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LA Angeles Wednesday News Crash: LOLZ A’s

January 7, 2026

Morning Angels fans, have some links.

Angels News

Did you know Mark Trumbo and Mike DiGiovanna have a new show on Youtube? Yes, former Angel Mark Trumbo. Here is episode 1.

And, uh, the Kirby Yates deal is now official. 40 man roster is 38.

Around Baseball

The A’s cannot be the Las Vegas A’s. (Yet) The team tried to trademark it but failed. It is likely to go through once they actually move there but it will be funny if they just fail to get the name.

Slow Free Agency means people are getting desperate. Like this Toronto restaurant owner who offers free Steak for Life is Bo Bichette returns to the team.

Part of the slow FA was the fact that the Japanese players coming over had more hype than pay for their contracts. Could it be that they just aren’t nearly as good as previous players coming over as of late?

Apparently the Reds were willing to offer more for Schwarber but were let down. This is either Schwarber using the Reds to get Philly to pay more, or the Reds lying to make it seem like they are trying to their fans.

Foolish Bailey is focusing on the Foolish Bailey channel and not his OG Foolish Baseball channel from now on. The reasoning being doing what he loves more than what he needs to for the Youtube algorithm, and also he has been at it for 7 years.

Cleveland traded Justin Bruihl to the Cards for cash. He was DFA-ed on Dec 20th… after coming from the Blue Jays. The curse of being a AAAA player…

The IRL news is… tense right now, so all you get is that the Winter League and the WBC for Venezuela is up in the air right now. I hate this reality…

Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!

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Pineapple12

17 hours ago

Ultimately, the move to restructure Rendon’s contract might not have been to pursue a big-time free agent or substantively improve the 2026 roster through free agency. However, Minasian wouldn’t concede on that point.

“Time value money,” Minasian said when asked why the restructuring made sense for the team. “If you can spread something out over a certain period of time, instead of pay it right away. I don’t know who wouldn’t do that. Would you not do that?

“It’s when you pay it. Again, I’m not going to get into details. We did what we did. And I’m not going to give a lesson on time value money. You guys know.”.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6951352/2026/01/07/angels-anthony-rendon-contract-savings-spending/

Editor

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Jeff Joiner

16 hours ago

Reply to Pineapple12

Plus if Arte sells somebody else is paying that money. Sure it gets worked out in the balance sheet, but that’s a blip on the radar on a 10 digit deal.

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gitchogritchoffmypettis

16 hours ago

Reply to Pineapple12

I pretty much always just pay for stuff rather than paying interest on it. I must be stupid.

Trusted Member

2pints

16 hours ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

why pay less now when you can instead pay more over a longer period of time?

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Fansince1971

10 hours ago

Reply to Pineapple12

Is it only me that gets a sense of petulance and frustration from Perry in this article? That could be Blum’s “voice” but the quotes seem quite frustrated to me.

Legend

MarineLayer

8 hours ago

Reply to Pineapple12

I’m not sure Minasian knew there was going to be math when Arturo offered him the intern job.

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gitchogritchoffmypettis

18 hours ago

And HEYOOOOH! The Angels actually took a guy off waivers I thought may be useful! Wade Meckler. Left handed hitting CF. Alright.

Editor

Super Member

Charles Sutton

18 hours ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

Supposedly plus plus speed.

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steelgolf

17 hours ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

This is the kind of guy they need to pick up. Not a power hitter, but a high contact, low strike rate player to get on base and make things happen.

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gitchogritchoffmypettis

16 hours ago

Reply to steelgolf

He sounds like…. what I wish Bryce Teodosio was. If we can get defense and speed with a league average OPS in CF I will take it and smile.

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Jeff Joiner

16 hours ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

Like the move. He’s likely Teodosio’s replacement and I’d be happy with a speedy, left handed, high contact guy on the team.

I really think we are discounting just how horrid our defense was last year. I’m willing to bet getting some good gloves would make our pitching look a lot better.

