Morning Angels fans, last News Crash of 2025. Have some links before you drink.
Angels News
Anthony Rendon has been bought out. His last year of his deal will be paid off in the next 3-5 years as Perry and Arte paid him to just F off. Worst contract in Angels history? Or was Hamilton worse?
Want to know how bad Rendon was? Here is the tracker to see how much money he made by being injured.
The Angels sign Kirby Yates for 1/5M. He had a bad 2025, but maybe he can be fixed?
Around Baseball
Sarah Langs looks back at 2025 about the fun things from MLB this year. Needless to say, nothing Angels made the list.
The MLB HOF tracker is now at over 100 public ballots. So far it seems that Felix Hernandez is getting the biggest jump in votes compared to last year, while Beltran and Andruw Jones lead with over 80%. While non public ballots do skew fewer names, my best guess is that these two will be the ones who get in this year.
As 2025 comes to a close, I want to say thank you on behalf of everyone here at CTPG. Yes, the Angels have brought us pain for a long time now. But we can bear that pain together as a community, free from cooperate overlord bootlicking and being able to be honest with ourselves and others. This site will be 6 years old next month, and seeing how many have stuck around is very heartwarming. Some things will change, as it always does. Jeff will be working with Sports Illustrated, the Angels may have one final chance to be not terrible before the lockout, and I am now an uncle, which still feels weird for me to type.
Thank you for being here, because we literally couldn’t do it without you. Let’s have a great 2026, no matter how bad the Angels are.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
Angels probably trading for Arenado with that extra cash. Whoopie.
My prediction for what it’s worth is Angels sign both Japanese players and trade for Arenado to distract from the settlement and put players on the stadium for marketing
Boras is the agent for Rendon.
Boras is the agent for Okamoto.
Boras is negotiating a deferment of Rendon’s salary to free up payroll space for the Angels while simultaneously pitching them his replacement.
The dude is playing chess here.
Many adjectives can be used to describe Scott Boras, and stupid isn’t one of them.
Tatsuya Imai’s signing deadline is January 2nd and he’s also represented by Boras. There’s 0.00001% chance it happens, but it would be sick if we ended up with the Japanese double-bagger of Okamoto and Imai.
That would be sweet and at least give us some storylines to follow this season.
With those expected contracts, I’d imagine Rada would be the CF’er but would they try Adell in left again? It was disastrous last time.
We gotta keep Adell in RF no matter what, which puts Trout in LF 🤷🏼♂️
Trout’s not playing LF.
A few years ago, World Series-winning manager Joe Maddon made that suggestion in the pre-season, and that talk was immediately shut down (who shut that suggestion down?).
Gold Glove- and World Series- winner Mookie Betts made the transition to short stop to help the Dodgers.
Trout (who doesn’t have a Gold Glove, nor a World Series title) refused to move when Maddon suggested it.
Why would Trout change his mind?
What are the Angels going to do? Void the rest of his contract?
Here’s one thing we Angels fans can expect of Trout in 2026: dozens of strikeouts with man on 3rd and less than 2 outs; and lots of solo HRs.
Do you have a link that states that Trout refused to go to LF? People keep saying stuff like that, but I’ve never seen any proof.
Trout pushed back hard on the idea of moving out of CF in 2022.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/story/2022-03-14/mike-trout-left-field-joe-maddon-angels-season
You’re as bad as Kings fans who bash Drew Doughty.
Phil is committed to bashing Trout at all times lol
Yes, I am more prone to bashing Trout nowadays (as compared to when he was in his prime).
Do you know when I started to change my mind about Trout?
At that moment when Maddon made the suggestion, and then there was no more talk about the move IMMEDIATELY after that suggestion.
As a player, you need to help the team.
Seriously, what’s the big deal with moving from CF to LF? It’s not like he was a Gold Glove outfielder.
And, it’s not like he was asked to move to Catcher.
I think the Angels will sign Jon Berti to play 3rd. Used to steal bases, used to hit, now on the old side.
What’s DeCinces doing these days?
