Philosophy:
I am squarely in the camp where I want to break the cycle of “investing” in a team/strategy/culture that doesn’t work. Yall bitch this bitch constantly, have for years, let’s really pull out the bad tree then right? Thing is, most of the fan base, including most of you reading this, don’t actually want this. Arte and Carpino sure don’t.
So how do I make you and Arte and Carpino and Kuhl and Roger Loadge happy without continuing to string out 200M payrolls with 4th place finishes and no prospects on the farm? Well, I probably don’t. But I can try to put out a fairly entertaining team that will eventually have a lot of payroll flexibility post Rendon. Other than Trout’s dead body of a contract. I can try to maximize the value of having hired Mike Maddox. I can try to get some fairly developed position player prospects that will stabilize the line up and payroll around the time the guys I sign this winter and Rendon come off the books. That should leave us in a position where we are a better team with a fairly low (for us) payroll to work with as our hopeful young pitching prospects also start to filter in.
My Goals.
Build up the farm more, especially with position players.
Get the team’s overall WHIP lower
Get the team’s overall OBP higher.
Give Mike Maddox materials to work with.
Have Mike Trout be the only huge payroll anchor after 2026.
First Move: Trim Some Fat
I am making the incredibly incredible choice to cut Connor Brogdon, Carter Keiboom and Michael Fulmer and save myself 3 million dollars. Don’t hurt your hands clapping too hard.
Second Move: The Trades You Will Hate
Trade Number 1: Jose Soriano to the Tigers. In return we get Bryce Rainer (55), Max Anderson (45), John Peck (40), Jake Miller (40) and Kelvis Salcedo (40).
Why Have I done this? Bryce Rainer is the #37 prospect on MLBs top 100. He grades out as Hit: 55 | Power: 60 | Run: 55 | Arm: 70 | Field: 50 | Overall: 55. His lowest grade is fielding at 50 and that can be fixed, or it can be mitigated by making him a RF or 3B. He has actual “impact player” potential. You wanted Ethan Holiday? Well, here’s the KIA version of said prospect.
Max Anderson can play 3B/2B and 1B. Here’s his grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 50 | Run: 40 | Arm: 40 | Field: 45 | Overall: 45. His arm isn’t strong but he gets by with it at 3B. Kind of like Max Muncy. He’s got pop to the point I may give him a 55 and he fills a need that we have at 3B.
Peck is a high OBP scapper with enough pop to hit 10HR and the arm, legs and defensive ability to play just about anywhere if needed. Here’s his line: Hit: 40 | Power: 45 | Run: 50 | Arm: 55 | Field: 60 | Overall: 40 . He has no amazing tools, thus a 40 grade, but he is the type of 40 grade prospects you want. He’s below 50 because of his physical limits, not because he can’t make contact or catch a baseball. Both he and Anderson could actually play in Anaheim this year.
Jake Miller is a “Lab Prospect” in my mind. He has a Fastball: 50 | Slider: 50 | Changeup: 55 | Control: 55 | Overall: 40 at AA. He has good fastball movement, though it only sits around 94 MPH, and a solid slider too and is in the middle of being stretched out to start. If the Angels can finish that job and make some tweeks to his fastball he could make some starts for the MLB club in 2026.
Salcedo is a pen arm. He has a Fastball: 55 | Slider: 60 | Splitter: 45 | Control: 40 | Overall: 40 line and that 60 grade slider has been seen on video by my eyes. It’s pretty sick. He throws 98 MPH but needs to get more movement on the pitch. He’s young, was in A Ball this year, but again, is a tweek away from knocking on our bullpen’s door. Bonus, he made 10 starts this year and is working on a cutter and generally has a 3/1 k/BB rate at age 19.
Trade Number 2: Reid Detmers and Taylor Ward to the Mets for Jacob Reimer (50), Mitch Voit (45) and Jett Williams (55).
Jett Williams is the #30 prospect on MLB’s top 100. Jacob Reimer is the #3 third base prospect in a thin list for the entire MLB. I traded for Voit just because I really like him.
