News from the baseball world has come at a glacial pace lately but that might be changing a bit soon.
Shota Imanaga’s posting window is up next Thursday so we know he’ll sign before then. He’ll be the latest in a wave of overseas talent to jump to Major League Baseball this off season.
Imanaga is on a deadline but the best remaining free agents are represented by Scott Boras, so we can expect more waiting. However, Imanaga’s signing will help clarify the suitors for Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery.
The Padres signed Korean reliever Woo Suk Go this week to a 2 year $4.5 million deal that looks like a steal to me. He joins Japanese import Yuki Matsui in a bullpen that looks to have really been bolstered.
Other dominoes are also starting to fall. The Mets handed Harrison Bader $10.5 million for one year. That makes me really appreciate Mickey Moniak’s value.
And the Braves continue extending players after they trade for them, this time a non-sensical extension for the aging and often injured Chris Sale.
The Angels have been silent this week, but that could change soon. Teoscar Hernandez is apparently close to making a decision and the Angels have been linked to him all off season.
Squid has found a new home, going to Detroit on a minors deal. Plenty of minors deals taking place.
Correction: Lefty Andrew Vasquez signed that minors deal.
Sadly the biggest news in the baseball world came off the field. The Wander Franco case keeps looking worse and worse.
In better news, Spring Training is right around the corner. I’m starting a series to help folks plan trips and give tips so we all have a better time in the desert. This week focused on where to stay when you are out there.
Be safe and make sure to link what I miss. Less than 6 weeks until pitchers and catchers report.
I’m not really shaken. I didn’t want us to sign Hernandez really.
Stirred maybe?
On the Rocks?
The doyers have shown there is no reason to sign anyone else this off-season. Time to sell, because I feel like the value will just go down from here for the next 5-10 years.
Wow. The Dodgers are establishing themselves as the evil empire in Southern California. They are building a team to not only attempt to dominate on the field but also to dominate Southern California and turn the Angels into an irrelevant footnote. This is feeling eerily similar to the 1970s when the Dodgers dominated the Southern California narrative (except when Ryan pitched) and the average attendance at an Angel game was around 12,000. I am sad to say we may be headed back to that.
Great ticket prices though!
Fo Sho! Probably will be able to buy most weekend day games on the secondary market for 1970s prices!
Yeah, you know, fuck it. The Dodhers (spelling error, but sticking with it.) are who they are-kudos to them. Spend the money, win games. How long have we been banging the drum, spend the money wisely?
The Angels have been irrelevant to the Dodgers for years now. The only Southern California team the Dodgers ever gave thought to was the Padres.
Totally agree. Dodgers could care less. it’s just fodder for the fans to get their undies in a bind. Angels could rip off 3 straight WS championships, still would not turn the tide.
Now…the Clippers, don’t get me started! LOL. Lakers town and will always be. #ScrewBalmerTyLueKawaiGeorgeTheBeardWestbrick
I will take 3 straight WS Championships to turn the tide for 1,000 Alex.
Especially if it start this year.
dodgers spending like crazy and we Win 3 years in a row.
Yes, please!
F the Dodgers and their quest to buy a baseball championship dynasty. I don’t agree they have always made Angels irrelevant. It’s driven mainly the past several years by the Guggenheim ownership, a billionaire boys club. Huge ego’s, their quest is to make MLB all about them (Dodgers). They could care less about ruining competitive competition, its all about stacking rings and high five’n each other. Next few years playoffs are going to have the same narrative ‘who can possibly upset the Dodgers this postseason’. Way to try to ruin the game LA.
5 year 110 million dollar deal for Shota Imanaga for our Los Angeles Angels?
Arte prefers shopping at the Dollar Store. I really don’t think they are stepping up to anything more than one or two years for anyone.
Next big contract, Arte is going to experiment with the Afterpay payment plan….. but he’s going to go next level, and then use Affirm to break up the payments on the payments.
😂
Teoscar Hernandez to the Dodgers.
One year deal payable through 2039.
Sheesh 28.5 million. Way too much
23.5m
$15m now, 8.5m starting in 2030.
Dodgers CBT is now above $310m for 2024
Still too much for him
Only a one year deal? I understood he had 3 year offers on the table. He must really think that batting behind Max Muncy at the Latrine will allow him to cash in next year?
