Angels GM Perry Minasian said the team is in “go mode” this week. To prove just how much going is going on, he acquired catcher Chuckie Robinson from the White Sox and DFA’d friend of the site Davis Daniel.
All in all this works out to a Matt Thaiss for Chuckie Robinson trade with some stops and moving pieces in between. Robinson has 2 options remaining, though, so he fits better on an Angels roster that already has Logan O’Hoppe and Travis d’Arnaud at the Major League level.
In what limited looks I’ve gotten of Robinson, I like the kid. He made several nice plays at a game I attending last Spring and he’s really athletic for a catcher.
But Chuckie is not the only backstop Perry brought into the organization this week.
I so desperately want to make a sarcastic remark about “go mode” but for a team in a rebuild, adding depth in the upper minors is a good thing. Now, about that Major League squad…no movement.
At some point there will be movement on the infield. The Angels definitely need to add a player on the dirt. Who might they target?
Considering the Angels could use an upgrade at third base, this list of potential A’s targets might as well be for Perry as well.
Speaking of no movement, OC native Nolan Arenado said no to a trade to Houston. There’s rampant speculation he wants to play in Dodger blue, and that just might happen. Perhaps the Padres?
San Diego is one of many clubs that is having a very quiet off season. Who has the most work left to do?
Trades are so much more fun than signings. This week the Yanks traded for Cody Bellinger, setting up an interesting clubhouse dynamic. No, not that one. This one.
But linking two guys who know how to relax wasn’t the only trade this week. Oakland continued to add to its rotation, this time picking up a hurler with real upside but also injury risk.
Before I go, I’ll give you a bit of a longform read. Kurt Loe is an Angels legend and deserves the write up.
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed. Between the college football playoffs, Steelers vs. Ravens, and Fury vs. Uysk 2 it is a sports fan’s heaven. Hopefully the Angels sneak in something too. I’ll be hosting a Christmas party tomorrow and trying to watch all of those. Thankfully my friends know to give me space for fights. If you haven’t seen the first one, it is extremely entertaining.
Pretty cool that Hanukkah kicks off on December 25th this year. So Happy Holidays to all. Be safe. Enjoy time with loved ones. And don’t forget the cookies for Santa. He prefers peanut butter and snickerdoodles, I hear.
At the opposite side of Arte’s son’s comment. While spending ridiculously is admirable, austerity isn’t the answer either, and a recent comment I posted said that we can spend a little bit better than TB, and Cleveland.
Deeze is nutz man.
https://x.com/tschulmanreport/status/1870606842243752062
So the Indians turn around and now trade Nayolor to the Snakes for a pretty good near MLB pitching prospect and a CompB pick in the draft. Apparently they want ALL the pitchers that are fairly good and tradeable in 2027.
Jon Seidler officially takes over the Padres and announces, “To the best of my knowledge I am not currently dying. So we are gonna stop maintaining a payroll that follows the Can’t Take It With You plan and go back to being one of the smallest markets in sports. More announcements to come.”
This officially brings to a close the era when idiots on websites can declare “the Padres are doing it! It’s working out great!” when they want their team to spend like drunken sailors…. or the Tigers when their owner was dying….
It’s becoming pretty obvious, judging by what meh injured pitchers are getting and what guys like Michael Conforto are worth now that we should trade Anderson, Ward and Rengifo. They are probably worth more now than at the deadline even if Rengifo hadn’t been hurt and Ward hadn’t decided to try not hitting for the month of July.
If we are serious about rebuilding, we have an opportunity.
Question, isnt that what the problem is, we have never been serious about a rebuild. All the talk about dumping Trout, trading away position players for prospects, no free agents; nice plan but Moreno’s pride/ego will not let that happen. It’s reality. Some accept the fact he won’t spend big, yet won’t allow team to tank, so Angels are stuck in the middle hoping to get lucky. It may be a while until Arte sells, so I accept what is and ride the hopium on what players we acquire. When the sale happens, rebuild fans better hope it’s a Derek Jeter type owner who has no problem trading away his better players.
Welp. It kind of depends on what you think of as rebuilding, which is, by the way, different than tanking. Tanking involves saving a ton of money on payroll and getting draft picks for sucking…. both of which can’t really be done now. Especially because we have Trout n Rendon tied around our necks.
But rebuild? We’re almost there. What do we have with any trade value that won’t be on the team in 2026/7? Rengifo, Ward and Anderson. Trade those three, congrats, you’re rebuilding.
Trading a guy who won’t be on the team for Soler doesn’t mean you aren’t in a rebuild. Signing similar players won’t mean much either, though I happen to think it’ll slow the rebuild. But even true “tear downs” like the pre-Olson A’ss signed guys like Jed Lowrie and Khris Davis…. someone’s got to do some hitting. If Soler hits and he gets traded, even better. Even if they wait till January, or June for that matter, to trade the three guys I mentioned, it’s pretty much as deep a tear down as they can go unless they start trading Neto, Detmers, Soriano and Joyce.
So is this the new CtPG Guy weep tune? “It’s Christmas, Where’s My Tear Down” or “Pout Pout Pout We’re Still Paying Trout”?
Cause other than the weird as fk signing of Kicuchi I don’t see them loading up past 2026….
Now is the time. It’s not just that the Angels have a couple players that could return some prospects- it’s that we have entered an era of likely big market dominance. Sure – some smaller market team could get extraordinary lucky. But the reality in the current environment is that the ridiculous spenders right now are likely to dominate and Arte is not going to spend like that (understandably). Let the big swinging d—ks do so for a couple seasons. Go deep underground and be stealthy. