a sneaky-cheap solution for 3B, too.
With his arm id keep him at second.
I started scheduling gamethreads today. It is getting that close.
Bad scouting for the Angels, less meaningful?
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/baseball-americas-2025-scout-survey-evaluators-fear-games-direction-amid-doom-and-gloom-offseason/
Formally documents and confirms that which we already believed to be true. Thanks, lot’s of data.
Not a good look considering Perry’s been here 4 years…..
Wow. Summary is Dodgers are pretty much the best at everything. Angels are among the worst at everything. Unless there is a fundamental shift in the Angels Org (unlikely under Arte) things are likely to get progressively worse.
That’s a great link. I will try to remember it for Weekend Links. It deserves a lot of readership.
All that told me is that, in the next few years, some smart AF team like the Brewers or Rays can take what they pay one shitty MLB roster spot and pick twelve scouts from a pool of increasingly good minds to go and “outscout” orgs that just pay a brain trust.
Arte will not do that cause his fans need the splashes. But Ben Charington?
does Arte have a sister?
asking for a friend….
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6042327/2025/01/06/padres-peter-seidler-widow-lawsuit/
Reminds me of Jeanie Buss yanking control from her brother, Jimmy. Disaster in the making.
…or Georgia Frontierre (Husband died) and the Rams…
How could I forget. Magical Miss Georgia, not sure how she got her hubby Carroll, to drown in 2-feet of water. #PigskinAldultress
Jackie Autry on line 2…
There. FIFY
Youch!
Tommy Boy wasn’t much better F.A.
Suarez can fuck off.
That is all.
Great, now you hurt his feelings…he will eat that pain at the buffet table and show up to Arizona looking like Jabba The Hut (again).
As of today, 1/06/25, at 12:30 pm, he still holds a spot on the 26 man roster. Yeeesh.
Watched the Bob Costa MLB TV Studio 42 Tom Seaver interview last night.
I could only find a couple clips from it…what a story teller Tom Terrific was.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=322562492195081
https://www.mlb.com/video/seaver-on-1969-world-series-c20029273
Regarding the 2025 bullpen, I see it starting the season with: Burke, Crouse, Joyce, Quijada, Silseth (I know he’s a starter, but can’t think of a better option that isn’t a starter too), Stephenson, Suarez (by default) and Zeferjahn. Overall, that group pitched strongly over the last season (3.86 ERA, 1.31 WHIP), but only for 177 innings in total (Suarez being the only one with more than 50 innings). If the starters continue to contribute only 870 total innings, that means the relievers have to come up with 580 over the course of 162 games. While there is potential here, asking them to continue to produce an ERA under 4 while adding 50 innings apiece doesn’t seem to be a great plan. It would be nice to add a couple of proven arms, but not at Stephenson’s price tag.
I would be surprised if Stephenson doesn’t start the season on the IL . I would also be shocked if the Ducks gave up not heir Rule 5 pick Garrett McDaniels before the start of the season.
Even if Perry dumpster dives, I really think the bullpen is unfinished. It would not surprise at all if they take a one year flier on a former closer like Kenley Jansen to strengthen the back end. the Of the 8 you mention 5 have minor league options so there are other moves they can make.
I would still love to see Silseth start where he has doe much better stat wise but he also cant seem to get past 5 inning before losing steam.
BTW José Suarez in the month of September after returning from a long IL stay:
4 Games 2 Starts 1.59 ERA 1.058 WHIP .598 OPS against 10.0 K/9 3.8 K/BB but in typical Jose Suarez he lost 3 of those 4 games.
I think Jansen might cost too much, but I wouldn’t mind bringing back old friend Carlos Estevez or see if A J Minter or Ryan Yarbrough could be had.
AJ Minter has been talked about. Could do worse.
Yeah, that’s a guy I’ve pegged due to Perry’s ties to Atlanta.
I’d sign off on Estevez so long as we trade him out come deadline, need a couple more pitching prospects
Perry usually adds a bullpen arm or two as camps open and there are still a ton of guys out there.
Just going off the top of my head here, a guy who can handle late innings and won’t cost insane money: Phil Maton, Carlos Esteves, Tommy Kahlne, Kirby Yates
Decent bounce back candidate: Dillon Tate,
Yah. I’d take a flyer on John Means, Dillon Tate or Sixto Sanchez. Maybe Brooks Railey, Ryan Yarbrough if he’s cheap, even a guy like Jalen Beeks could be good outside Colorado. Ryne Stanek, Paul Sewald, Hector Neris, Phil Maton, Jose Leclerc, Dany Jimenez, Dylan Floro…. there are a lot of innings out there that can become trade bait later.
By the way, I’d like to think Suarez turned a corner after his September results, but 17 innings is hard to take too seriously when we’ve been down this road before.
Do not get sucked into the Suarez fools gold.
