This year’s Hall Of Fame Ballot is out. Several former Angels are on the ballot (Kendrick, Hunter, K-Rod). Fangraphs says nobody on the ballot is a slam dunk. This article concerns the toughest Rule 5 decision for each team. For the Angels, it is whether to protect Walbert Urena. Fangraphs discusses the situation and points out that the Angels only have 34 men on the 40 man roster so there should be room enough for Urena, Joel Hurtado, and Samy Natera Jr.
Having worked on the coaching staff, the Angels are now focused on roster upgrades. They want pitchers, of course, but they are also looking for a left handed bat. Supposedly, Robert Stephenson will be ready for spring training. The MLB official site spent a little time discussing what the Angels might do at center field.
The Padres re-signed pitcher Kyle Hart. Right handed reliever Nick Sandlin elected free agency rather than accept being outrighted to the minors. Lefty Ryan Yarborough agreed to a deal with the Yankees. It seems the only thing standing in the way of Josh Naylor returning to the Mariners is his physical.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Well we all knew we would be shopping Ward this winter and sure enough it has happened. What’s crazy is the value on the trade sim for this. 26 vs. 3 in favor of the halos! This is a great value trade for us.
Look even if the guy needs way more time to rehab and be ready, we have the ability to give this to him as we aren’t in a win now situation. So slow and steady please with your new hot rod in the garage Coach Maddux!
I like it! Good job Perry
Guess Wards trade value went up with Grisham’s acceptance of the QO
I just saw the news flash, late to the news. Angels need to shake it up. I’m not a Ward guy and I’m bad at hiding that, So, I”m on-board.
Some information about elbow debridement surgery.
https://www.jshoulderelbow.org/article/S1058-2746(24)00488-9/fulltext
Maybe he learns how to pitch more effectively with less velocity saving it only for when he needs it. I think Maddux is here to teach guys like Soriano, Detmers and now Rodriguez how to locate, game plan and pitch rather than just throw 100 mph out there and hopefully they batters are overwhelmed and miss.
and we have Kikuchi as well. The rotation on paper actually is coming together nicely. I’ve got Ocean’s 11 in my head. You think we need one more? Ok we go get one more…..
From where I sit, we need to replace Silent C, Anderson, Hendricks since he retired. I’d like to sign/trade for at least two more sub 4.25 ERA pitchers. Detmers stays in BP if Jansen is not signed. A league average starting group would increase SP WAR to about 9.5 which is 3 WAR more than last year. Ward’s WAR last season was a hair less than 3. So I’m all for putting one of our fast, young defenders in left instead of Trout. The young guy won’t hit but if it improves defense I can live with it. Complaining about team defense as some have done and then put Trout in left doesn’t make sense to me.
Now replace Ward with a shiny overpaid FA Perry!!
If Trout is hell bent on playing in the field, it’s Mike’s job to lose. Sure would like to move off of Soler. Any possible takers?
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/47017306/former-angels-pitcher-mike-morin-testifies-tyler-skaggs-eric-kay-secretive-drug-use-pill-distribution
Holy shit
OFFICIAL: The Angels have acquired RHP Grayson Rodriguez from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for OF Taylor Ward.
https://x.com/Angels/status/1990988896054964358?t=EtPXTpCcKzswGfAJTgUV8A&s=19
Raudi will be starting by June lol
Very interesting trade.
Upsets my IIWPM piece, lol, but also respects the spirit of it (I traded Ward for two pitchers with similar controllable years to Rodriguez).
First off, based on projected salaries, they just clawed back $13 million for free agent expenditures in 2026.
Even if Rodriguez is out of commission for a year or two, with four years of control, you may get a mid-rotation pitcher for a couple years when the team enters a contention window (let’s imagine ’28-30).
A couple years of a rotation piece and $13M is a pretty solid return for one year of Ward.
I saw that and wasn’t sure it was for real. Let’s see if Rodriguez is healthy
Correct Eric. Let’s see if he is healthy with an eye toward him not being healthy and not pitching well.
I have to think that the Orioles don’t have too much faith in Grayson’s recovery from injury It’s a worthwhile risk for the Angels I think, but far from certain.
What in the world are they doing? Trading their number 4 hitter for a guy that missed all of 2025 with an injury and there’s no certainty he will even be good? This is a total salary dump. They should have been able to get a reliable arm and somehow didn’t. I assume this means they will spend Ward’s money on a CF.
Rodriquez 🤝 Stephenson
Stephenson to Rodriquez….. Welcome, let me show you around….This is where we rehab, supposedly they will be fixing the AC before next summer.