Williams has a nice grade line Hit: 55 | Power: 50 | Run: 60 | Arm: 50 | Field: 50 | Overall: 55. He’s basically a faster Zach Neto when I see him on video. He also looks like he may generate a higher OBP than Neto. He’s blocked by Lindor in New York and has logged time at SS, CF and 2B though he can also likely play 3B. He has enough arm for it.
Reimer is attractive to me because he hits the ball very hard and he makes REALLY good swing decisions. He grades out as Hit: 55 | Power: 50 | Run: 40 | Arm: 50 | Field: 45 | Overall: 50. His OBP was around .370 this past season. He has pop too, likely in the 25 HR range. But he is just a very solid hitter. He’s too slow afoot to be a SS but has played well at 3B, LF and 1B. Scouts seem to think he’s fine as a 3B and we want that.
Mitch Voit is like the guy we got from the Tigers, Peck, but upgraded. He’s a “perfect” 45 grade prospect. In fact, look at this grade line. Hit: 55 | Power: 50 | Run: 60 | Arm: 60 | Field: 50 | Overall: 45. He is also a total “baseball guy”. He has barely played 22 A Ball games in his career and already made swing adjustments that they coached into him. I think he’ll be a 50 grade prospect by the time he’s in AA. He’s fast, has a strong arm, and a good brain. As long as you’re not desperate to have a 3B/LF/CF who hits 30 HR he can play any of those spots with a couple years of training and he’s already solid at 2B.
Trade Number 3: Jo Adell to the Reds for Edwin Arroyo (50), Aaron Watson (50) and Arnaldo Lantigua (45).
Arroyo is a true SS prospect. Hit: 50 | Power: 45 | Run: 55 | Arm: 60 | Field: 60 | Overall: 50. He is a very good fielder with strong arm and quick feet. I think that, if he can get to a .320 OBP in the majors he can push Neto off SS to 3B/2B. He just has very little power, though he may develop to the point he can hit 10 HR someday.
Watson is a solid “down the line” pitching prospect. He’s 18 years old. He’s 6’ 5” tall and he already can command three pitches in the zone. Here’s his scouting line. Fastball: 55 | Slider: 50 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 50 | Overall: 50. If they add 3 MPH to his FB by the time he’s 21 he could really be at the head of the pitching class that includes our HS arms from last year and TGA.
Lantigua is the player the Reds got from the Doyers in return for bonus pool money to sign Sasaki. He’s very young and just made it to Daytona last year, but his grade line is strong Hit: 50 | Power: 55 | Run: 50 | Arm: 50 | Field: 50 | Overall: 45. I like him because he has power but doesn’t sell out for it. He makes very hard contact but also makes very good swing decisions. He also has a strong arm that will likely get stronger. He could be a really good RF in a few years and I expect his prospect grade to jump to 50 if he continues to do well in A/A+ this year.
I know this isn’t fun. I like Soriano and Adell a lot and I don’t want to trade them. But look at our farm. Especially look at it above A+ Ball. Look at the position players on our farm. It is NOT OK for us to be as excited as we are about Nelson Rada. He’s fine, but he’s not even close to enough to make the Angels good by 2028. This farm upgrade gets us closer to that goal. I tried to get kids who have some defensive versatility. Guys who make contact and have some pop. Guys with, in general, fairly good foot speed. Plus a couple solid “pitcher not just thrower” mound tickets.
I fully expect some of these guys to move off position. But that would just mean we have a future LF or 2B in the mix, and we could use that. I also raided systems whose scouting departments I trust more than our own, for what that’s worth. I think, best case scenario, we could see some of these kids by the end of the 2026 season along with Rada. If I’m really on the ball we may even see our 3B issue solved by extending Neto and moving him there in favor of one of these guys. With those goals in mind, I got this pile of prospects hoping that we get maybe 3 MLB position players out of them by 2028.