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gitchogritchoffmypettis

18 hours ago

In case anyone’s wondering. The Baseball Trade SIM has the Edward Cabrera trade scored:

Cubs 27.6 I Marlins 19.4

And, as expected, I have already seen a few fans of other teams who wanted EC declaring this a massive underpay. It is an underpay. I mean, just look at it, you’d think the Marlins would get at least one more mid-prospect back right?

It must be cool to have prospects in your system to trade for starting pitching you need.

Editor

Super Member

Turk's Teeth

16 hours ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

The Marlins have wanted Caissie for awhile. I think they considered six years of him worth three years of Cabrera straight up – and their rotation depth chart is still a dozen arms deep even subtracting Cabrera.

I think the sim might be underrating Caissie a bit. Seems like a fair enough swap.

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gitchogritchoffmypettis

14 hours ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

Yeah. I figured Cassie is developed and ready to go and he’s top of the Marlin’s list nice guys wise. He fits their building plan well, gotta get some young offense to match their pitching so they can win it all again and then sell all their players…. again.

Legend

gitchogritchoffmypettis

19 hours ago

Sigh…. hey Jeff. Owen Cassie to the Marlins maybe in a Cabrera trade?

You like Cassie too right?

The Marlins. Another team that actually rebuilds.

Editor

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Jeff Joiner

16 hours ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

I liked Cassie on Turk’s advice (I’ve learned to follow his advice).

I think I had Ward and Detmers going to CHC for a haul in an article. Cassie was the slugging corner outfielder to replace the outgoing slugging corner outfielder.

Miami could be a sneaky fun team to watch this year. Lots of good pitching and possibly just enough offense to make it stand.

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gitchogritchoffmypettis

16 hours ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Yeah. If no one regresses to a crash and Cassie is solid they have their OF set for a while.

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Super Member

Turk's Teeth

21 hours ago

Baseball America released their Top 30s today (they’d released their Angels top 10 in December).

It’s remarkable how overweight the system is in pitching now – mostly young development arms 3-5 years out and relievers. 75% of their top 20 are pitchers. Having a lot of pitching is a good problem to have, but most of these arms are high variance and less of the polished starter profile that could help the team’s rotation in the near-term.

Of the 8 position players on the list, only two are MLB ready (Guzman, Rada), with Raudi R perhaps 1-2 years out. The rest are long plays likely 3+ years from showing. As I’ve said very often, it’s a system that needs a lot of rebalancing. As this offseason shows, there are too many positional gaps to fill in free agency in any cost-efficient way – the team needs offense to come up from the farm given increasing budget constraints from ownership.

1. Tyler Bremner RHP

2. Ryan Johnson RHP

3. George Klassen RHP

4. Nelson Rada OF

5. Gabriel Davalillo C / 3B

6. Joswa Lugo SS

7. Johnny Slawinski LHP

8. Trey Gregory-Alford RHP

11. Talon Haley LHP

15. Samuel Aldegheri LHP

16. Walbert Urena RHP

17. Juan Flores C

18. Nate Snead RHP

19. CJ Gray RHP

20. Hayden Alvarez OF

21. Raudi Rodriguez OF

22. Joel Hurtado RHP

23. Robert Mitchell LHP

24. Ubaldo Soto RHP

25. Marlon Quintero C

26. Yilver De Paula SS

27. Peyton Olejnik RHP

28. Austin Gordon RHP

29. Mitch Farris LHP

30. Luke Lacourse RHP

Super Member

RexFregosi

21 hours ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

Thank you! (My subscription ran out)
lots of grumbling about it, but eight members of my favorite draft class 2025?

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Jeff Joiner

19 hours ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

time will tell but the fact Chris Cortez ranks higher than this year’s second round pick is another indictment of the pick.

There were a good number of college outfielders that could have been taken with that pick that likely slot in the 5-10 range in our system.