How many Bobby Bonilla contracts is that now?
They deferred money on a 28.5 million one year contract? 😂 So if Hernández bust out of baseball he will have to wait 6 years for the rest of his pay. Hopefully he negotiated interest on that money.
Teoscar is betting on himself to have a great year and enter the FA market next year. Well, fauck him. I’m rooting for a .240-17-67 year.
Teoscar to the dodgers…
I’m starting to think Ohtani might have a chance at making the playoffs this year.
With reports that the Angels are looking at Michael Taylor and were said to have had serious interest with Bader and Kiermaier, that is telling me no interest with pricier Teoscar or Bellinger. I feel at ease.
I also like that Perry is looking to add in this area. Defensive minded CF and a covert plan to move Trout to a corner position.
I’ve wanted to move Trout for a couple of years.
I’m higher on Bellinger than the rest of the board.
One thing I do not want is a DH only guy. I really want Trout getting a day or two off his feet every week.
According to The Fielding Bible, our best defensive centerfielder by far last season was…Mickey Moniak!. In fact in total Defensive Runs Saved he ranked 10th in all of the major leagues despite playing only 445 innings in CF in 2023 . So it seems we have the answer already on the roster but maybe a concern over pissing off the GOAT with an unheralded youngin’ is compelling Perry to add a more established defensive wiz?
thanks. That’s a very interesting site.
This is interesting: Moniak seems to be right there with some of CF’s with good defensive reputation (although I’m not sure how DRS correlates with innings played at the position or, for that matter, how it is actually calculated…)
My Lyle’in eyes tell me Moniak is a good center fielder. I would start the season penciling Moniak as the starting center fielder and move Trout to a corner.
How do you suppose you get Trouty to go along with that?
By trading him and allowing him to go to his beloved Philly?
It’s been the obvious move for a while now.
I appeal to his good for the team sensibility and tell him that is the direction that the team is going. If he wants a trade to Philly, I look at their pitching prospects and go from there.
Arte would never allow his superstar to be treated like that.
Rewritten:
Arte would never allow his only possible superstar draw to put butts in seats to be treated like that.
And that is JH Sr. problem, not mine.
I am slightly the opposite. I don’t like not having a dedicated DH who is a very good hitter. If you need the spot 2 days a week for Trout, you don’t have another quality DH bat the other 5 days. Signing Bellinger like you want would allow you to always have a good hitting DH and if you wanted, you could DH Trout full time. He’s making lot’s of money, if being a full time DH is best for the team then that’s what they should do. So I agree with you on the end state.
You definitely need a plus bat at DH every day.
By signing a Bellinger, Teoscar Hernandez, and to a degree Jorge Soler would ensure that.
Even perhaps Justin Turner.
It’s kind of twisted humor, we’re looking to get old man Mike off his feet. Man, if true, we got a long painful road down Pujols lane.
Even with his subpar year last year there were still only about 17 players in all of baseball that had higher OPS+s and only 6 of those were in the American League. If he is able to recover some he will still be a very valuable hitter. After last year, it will be very interesting to see if he reverts back to normal Trout or continues in decline mode. Last year was the first since he was 19 that his OPS+ was below 167 and it was around 130 which is a big drop. As recently as 2022 it was 176 for 119 games and 438 ABs. There is hope if he’s healthy. I’m cautiously optimistic. Like the rest of you though, I saw him swing and miss a lot of strikes last year when he was healthy.
I predict he’ll be all the way back. Also that Rendon will manage to play 70-80 games
79 games played by Rendon? A lofty, lofty goal.
My 2nd guess is 30 games
LOL. if only 79, hoping it is because they have found someone better vs a strained testicle.
Rumors are saying that Shota is down to just Giants or Angels….
If you believe or care about such rumors.
I believe …. and I care.
If having cleaner streets means anything to him…..we’re in!
That’s a ton of lefties. But I’d be happy.
So all lefty starters and all righty hitters?
Too bad we can’t play ourselves
If the Halos sense being used as a bid stooge, they should pull-out from the Teoscar “Link.”
I wish they would just say they were going to take the year to evaluate what they have and then fill the holes they identify next year. Otherwise, they’re not going to get a good look at some of their players and they may be going into next year again with unknowns.
The Angels will never admit they don’t expect to win.
TrAdition!