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee—I know it’s in Anaheim, probably in Tennessee—that says, ‘Fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me—you can’t get fooled again.”
-CTPG (about Suarez)
Tennessee ? You mean the state where the new Angel buyer will move the team after acquiring the Angels from Arte’s widow?
Are you sure that the Los Vegas Athletics of Sacramento won’t get there ahead of them?
I think eventually they’ll get a deal done in Vegas.
“Fool me once, strike one. But fool me twice… strike three.”
~ Perry
“Nobody was trying to fool me, but I still feel like a fool. I won’t be fooled again.”
“If there’s any team that will benefit the most from adding Santander, it would be the Angels. The Angels barely got any production from their designated hitters, which is quite painful. Mike Trout, however, will need more DH reps than ever considering his injury problems over the past few seasons, but Santander should be okay to take at least a dozen or so games on the field.” https://clutchpoints.com/mlb-rumors-angels-blue-jays-tigers-listed-as-anthony-santander-suitors
This writer is evidently unaware that we acquired Soler, who’s even more challenged in the field than Santander, from what I’ve gleaned.
Is Santander really that bad? Baseball Reference shows that led all right-fielders in range factor last season, and was +10 in fielding runs above average. His career numbers don’t look good, but seems like something clicked for him in 2024. Only two error in 130 games in the OF, seven assists.
Is Santander really that bad?
No.
He’s just not that good to make a difference on any team that is strong enough to contend. On a 60 win team, he’s going to be adequate and not hurt the team.
Well if amassing a -7 DRS in 1119 innings in right field last year is not that bad then yes. we could do worse.
That’s a problem with fielding metrics. One says he was -7 last year while another had him as +10 and both considered him a + fielder in 2023.
His defense is “ungood” but not Schwarber levels of bad. Totally livable if he’s in LF and produces an 800+ OPS.
Unless, of course, we sign him. Then his defense is the worst ever and we all need to be very angry.
If our draft weren’t so important this year I’d be fine with paying him 20-25M a year for four years. He’s solid. A winning team needs like three of these guys filling out the line up around young stars, so fine.
I just don’t want to sign this player RIGHT NOW. Just like if Schanuel falls off a cliff this year and Alonso was available next year I’d be fine with paying the bear…. but not THIS year.
This.
We’re talking about giving up the 46th pick in the draft and the slot money that come with it and $1 million in international money.
If we were an 85 win team pushing to win a division or make some noise in October, perhaps Santander’s bat would be a fair trade for all of that. But we aren’t.
We are a team that is quietly assembling pieces to be good in two years and needs to keep doing that.
Quietly Assemble. That should be what we all chant calmly. A guiding light. A true north on our journey. Other limp clichés. We should always ask “Is this idea quiet? Does it assemble?” If not, then we shouldn’t do it.
Quiet/Assemble
Splashes are for douche bags.
I assume you meant OPS and not OPS+.
Yes. An 800+ OPS, Though I’d be even happier with an 800 OPS+
Right now we just need a couple bodies who can put up a .780+ OPS against right handed pitching especially when MNT is out with an ouchie.
Yea we’re kind of stuck. Draft and next year we can make significant moves forward.
I think we really could accelerate a rebuild if Arte allows it.
Rengifo and Ward are really good trade chips. Anderson has some value and I’d like to see his spot used to rotate in the kids.
There’s enough payroll room simply by trading those three to take on a bad contract or two in exchange for stud prospects. Castellanos, for example, has the same 2 years left as Rendon and costs the same as Rengifo plus Anderson this season.
Add in the second and 46th overall picks being developed college players, Moore, the collection of young arms, Neto, O’Hoppe, and maybe Schanuel and the narrative heading into 2026 is the young Angels.
I agree. It harkens back to Gitch’s request for evidence of either a rebuild or a compete. Trading those guys would definitely be evidence of a rebuild. Unfortunately, I would be very surprised to see that happen.
Wait. You’re saying Bubba & Gitcho are buds?
Hey Gitcho can you get us all some of that magic Goop?
I’d agree with you about Anderson if I didn’t feel that Detmers and Hendricks will provide more than enough opportunities to see what the kids on the farm can do.
Man. I’d love this…. I’m sad cause it probably won’t all happen. I know it’s crazy talk, but yeah, I’d trade WarGifErson and then just hit up any team looking at signing Bregman or Alonso and tell em “Hey, I’ll trade you (scrap cheap guy) for (Expensive guy) if you send me a top 5 prospect and let me pick a couple lower value prospects off your farm.
That, plus the draft, plus what we get back for those other trades…. much better farm.
Yeah, I’ve spent way too much time on the sim doing just this.
I know to take it with a grain of salt but I’ve built some pretty nice AA teams with upside lottery tickets at the lower levels.
Look if Jo Adell could become a Gold Glove finalist in right field last year anything is possible.