“Dr Steve Yoon and his team will get you hooked, uhm I mean, some real good treatment” 💊💉
I used to work with a guy named Steve Yoon. But he was an electrical engineer.
Ward was gone after this year. It’s a pitching lottery ticket for a young controllable pitcher and they weren’t going to win this year anyway. saves 8M from last year and close to 15M this year. Trout can play left and Soler can DH.
Does that mean Trout Farm comes back?!?
I heart salary dump. If we could get our payroll down to something like 70M that would be fun to watch you watch.
I don’t like the trade. Wish they got more for Ward and someone who was healthy
At least Ward will get a chance to go to the playoffs next year with that young good team
More? Rodriguez was the #1 pitching prospect in baseball as recently as 2022, put up 2 WAR in each of ’23 and ’24, and costs nothing.
Even if he went fully under the knife w/ TJ this season, it’s a lot of upside in the final 2-3 years of his contract. Not a free agent until 2030.
Ward had very little excess value.
I forgot Maddox is our pitching coach and can do wonders. I liked Ward and will miss him but baseball is a business
Its not without risk, but Grayson has frontline upside, and $13m this year gets you a Bader or Polanco.
Or gets Arte a few more cans of Suavecito mustache wax
Oh c’mon, that’s Ed Norton.
Yah I think Bader is a must now. Still need to keep Trout/Soler off the field.
Why settle for Bader when you could get Bader AND Bellinger and still keep payroll around its 2023 level of $227M!
I mean If I Was Perry Minasian, that’s what I would do.
But then there’s that pesky old fart of an owner to contend with…
I like to go to other teams’ chat groups to see what they’re saying. In this case they feel surprised the O’s gave up on Rodriguez and accept but aren’t excited about getting an older (32) one-year OF. So if Rodriguez can come back then we scored.
They just got “more” for Ward.
I’m glad we are refreshing our supply of Rodriguii.
Ward traded for Grayson?
Are we happy?
Quick someone tell me
Sigh. So far it looks like pretty much all the guys I was hoping to get left off their team’s 40 man rosters got added. No one wants to just give us a good prospect for some reason. Don’t they know these guys will all fail anyway?
Apropos of nothing… Is Edward Norton altering his look to play a certain embattled major league baseball owner?
The Rays Jadher Areinamo is intriguing. Can play 3 infield positions and rarely K’s but also has little pop and is in AA.
He’s crushing the Venezuelan Winter League right now.
Bring me this kid…. if he’s left unprotected. With a team as shitty as ours there should be plenty of AA/AAA blocked prospects we can at least choose to bring into Tempe.
I’d pick Ramon Urias up cheap. Can play 3B.
A guy I like who just got DFAed in the 40 man cleansing cycle:
Josh Winckowski
We could try out far worse options in the pen. I remember him having a pretty good fastball/slider/splitter mix. Haven’t looked, but just from watching him against the Angels and the Rays (or Tigers?) he seemed to walk a lot of guys. But worth a crack at fixing him up maybe.
BB/9 below 4 in every season he’s pitched. Compare that to Sandy Gaston (woof), who Perry just picked up.
Winckowski is more of a pitch to contact guy with a 52% GB rate. Command is mostly fine for a low-K guy like this.
It would be nutso to leave any of Urena, Hurtado or Natera Jr off the Angels 40-man.
Key is an edge case though. Might swap him for a bat on the bubble of some other team’s 40-man roster crunch – I suggest going after the Dodger’s Ryan Ward (who will be a mention in my IIWPM piece, if I can wrap it up in the next day or two).
UPDATE: They only appear to have protected Urena. I think Natera Jr and Hurtado are definitely at risk in the Rule 5 draft – even more straightforward cases for pick up than Soriano was when they lost him.
Hellz yeah. I’d totally pick up Ryan Ward. Then trade Taylor Ward. I betcha he manages to hit like Adell with slightly higher OBP and a few less HR.
Yep, trading for (R) Ward and separately trading (T) Ward for pitching is in every one of my IIWPM scenarios.
He’s five or six down the OF prospect ladder for the Dodgers, so seems very acquirable, can play the OF corners and 1b, and is left handed. He’s basically a Calhoun/Walsh flyer you roster as a fourth OF and hope he produces like a regular for one or two years.
Who knows? He’s probably been dicked around a fair amount cause there’s always a hotter prospect or two ahead of him or even on his team. Maybe if they just settle him in LF and let him get comfy he blooms like a lovely flower?