But he’s not Japanese. How can this be?
https://twitter.com/hgomez27/status/1743800631414944216
Thought they might try and trade for Yoshida.
Why not they just sign this guy?
https://twitter.com/prospectdugout/status/1738931134614921313
Matsui is playing again?
Hideki was awesome. Big fan. Yes, we could use a bat like this.
$195,000,000 deferred money.
Perry said that Plesac might be in relief. I think he and Anderson fit into that “long reliever” role with lefty/righty spot starts in the 6th starter role as I thought. They still need another hard thrower at the end. Someone on between Soriano and Estevez. Imanaga would be an overpay but it would show life. There has to a trade incoming for another starter role. Come on Perry.,,
We’ve got to start developing aces. Continually hoping to sign them in free agency costs too much and leads to Tyler Anderson types. Relying on that lets us (that is, Arte) to ignore player development. “We can fix it with free agents “ is the lazy and unsuccessful way to go
Hopefully they draft Brody Brecht in June.
And hopefully if they are able to, he doesn’t choose football.
feel like we are getting Shota Imanaga and I wouldn’t hate it
Dudes a winner . Id be shocked he’d want to come here but we definitely could use the attitude
We’ll crush that attitude and his spirit
I don’t see a Japanese FA signing here, purely for the overhang of a fellow countryman superstar, might be wrong. At 5’10”, 170 lbs, topping out at 94 mph, I would not be bothered he chooses to go elsewhere.
190 and he tops out at 96.
Plesac salary details: 1 yr $1mil. Ok, That’s fine, not a big bite out of the budget
Yep. That’s basically a minimum salary deal.
Yep, just guaranteed.
I’ve got no problem with deal but I wish Minasian would focus on something that could help the team more.
Who’s to say he isn’t?
Source?
Past history.
I agree. It doesn’t make sense to me for people to be declaring things like “Perry is totally blowing it this off-season and is failing at his job” when hardly anything significant has happened for any teams besides the Dodgers.
There are still a ton of things that could happen before Spring Training.
I am Pretty sure he is focused on something more!
Weather it is Fat burger, In-N-Out or Five Guys, beats the shit out of me!
That is true without a doubt!
Well Well. Well. Whoever had Adam Kolarek in the “What stiff will we DFA to make room for Zach Plesac” Contest wins the free steak knives.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/01/angels-outright-adam-kolarek.html
Wasn’t Kolarek a “splash” of Perry’s a few weeks back?
Yep . They explain that in the article. But I guess Perry figured he could DFA him off of the 40 man if needed without losing him since Kolarek would have to forfeit the 900K if he rejected the assignment. and no team would claim him unless they want to pay the dough. This is very similar to what The Angels did with Fletch last year but for a lot less money.
Maybe this means the Halos have bigger designs for Ingram’s Hergets & Cabbage’s 40 man roster spot. The Angels are now carrying 23 pitchers and 17 position players on their 40 man . Thats a little high considering each team must carry at least 13 position players on their 26 man so they only have 4 position players right now ( Cabbage, Soto, Paris & Adams ) that aren’t projected to make the opening day roster.
I sure hope Ingram will be gone before camp opens. It seemed like every time he came in a game runners were getting on base. Not feeling the love for Cabbage but thinking he is still here until a future signing comes along and jettisons him.
That’s exactly what I was saying before. They only have about 2 non starting position players on their current major-league roster not including the 4 guys you just mentioned.
I show 4 under my scenario above. They would be Stefanic (Rengifo would rotate through 2B 3B & DH with Rendon and Drury) Adell ( Moniak would get most of the RF starts) Thaiss and Rivas.
The problem with this current lineup is Rengifo would be our backup shortstop and Adell would be our primary backup outfielder ( Although, like Cabbage, Rivas can play the outfield as well)
You’re right, I forgot about Stefanic and Rivas.
Giants got Ray and his fat contract which means Snell is ours since they were are biggest competitor for him. Yeah, I wish, what seems logical will most likely be he signs elsewhere for less money while we waste all our effort and energy to recruit him.
MLB Trade Rumors projected Snell, their No. 4 ranked free agent this offseason, as getting a seven-year, $200 million deal, an AAV of about $28.5 million.
i sure hope we don’t get him for anything approaching that.
That does probably take them out on Snell.
I still don’t think Snell is the best fit here. We need to add a couple hundred quality innings.
Snell makes more sense for the Yankees
Yep.
Just looking at projections, the AAV for Snell and the AAV for both Stroman and Jordan Hicks are projected to be about the same.
Snell probably gives us 130 great innings. Maybe 150.
Stroman plus Hicks is probably 200-210 quality innings and shorter term contracts.
I know which way I’d go.
Hicks has multiple suitors for his services to round out a contenders roster. He’s not coming here. Hicks is ok with not being a closer. I think he signs with championship aspirations, just the way I see it unfolding.
Ray has risk but if he Opts in to his remaining 2-years for $50M, that won’t kill them. Giants still have room for a Tier 1 signing. Snell can still be acquired but I believe the Giants want no part of a 7-year (or even 5 years) deal contract that his camp has been demanding so they dialed up JeDi AND got rid of 2 horrible contacts.
One question: Are the Halos still linked to anyone?
Shota Imanaga, Blake Snell, Teoscar Hernandez, and to some degree Michael A Taylor, Adam Duvall, JD Martinez.
And..WOO HOOO…the possible return of Ryan Brasier https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1743390813646647540
I’m done signing guys the Dodgers fixed for a year.
1. We aren’t the Dodgers. Take away the video and coaching and the players revert to normal form.
2. The Dodgers usually fix guys by having them throw a new pitch or rely on one offering heavily. The league adjusts to that approach. And when that happens the results worsen.
Rendon for 3 more years!
A 3 year eternity.
..until we extend him 😎
I’m too GA to research it all myself, but why does it seem like the Mariners got a good player from the Rays in exchange for a guy that may only be AAAA?
I thought no one fleeces the Rays.
Exactly, Which is why the player the Rays got from the M’s will be an All Star, while the player the Jedi got form Rays will turn into Brandon Wood next year.
Cowboy has it absolutely correct. It’s not what the player did last season on the M’s, it’s what he’s going to do as a Ray.
This move was made by the Rays because of the Wandering Franco. They desperately needed a shortstop and I’m sure they’ll be able to ride Caballero back to the playoffs again this year.
Too bad we had already traded Fletch… we could have gotten a good player from the Rays.
Then again, we would have gotten fleeced, so…
Don’t they have caminero ready to go?
I think this puts Caminero Third on the depth chart now behind Caballero (who can also play a GG caliber second base and Walls. But considering Caminero is just 20 he’ll be fine if his ML breakout gets delayed a season or so.
Interesting that the Rays already had a deal in place with the Cards to bring in Palacios to replace Raley. I’m surprised that Cards would ever trade another outfielder.
Could Trader Jerry’s trades finally be it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwiTs60VoTM
Never been so despondent about a upcoming halos season yet everyone will still give Arte their hard earned money. There has to be a better way to spend your money. It’s frustration spending. LOL.
I was going to games last season for $10 or less (with Ohtani playing).
I honestly cannot think of many better ways to spend $5 and enjoy my time.
Still frustration spending. Lol.
im canceling my spring training trip to teach arte a lesson
I’m only catching the Angels on the road during spring training and did not renew my ticket plan.
Didn’t go to a single Halo game all last year. I did hit Phoenix for the D-backs 25th anniversary game and the only home playoff game they lost against the Phillies. I start thinking about Haloball and I get a sense of total boredom any more.
Wow, Trader Jerry finally couldn’t hold back anymore…
Didn’t the Giants just sign Hanniger? I forgot
They must feel good about Bellinger taking that OF spot
i thought he was still a mariner.
Yes. apparently they did too.
He’s owed $20 million this year with a $15.5 Million player option for 2026. I’m curious how much cash is going back with the Mariners
Mitch was signed for the 2023 season on a 3-year deal. There is not much left in the tank, flashed some substance but failed. Surprising JeDi would take this piece back. Good time to move off of DeSclafani too.
Perhaps the contract year demands on Snell push the Giants to call JeDi. Ray has risk and an opt out he might elect not to exercise.
Maybe this means the Giants are out on Imanaga?
I’m not sure about Granderson or Wilson though.
Is Granderson available?
Haniger is hit and miss but Raley may finally give them a legit bat. Then again. It’s the Rays. Raley may turn into another Joe Charboneau the minute he leaves Florida Air space