Boras is playing chess while Arte is playing checkers and Perry is just playing with himself.
guck guck guck guck
Let the arrows fly…
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-rumors-trades-and-signings?t=trades-and-transactions
Nooooooooo!!!!!!!
Nolan’s one of my favorite players from back in the day… so my stupid side would be stoked and hope he has a re-birth of sorts.
But. Yep. This is a bad idea. Especially since we’d have to trade something to get him.
I think we might get something for taking him based on the simulators. He’s one of my favorites too, and he’s the type that could resurge. But if we don’t get anything for taking that contract – that’s a hard no for me.
It’s inevitAble.
If we get a legit prospect or two for taking on Nolan’s contract, I think we should do it. It’s not my money.
Yep, I’m for it. That’s what we should be doing in the position we’re in, where we suck, are a long ways from winning, but we have money.
I’d rather we not bring in a washed 3rd baseman to replace our now former washed 3rd baseman
Yes but who else could Arte put on one of the huge banners outside the home plate entrance? Arredondo solves that important problem.
Put a different usher up there every week.
I really do like that idea!
Put the Helpful Honda Guy or the Cars 4 Kids Band up there
The wanna-be cowboy from Tustin (let’s ride!)
NOT the Kars 4 Kids band. I hate that damn song and my family makes fun of me as every time it comes on the radio I instantly turn the station, turn it off, or listen to a CD ( yeah, I’m old, and every one can hit off mah lawn).
Kirby Yates is perfectly indicative of the entire offseason strategy thus far: Throw a bunch of low cost mud at the wall and pray that some of it sticks.
The Rengifo hate is beyond irrational. He gave us far more ROI than almost any other player over the past decade. I hope he lands elsewhere and absolutely flourishes.
You’re probably right about Rengifo. But my small, angry man ovaries say you are still wrong and he is horrible. DO NOT make me actually look at his stats. I have eyes. And feelz. My truth matters most to me.
Rengifo had no range and was clearly lazy at times. He led the team in errors, but let’s pat his back for getting so many hits in meaningless games. That’s my rationale. How many times would we say, “Rengifo giveth when he got a hit and taketh away when get got an error right after?”
As I said previously, I still liked Rendon more than Rengifo.
May we have the pleasure of never repeating either name again with respect to this franchise.
Career WAR as an Angel
Rengifo = 6.7
Rendone = 3.9
Career earnings as an a Angel
Rengifo = $14.5 million
Rendone = $245 million
Rendone and earnings shouldn’t be in the same sentence without a negative qualifier.
I would be intrigued to see their defensive rankings. Rendon was never a liability defensively. I would have preferred that Rengifo spent more time on the IR.
Rendone – Worst contract in hindsight.
Hamilton – Worst contract with foresight.
Both so bad. Although I was hopeful, I thought Rendon’s was just too much and that’s not knowing the passion issue. Living in DFW – I had seen how unstoppable Hamilton could be. He was barreling everything. I thought he could get it back – like he had before. Character matters in these big contracts – and should be the most important check box along with injury concerns. Teams need to stop paying for the past and look at the guy. Lets take for instance Bregman. I think you’re buying the old Bregman. But, and this is a big but, he’s a grinder that will be that way until the end. Will he be the same? No. But he’ll contribute because of his approach to the game. Am I saying to sign him? No. But on big contracts, find guys that love the game and have a grind to be the best they can be. Look at what the Dodgers got with Rojas. A guy with declining tools, but a dude that’s going to bring it every time he touches the field.
By the way – Bregman is a Boras guy – so someone is going to get fleeced.
Problem is, people change with 300M dollars. For example, I’m not so sure Trout’s a grinder anymore. On the flip side, I was fairly sure Francisco Lindor would fade once he got huge money in a big city…. and he is the team leader, generally playing 150 games a year and posting 5+ WAR a season. Better than in Cleveland. Just with stupid hair. The guy could “coast” with a few 3 WAR seasons at this point and make the HOF.