Trusted Member

grichmanpoorman

16 hours ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Chase Shores might have been a college reliever… but he’s a reliever with starter risk. High ceiling.

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Super Member

Turk's Teeth

15 hours ago

Reply to grichmanpoorman

It’s been the MO for half a decade to try to turn BP arms with, as you say, “starter risk” into starters. Roughly a dozen come to mind, and I think they’ll try the same tack with both Shores and Snead. Maybe one day it’ll work out.

It’s just a fact that most teams don’t draft relievers with “starter risk” in the top 50 / second round. Perhaps the Angels think there’s an unexploited market advantage here, but their success rate has not been adequate to defeat conventional wisdom at this point.

Ironically, the only guy to really hit and stick in that time was Soriano – a starter they tried to turn into a reliever.

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FungoAle

5 hours ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

Spot on, TT. Also hate the notion that somehow Perry is cooking up a philosophy of rolling out 4+ middle relievers a night to mix and match against the opposition, putting less value on starters.

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Super Member

Turk's Teeth

15 hours ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Very similar profiles, Cortez and Shores, and probably rated equivalently here by TBW and BA. Cortez nudges higher due to a year of development, and the fact that the injury red flags on Shores are higher, imo.

Super Member

TrojanBoiler

19 hours ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

It’s crazy that Dana is out of the top 30. Wasn’t he our #1 last off-season?

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Pineapple12

18 hours ago

Reply to TrojanBoiler

Dana and CMo graduated from prospect status

Legend

FungoAle

6 hours ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

That Minaisan 2021 draft stunt really hurt in more ways than one. No chance to develop positional talent and his pitching choices were dismal and far off the mark.

Legend

gitchogritchoffmypettis

22 hours ago

Players still available that won’t stir an old man’s needle but will play baseball and maybe help the team be semi-watchable while kids still get to play and cost very little:

Isiah Kiner Falefa
Willi Castro
Miguel Andujar
Adam Frazier
Austin Hays
Max Kepler
Yoan Moncada
Jesse Winker
Chas McCormick
Jakob Junis
Zack Littell
Miles Mikolas
Jordan Montgomery
Chris Paddock

Dream small my friends. Dream small.

Super Member

RexFregosi

22 hours ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

semi-watchable = 73 wins + 5th place.

Also available still: Framber, Ranger, Bregman, Gallen, Belli

Dream big. Move the old man’s needle.

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Trout_is_my_Bestie

21 hours ago

Reply to RexFregosi

That just moved my needle

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Jeff Joiner

19 hours ago

Reply to RexFregosi

I’m all over Willi Castro and could see a couple of moves like that along with one headliner type.

Castro fits so well here. Littell’s durability would be a godsend as well.

That leaves CF and 3B for a bigger fish. I’m warming up to Bader, but that likely isn’t a headline grabber.

Paying Suarez to decline after a career high year seems like a very Arte move.

Super Member

ryanfea

17 hours ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

While certainly not elite, adding Littell would make our rotation pretty competitive this season. I like that add.

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Jeff Joiner

15 hours ago

Reply to ryanfea

We really could use some stability. Kikuchi and Littell give you a good chance to win each night they are on the hill.

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gitchogritchoffmypettis

19 hours ago

Reply to RexFregosi

Nah man. Splashes are for turds. We need to trade away guys like that if we had them. Even if we signed all five of those guys…. what? .500 team cause the bench, pitching staff and rest of the line up is meh? Why? Why do that? So we can be the MLB Raiders… but wussy?

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gitchogritchoffmypettis

22 hours ago

Man. (insert POBO/GM name) sure is stupid. When is (gender) going to get something done? Did (gender) get lost on the way to the (location that implies vague insult) or did (gender) just tip (gender) chair too far back, can’t get out, and can’t reach (gender) keyboard? (insert POBO/GM) is just a sock puppet for (insert ownership) anyway and they are pinching pennies because of (insert speculation). I don’t actually think (insert POBO/GM) is half as smart as (insert POBO/GM) thinks he is. If (gender) was we’d have seen (gender) do something lately….