Today is a great day for American League Pickers like myself. WHO WILL BE LEFT OFF TEAMS 40 MAN ROSTERS!?!?!
I am waiting with baited breath!
Skaggs trial – no shortage of idiots
Kay was trashed, the Angels organization has been trashed. Next up, the Skaggs family
The Skagg family is going to be attacked if any take the stand.
They’ve already been on the stand. Mom states she wishes the Angels asked her if Tyler had a drug problem and wife got a quick brief on his vices from the family to only never bring the subject up apparently.
Did anyone ever go after the 3 bars Andrew Gallo went to in the lead up to his drunk driving? I thought that was supposed to be a thing.
I’m searching and I can’t find any mention of the Adenhart family suing the bars.
I do remember working in a bar and being repeatedly warned about liability if I over served somebody. Gallo and his buddy were obviously hammered when they left the last bar.
…same thing when you work a convenience store, i didn’t make a lot of friends when I refused to sell alcohol to obviously drunk patrons, who by the way just drove to the store.
I have NEVER been cursed out more thoroughly or animatedly than when I was young and cut off a 50 year old woman at a bar. She hit me double barrel in both English and Spanish and mixed in all the bad words in both.
I did not know that about convenience stores but it makes sense. There was a 7/11 across the street from our fraternity house that violated those terms many times. We were walking, though.
That’s rich. Had the Halos contacted her he would have a legit MLBPA grievance and the Halos would really have been in a no-win situation.
In a piece not behind a paywall, Skaggs mother comes off as sympathetic but also complicit.
She says the Angels never asked her about Tyler’s drug addiction. That’s not a normal question an employer asks to a parent. And it would likely violate worker protections.
However, she says she told the team doctor not to prescribe Tyler Percocet following his surgery because she was aware of Tyler’s drug problems.
So she knew Tyler had a drug problem and knew he was in an industry full of painkillers but she said nothing to the Angels whatsoever, probably to protect Tyler’s privacy and/or paychecks. But she’s upset the Angels didn’t ask her about Tyler’s drug problem.
I think the paycheck is clearly the most important victim in this case.
The loss of it is what is driving the whole sideshow, IMHO.
…and mom and Carli
willscorch the earth have spent 6+ years from Anaheim to Santa Monica tohonor his legacysecure that paycheck.at least it will end soon.
Kay’s ex. I felt bad for her.
Which brings up a question: when teams trade players, are they expected to hand over injury information to the other team so neither team ends up dumping a hidden issue on their trading partner? If true, does that then include addiction-related issues? And if yes, how does that work with HIPPA laws?
Fascinating and I wondered much of the same.
Things I think I know:
The CBA has language that allows some medical information to be shared. X ray and MRI results, for example, and treatments for injuries.
I do not know what all can and can’t be shared. Admission for drug treatment may or may not be.
But there seems to be no indication Tyler was ever in a drug treatment program in Arizona or anywhere else. So if the D’backs didn’t treat him, there would be nothing to disclose.
This just in. MLB team is seeking more pitching! I am waiting for Perry to come out and declare that the team fully intends to compete this season so you can all shit yourselves.
I knew it!! I just knew it!!
It has the be the case that Rendon and Stephenson are two of the worst free agent pickups of the last five year. Fans talk about penny-pinching here and there but that’s $51 million down the drain in 2025 and likely 2026. Obviously, we all hope for production but it isn’t realistic.
Because of those moves, the what would Perry do series feature projected trades of productive players for magic beans and hope for beanstalks. It’s a shame.
You cannot even compare the Stephenson deal to the Rendon deal. They are in two completely different stratospheres. The Rendon deal is likely the worst in MLB history.
My most goofiest fun time wish is that Rendon actually shows up in Tempe and isn’t a physical wreck, then just plops out a full season at 3B with an .800 OPS… like it’s just a normal thing. I would marvel at that every day for seven months and I would believe in magic.
I wasn’t comparing — just noting it’s the same team and that’s a ton of money to burn. I don’t know of other deals that bad around the league, although there may be some.
Robert Stephenson???? 😂😂😂😂😂 Okay …. So the over/under for innings pitched in 2026 will be 4 or 5?
Can we send him to the Las Vegas A’s? Then he can go to Treasure Island.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
His contract : Long Gone Silver
or Gone in sixty seconds
I’m thinking that perhaps you missed the Robert Louis Stevenson joke?
Maybe there’s a Jim Hawkins somewhere we could sign to replace him?