In Rendon’s case I kind of think that people misunderstand the image he had in Washington. “Tony Two Bags” was cool. Unflappable. It wasn’t that he didn’t grind, or cared less, it was that he was stoic and wasn’t a red ass about things. This stood out on a team with young Bryce Harper, Papelbon, etc. But he was competitive. I remember how he was frustrated that he was basically a gold glove 3B, and you don’t get that without grind, but he was always edged out by Arrenado all the time. Everyone saw how he calmly dispatched the opposition in the Nat’s title run. But even when they won he wasn’t a spazz about it, though he was clearly very happy.
We shouldn’t have been all that shocked that he handled always being injured and basically losing his ability to play baseball the same way. He kept trying to come back, kept having fun surgeries etc. You don’t do that unless you want to keep playing. He’s also clearly not a wuss who’s afraid of a fight. He just wasn’t interested in sharing his emotions with MarineLayer etc. It doesn’t mean he wasn’t passionate. It means he wasn’t performative.
I think that’s why actual baseball players he was on teams with liked him. He was steady. But that doesn’t work for the Gilmore Girls of Baseball Fan is Short for Fanatic types. So he’s an asshole who never really cared about baseball and just wanted free money and years of physical therapy.
Supposedly – there were signs (don’t remember who said it)- and some ex teammates did have a problem with him on his intensity level. But – the Angels did go for it – and I don’t fault them for that. One of my favorite moments in the last 5 years was his left handed HR. That was so fun.
Love your analogy of thinking him excelling vs Lindor with the cash in their pockets. I kind of thought the same thing on the Lindor front when he got his big check, so I can totally relate.
Re: big contracts – the line from Marvin Hager (RIP) comes to mind. Something about it’s hard to be motivated when you’re wearing silk pajamas.
Excellent. A complete review using brevity like a master. I’m sending this quote to my son.
I never understood the Hamilton deal. He was a known substance abuser who got things together in Texas with a whole support system. Plus he was swinging at curves on the outside part of the plate he couldn’t hit. All of this was know beforehand . The chances of him making it through 5 years elsewhere without a problem were minimal. But they signed him anyway. Once he turned up having lost 15-20 pounds, it was a red flag.
Rendon was an unusual sign. He was a nice player that had a great postseason one year. That’s not a good formula. He knew how to play which should have helped. He obviously wasn’t going to be what he had been before as the contract aged. I had him pegged as a guy with injury issues. But an expectation existed that his know how should at least make him serviceable as a slap hitter and fielder in his last couple years. He never got there though. The deal was too long — as was known when it was signed. But it wound up far worse than that.
Thing is, he didn’t have injury issues. His injury history was pretty normal. Put another way, if you were gonna say Nationals version of Rendon was a guy you shouldn’t sign because of injury concerns then you would also have to not sign pretty much every other free agent.
They did pay him too much. But we were in the “don’t waste Trout etc” phase. We needed a 3B. So we paid the premium for him… a thing we keep saying we want an owner to do when the team is competitive.
I knew he’d slow down with age, but figured he’d be a good defender at 3B for a long time with fading power but still fairly good offensive stats as he got older. The contract would hurt the last couple years, but OK. He was still a beast in 2020. Then the juju ate his body. And that was it. Once Angels fan cancer hits your baseball mojo you have less than even odds of ever being good again.
Or walking without a limp.
Rendon was really bad luck, although as mentioned,the length of the contract was a bad decision going in. All the other bad contracts were bad decisions before the player was acquired or signed. All clubs end up with a bad contract once in a while. The Angels made a habit of it and a way of life. They just made one bad decision after another.
I totally respect Andruw Jones. (Maybe not how is name is spelled – but his game. I love great defense.) But I think Edmonds was better. And to me, the numbers support it. Jones has +24.4 dWAR (the most ridiculous stat in baseball, especially on historic prediction) vs Edmonds +6.4. Jones won 10 Gold Gloves (he was a beast) – but Edmonds won 8 (he was a beast too). Let me remind you Keith Hernandez – an 11 time Gold Glover is a +1.3 Career dWAR. It’s a worthless stat – which makes WAR a worthless stat. I’m a bigger sized HOF fan, because there are so many more teams and players than in older era. They were both HOF caliber players.