FREE AGENT SIGNINGS
NOTE: I have now traded away or cut 27M in payroll from our team. Add that to the 24M in payroll space I already had and if my pre-coffee math is correct I have 51M dollars to add to our 2026 roster with. If you ever want to get a sense of how little Rendon’s 38M a year falling off our books matters and how badly we need a farm that produces cheap talent getting a good look at what 51M dollars will get you in Winter 2025 will do it for you….
Harrison Bader: Three years at 39 million dollars.
Miguel Andujar: One year at 3 million dollars.
Adam Frazier: One year at 3 million dollars.
Austin Hays or Max Kepler one year at 4 million dollars.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa: 1 year at 5 million dollars
Chris Paddock: Three years at 24 million dollars.
Luke Weaver: Two years at 18 million dollars.
Nabil Crismatt: Two years at 5 million dollars.
Caleb Fergeson Two Years at 6 million dollars
Andrew Chafin: One year at 2 million dollars
Total FA money spent in 2026: 51.5 million. I’m 500K over but I will just have to wash Carpino’s Maserati in a Speedo once a week to cover that. I am also aware that we can hurr durr our way to a list of players completely different from this one and I’m cool with that. But look at the brefs. Look at the fielding options these guys provide. Bader is the only real investment I really want. I like Weaver and Paddock a fair amount too. Maybe you can come up with better potential upside dumpster dives? I had a whole list of guys, these are just the ones I landed on. But these additions should plug holes, shift around in the line up and on the field, and hit OK while getting off our payroll fast and staying in the line up or pitching staff somewhere when a kid gets a chance to play.
So what do I hope we have here?:
Pitching: The rotation, with Kikuchi/Paddock, has a reliable first couple arms. If Weaver and Crismatt can both stretch into starters we have two guys who can actually dominate at times. Then you have the #5 starter spot where the kids can compete. If Weaver or Crismatt can’t start then you can move them to the pen where they will likely earn their pay as solid relief arms. The pen will be sketchy. But has trying to buy our way out of a sketchy pen ever worked?
If Maddox turns out be a Godsend guys like Zeferjahn, Joyce, Fermin, Bauchman and Burke may see the instances where they looked very good in the past extended to longer periods and we may be OK. Deploying stretched relievers as starters will also probably result in pitching prospects seeing MLB innings out of the pen. If Maddox works his magic in the rotation it will be one of those aceless staffs where everyone has WHIP under 1.35. That could be nice for us.
Defense: Those pitchers will hopefully be helped by a solid up the middle defense of Neto/Frazier/Bader and Falefa/Teodosio filling in. Rada will eventually get into this mix too. Nolan isn’t bad at 1B. Andujar will be an adventure at 3B. It will also be less predictable when Moore is up, playing 2B and Frazier is in the OF. Soler is… bad. Though not as bad as I thought he’d be. We need O’Hoppe/Travis to do a better job next year. If we are mixing in a lot of kids by the end of the year and deploying Andujar/Frazier as flexible then the defense will likely be hit or miss either way. BUT, if we absolutely positively need a fast line up with really good defense we may eventually see one that includes an infield of Nolan/Frazier/Neto/Falefa with an outfield of Rada/Teo/Bader…. other than at catcher this may be one of the best defenses in the game.
Offense: The starting 9 in the line up I have listed below has a career average OBP of .329. Some may come in lower, have a really off year, some may come in higher. But that .329 would be ranking us third in the MLB last year. We were third from last in 2025 at .294. True, the only real power in the line up will be Trout and Soler/Neto. But every spot in the line up has a guy in it who will probably hit at least 12 home runs, maybe more. It’s likely a weak hitting bench, and we NEED things like Trout/Soler/O’Hoppe getting on a more solid footing at the plate. But through and through, this line up is kind of like having a pile of Yoan Moncada… And, again, there are few spots where prospects are blocked, and a near future outfield of “power bat” + Bader/Rada/Teodosio is 1985 Cardinals sick. If any of the kids we get in those trades takes off, or a guy like Moore demands playing time, we have the ability to play them and that should be a goal this season and in 2027. With all the positions Falefa, Frazier and Andujar can field getting a kid in the line up is safer and easy.