Official real stupid fan of baseball bitch template for the entire MLB from Dec23 – Jan10 of every year.

Yes, real stupid fanatic of baseball team. It’s almost like a bunch of the people involved with baseball ops stopped working for a while there so nothing is happening.

I hope the end of year lag continues for the Angels. My honest hope is that they do very little. Get enough warm bodies in to field a team. Play a bunch of kids. See what they’ve got. And I want them to give that TIME ON THE FIELD. Why? So the fans, the org, the owner, the GM, the next GM and maybe the next owner can REALLY see what we have.

If kids do well, huzzah! I think having Mike Maddox around is a great idea in this sense for the pitchers. But if things flounder, and even worse the team looks to the farm and it is underperforming like it did last year, I want everyone to see it early.

THEN maybe we draft some position players out of college. Maybe we accept reality and trade Adell, Neto, Soriano, Detmers etc at the deadline. If there isn’t even a peep from a single Halo Honk about contending, which apparently distracts both Arte and RealFan like an open jar of peanut butter does a dog, maybe we can finally get some shit done.

Much like Clubber Lang, my prediction for this fight is PAIN.

Trusted Member

CAoldskoll

23 hours ago

If you didn’t know today is 1/7, officially Ohtani day on MLB network. Programming will be him today. Looks like it’s all about Dodger highlights, even the mural advertising it on MLB.com has zero red on it. As if media and of course Dodger nation try really hard to erase/ignore he played for the Angels. When it comes to Ohtani it’s all about winning and being on the big money stage. That’s not the Angels.

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Fansince1971

23 hours ago

Reply to CAoldskoll

Ohtani is no different than any other incredibly talented player who wants to win and cares about that deeply. Trout is more the exception.

Trusted Member

CAoldskoll

22 hours ago

Reply to Fansince1971

True, can’t blame him for leaving. Admire his greatness as a player, but hate his jump across to the enemy. Trout is the exception, great player loyal to a team, that is not good. He is old school, like Robin Yount, Tony Gwynn, and add Todd Helton to that list. Those critics who talk about Trout being loyal to his fat payday: don’t you think he knew the Yanks, Phils, Mets would have paid him the same if he elected to be a FA?

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gitchogritchoffmypettis

22 hours ago

Reply to CAoldskoll

Yep. The honest FkU goes to the sports media. Always will. And also Fk the Doyers.

But no. I don’t have to admire Ohtani. Fk him too. Like most shit media companies like to shove into the national snout I mostly just don’t pay attention and don’t give a shit. He is Kim Kardashian to me. I generally have no idea what these people do day in and day out because I pay attention to stuff that interests me, not the stuff they are interested in me being interested in. I’m actually more interested in what Evan Gattis is up to these days than watching everyone clap for Ohtani like a pile of trained seals for the 200th time this year.

It’s not his fault, but he has jumped the Jeter shark long ago.

Trusted Member

CAoldskoll

22 hours ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

Yes, to the media Ohtani’s stupid dog is more important than any Angels history.

Trusted Member

2pints

21 hours ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

He’s pretty much the greatest player of all time who just won back-to-back WS titles. If, for you, that’s the equivalent of being in a sex tape, tv show, and then marrying a black self-proclaimed Nazi, then…ok? I guess?

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Jeff Joiner

19 hours ago

Reply to 2pints

Have to agree here.

Ohtani has earned every bit of his praise and media attention. He is truly talented and a very hard worker.

And, if anything, Ohtani seems to not seek out or really like all the attention.

None of that can be said about Kardashian.

Legend

gitchogritchoffmypettis

19 hours ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

It’s not that he isn’t great. Or a bad guy or something. It’s that I’ve been bathing in Ohtani for so long I just don’t register it anymore. Like today. I am supposed to what? Reminisce about something that I can’t possibly be missing because the media can’t stop talking about every time he stands at the plate and blinks hard?