Andruw Jones was my favorite player growing up. What a shame that he completely let himself go at only 30 years old.
But at 30 he already had 12 years in the league. Guy was so good so early! Called into the postseason at 18 and never looked back
Jones was 11% better than the league as a hitter. I don’t believe that is a HOF. Edmonds was 32% better. They are not comparable as hitters. Jones was a very good defensive CF.
Guys like Hernandez and Jeter winning gold gloves is far more of an indictment of the voters than the dWAR metric, although the dWAR numbers need to be taken with large grains of salt.
My son and I still joke about Jeter’s gold gloves.
dWAR before the modern tracking is utterly worthless. A total joke. Jeter did not have range and would have surely scored low on DRS – but back then coaches were more thinking about making the routine. They treated the great plays as bonus, but you needed to make the “routine.” Somewhere between 10 and 15 years ago, they added SDI (SABR Defensive Index – I think) into the voting- but it’s still 75% voted on by coaches and managers and 25% SDI. So it’s still a popularity contest, but they are surely guided by defensive metrics. DRS is so much better than dWAR, it’s a joke. Jeter had a .986 fielding percentage over one of his GG seasons, which is still subjective judgment, but he made only 6 errors on the season at SS. That’s the kind of stuff they were voting on. You don’t think Hernandez deserved Gold Gloves? Say what?
I love Sarah Langs. I just see her name and I feel good. She’s one of the best at what she does and has such awesome energy. I remember watching her before her ALS took over and thinking – this gal is great. And though her ALS has progressed, she keeps getting better. Keep battling Sarah – we love you.
Let’s see, you are in a Angels management strategy meeting, there a a huge list of available relievers, dare I say, a plethora, besides the SHIT TON of arms Perry has drafted, SOMEONE floats the idea of signing the OVER 38 yr old pitcher with high mileage on his arm and a over 5 ERA, and it’s agreed that he must be worth 5 million a year, certainly not a number closer to league minimum, because he is a veteran with name recognition! Yeeeesh.
This must be the guy making the decisions.
Seriously. It’s all “this guy had a good season at some point and some name recognition so let’s take a shot”. These folks who think it’s based on science or scouting or anything else than a flyer and a hope keep deluding themselves.
But now I know who I will watch this year as we reload and go for it.
They obviously have some backward behind the scenes stats plus maybe some opinions from Maddox as to who can be effective this year. It has to be based on something like that. Otherwise, it’s just pin the tail on the donkey.
100% Kevin. The technology is being deployed in facilities all over the country that can tell them so much. Trackman and Rapsodo are in a lot of places now as they have become affordable for training centers and not just the pro and D1 teams. Slow motion cameras are on the rise too – and that can measure a lot. You can almost be assured that most of these guys are putting up bullpen metrics that they think they can work with. Or had metrics in the past they think might return post injury recovery. We shall see. The thing is everyone else are getting those numbers too.
The hopium take on our pitching acquisitions — GRod, Manoah, Romano, Yates — is that Maddux’s input is a driving force and he believes he can work his magic on these dudes.
Yes and then the team will only lose games 4-2. Get that team ERA down and it should fully expose the lack of offense.
Until we can pitch, nothing else matters.
Pitching has been the bigger weakness, it needs fixing first. There’s offense there as I’m counting on the kids to continue to get better and a bounce back from Trout and Soler.
If not fix it later, but get better pitching first.
I totally agree re pitching but want to keep this on planet Earth. We are talking about pitchers who are projects AT BEST and the team does not have the offense (unless we think magically) to support a roster full of project pitchers even with the mystical Mike Maddux unicorn.
I think Maddux had a lot of say – as he should with his experience. Now the question is “will he be right?” If one is a home run, maybe not a bad strategy as we can replace the bad with cheaper bad.
Yah this reeks of Maddox giving the GM a list of pitchers he wanted for Xmas and Perry doing he best to bring that here on the cheap.
It reeks of snapping up low cost trash and hoping that some of it doesn’t stink.