Over all, I see this team as fun to watch. It will have some defensive flash to it, even if it also has Soler/Andujar (at 3rd) doing badly. Say we get Kepler, you will enjoy his arm. Frazier is actually a solid all around defender at several spots, Falefa is a plus defender everywhere but catcher, etc. You have to look at their brefs. A lot of these guys are gonna provide solid defense at more than one position and hit medium good.
If Soler bounces back to career norms his horrid defense won’t hurt so much. There can be games where Soler DHs and we deploy a better defensive OF. Hopefully we’ll have more innings where the hitters get on base, move along the base paths fairly well, and score more runs even if the HR totals fall off a bit.
The pitching will likely have some games where it is very good, some games where the pen collapses. This balance will depend a lot on how Weaver and Crismatt work out and if Ben Joyce bounces back. But there’s gonna be a lot of weird innings pitched by weird names and that’s sure to fail sometimes. I just hope Maddox + these arms adds up to improved over all performance. It also will allow some of our prospect arms to get some innings this year. Yes. I am aware that this is a very right handed pitching staff. I don’t care all that much, not at the level we are competing at. The left handed relief options should at least keep us from really desperate options from SLC.
What we did gain is eight very good to solid position player prospects, most of which will be Trash Pandas or in SLC to start the year. We also got three pitching prospects added to our mix who will be at three different levels this spring. Add them to our current crop of arms plus Rada, Moore, the young catchers in the system and a couple other position kids like Raudi…. It’s not gonna be a bottom five system anymore and we have kids that will likely be ready to play at the end of 2026 or in Spring 2027. Please, Baseball Jesus, have PTP draft a bunch of position players this June too. Then we have about 3-5 years where we should have at least a couple viable prospects coming up in the field and on the mound each year.
Also of note: I would consider trading Nolan Schanuel mid-season if the price is right and we have prospects who might benefit from 1B opening up. The same is true of Joyce and O’Hoppe. I would also make extending Zach Neto a priority, though with the understanding that we will pay him like a SS but may move him off short if we need to.
Here is your roster. If we are lucky they will be fun to watch and compete for third place. BUT we will hopefully have broken out of our 200 million dollars to suck funk by 2028. There will, we hope, also be a bunch of kids that graduate into this mix. For example, Moore or Rada show up. Or we trade someone at the deadline. Guys like Frazier and Andujar (a surprisingly good LF) can move in and out of the infield. The only really jammed up positions are Nolan at 1B and the Soler/Trout issue. I put salaries and career average OBP by their names.
1B – Nolan Schanuel (820K) – 353
2B – Adam Frazier (3M) – 326
3B – Miguel Andujar (3M) – 315
SS – Zach Neto (4.1M) – 316
RF – Jorge Soler (13M) – 328
CF – Harrison Bader (13M) – 313
LF – Austin Hays (4M) – 313 or Max Kepler (4M) – 316
C – Logan O’Hoppe (2.9M) – 286
DH – Mike Trout (37.1M) – 409
C2 – Travis D’arnaud (6M)
OF2 – Bryce Teodosio (820K)
INF2 – Isaih Kiner-Falefa (5M) – 311
SP – Yusei Kikuchi (21.2M)
SP – Chris Paddock (8M)
SP – Jack Kachanowicz
SP – Luke Weaver (9M)
SP – Nabil Crismatt (2.5M)
LHRP – Brock Burke (2M)
LHRP – Caleb Fergeson (3M)
LHRP – Andrew Chafin (2M)
RHRP – Robert Stephenson (11M)
RHRP – Ben Joyce
RHRP – Ryan Zeferjahn
RHRP – Sam Bachman
RHRP – Jose Fermin
RELOAD FOR MORE MEANINGFULLY POINTLESS BASEBALL! Hopefully for just one or two more seasons.
You are welcome.