Today. Seven Years Ago. There was. A Press Conference. And we’ve updated you on his every snack ever since.

Selah.

Legend

Fansince1971

21 hours ago

Reply to CAoldskoll

That’s a strange take imo. Loyal? I mean he is being paid almost half a billion. Had Arte not offered that when he became a free agent he would have gone elsewhere. I don’t think he had any specific loyalty to the Angels. Arte offered him a big contract

And I don’t think Ohtani was disloyal. That’s such an emotional narrative. He went where he could win and where they offered him almost 3/4 of a billion.

The idea that players are loyal or not loyal is just poppycock and the stuff of emotional fans. Uniforms are just laundry. Top players play where they can win and where they get paid. Neither of those things applied to the Angels anymore.

Trusted Member

CAoldskoll

20 hours ago

Reply to Fansince1971

Disagree with Trout, I think the big dogs and including Dodgers would have gotten into a bidding war over him, paying him even more. Also hadn’t noticed him being a diva and demanding a trade. Guess Witt Jr is the most recent greedy fool then, put Joe Mauer on that past list too. I get the whole dollars/wins thing, but there should be something positive to be said about some of the great players who stayed on their teams.

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Fansince1971

20 hours ago

Reply to CAoldskoll

So would you call Nolan Ryan “disloyal”?

Very few players in today’s game stay with one team their whole career unless that team pays up or locks them in when a younger player and before free agency.

At the time, Trout got the largest contract of all time. His “loyalty” was not tested.

Last edited 20 hours ago by Fansince1971

Trusted Member

CAoldskoll

18 hours ago

Reply to Fansince1971

So Trout doesn’t really care about the Angels, it’s about money. And Ohtani is righteous for leaving to the Dodgers. Got ya. Enjoy 1/7 watching his greatness blue highlights. I’ll be watching Kings hockey today.

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Fansince1971

10 hours ago

Reply to CAoldskoll

I’m saying none of it is about loyalty or not being loyal. It’s about money pure and simple. The concept of loyalty is a fallacy created by fans who need a narrative.

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gitchogritchoffmypettis

19 hours ago

Reply to Fansince1971

Yep. Loyalty isn’t a thing at all, and I won’t get upset about it.

I also don’t have to give a shit about him. Just like Patrick Mahomes could get attacked by an Ostrich today. Don’t care. Nor do I care what Taylor Swift was up to four years ago.

No need to hate these people. I just don’t care and the constant slurping from the media and the lower half of the IQ graph is silly. But it’s also ignorable. It’s not like I watch MLB Network much anyway.

Trusted Member

Marcotor

13 hours ago

Reply to Fansince1971

I sure don’t remember any tears being shed for the fans from the FA’s who came here. Did anyone here cry for the fans in Minnesotta? Baltimore? New York? Montreal? St.Louis?

It’s Okie-Dokie for us to poach franchise players away to stroke our egos, but when it happens to us, it is somehow wrong? Get over yourself and your big head,

And everyone keeps forgetting (on purpise to support the narrative) the Angels were offered the very same deal (as were the Giants), and the Angels passed.

Legend

Pineapple12

23 hours ago

Reply to CAoldskoll

From 2021-2023, Ohtani delivered the greatest stretch of individual baseball ever, and he accomplished it as an Angel.

Legend

Senator_John_Blutarsky

1 day ago

As we have seen multiple times, this is a page directly from the “AM/PM” playbook…..

Apparently, the (insert any team name here) were willing to offer more for (insert Angel player name) but were let down. This is either (insert Angel player name) using the (insert any team name here) to get the Angels to pay more, or the Angels lying to make it seem like they are trying to their fans.

Super Member

tanana40

1 day ago

Thanks for the Angels podcast link with Mark Trumbo.