I though we’d see enough of Adell last season to finally know if he’d be good or not.
Yet here we are heading into this season with just as much clarity as we had last season.
Going into 2024, Adell was not good with the bat or glove.
Going into 2025, Adell is coming off being a GG finalist.
Now we wait to see if the bat catches up.
Yep and if you’d have asked me last February if I thought he’d take off with the bat or glove I’d have bet bat every time.
If memory serves me, Santander made at least two defensive plays against the Halos that stopped a rare rally/scoring opportunity.
Well you know with TrAdition, if we sign him he’ll probably make a helluva lot more plays stopping a Halos rally/scoring opportunity.
Not sure how many Anaheim Duck fans we have here. Yesterday we extended a player, and here’s what the GM said,
“Pat Verbeek says the structure of Frank Vatrano’s deal was inspired by Shohei Ohtani’s signing with the Dodgers—which included deferred money”
https://x.com/Derek_Lee27/status/1876059525964538020?t=65BQLdXLmgTm-4CkPy9CUQ&s=19
Deferring money is smart. Dodgers are smart, Arte is not
I don’t disagree — however typically in baseball the deferred money thing starts when you are in the hunt for a title, have a playoff worthy team, and want to get over the hump. It usually doesn’t happen during the development phase when you are just trying to win 82 games or the like. The latter of course is where the Angels are sadly.
Deferring money doesn’t have to be exclusive to contenders. It’s a creative way to structure deals, especially for athletes who have a bias against CA tax.
The fact that Arte won’t leverage it as a tool puts us at a competitive disadvantage.
Question, wouldn’t Arte have a difficult time convincing a high dollar free agent to defer money when his team is lousy? Dodgers are full on taking advantage of being a good team with money. You want to be on the best team, agree to defer. Can you imagine offering a Pete Alonso a contract and asking him to defer. Probably laugh at us.
Take Pete Alonso as an example. If he retires to Florida where there is no state income tax after this next contract, then wouldn’t he save the 13.3% California would have taken as taxes on whatever was earned in state? If that’s true, that would be a powerful incentive to defer.
Why are we so sure Arte is even given the opportunity to defer money?
Trying to win 82 games? This team is just trying to win 72 games!
Exactly.
82 wins is a 2027 or 2028 goal.
In order to defer money you need to:
Be a team players really want to join more than other teams.
Be a team players will take less up front money from to play now.
The Angels are not in that spot yet. The Angels fans are far from inspiring this kind of delayed gratification from a player. Guys like Cozart and Rendon, to spite CtPG Guys deep insights, are exactly the type of popular guys around MLB locker rooms who we all think are complaining JUST about Arte but are likely aware of the piss bitches they play in front of too. And they have a lot of friends around the game.
Lol, this is entirely different situations.
deferring $7 mil in hockey vs. deferring nearly a billion dollars
Especially for a team that has almost the top amount of salary cap space available in the entire NHL
Different situations, same concept of deferred money.
38 Days!!
I’m almost ready for the season to begin!
What? No Bob Seger Live Bullet album?
Can Bob pitch?
No, but he can Turn the Page.
Does that mean Arte would have to move the team East of Omaha?
My hot girlfriend from my college years who just happened to sleep with all my friends taught me a great life lesson. It didn’t matter how much I loved her because I would never be able to trust her. The Angels are the less hot version of that.
#3 is key, the force is powerful.
No lie. I’ve been wrestling with that demon since Tanana, Ryan and three days of cryin.
But everybody needs a fantasy, Pedro.
I know you really wanted to see this:
https://youtu.be/vPQgfaB3S1c?si=cV5myulLTAEKJEvi
BTW: Who else remembers seeing this as a preview at the movie theatre? Sadly my 17 year old self thought it was cool and I still have the LP.
I’ll see your Aldo Nova and raise you some Earth Wind and Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0CVoFsUhC4
Now we’re talking. This is music.
When I was in the Velvet Knights (Drum and Bugle corps for the rest of you), this was our concert piece, and our exit was also EWF – “I’ll Write A Song For You”
I totally agree! That’s a really great song by a real band. I saw them in the old San Diego arena when I was 16. Everybody was dancing and I was the skinny little white kid getting grinded on by full grown women. Thought I might just die but I would have gone with a smile.
I went to fights at that arena last summer. It is still going and probably looks the same or about the same as it did back then.
The Gulls (Ducks AHL affiliate) play there, too
I’m all in……….
https://youtu.be/iG_rp62LXsY?si=2Sq-s18pQaJThsX8
What the heck is that? The 80s were just bad.
It was truly horrible. My other passion was besides baseball was/is guitar. I got hurt playing ball in college, got really drunk for 6-12 months and spent some time playing guitar with hair bands on the strip. It was a dark time and before you ask, photos no long exist 🙂
Sounds like you’ll be in the “best shape of your life” to start the season!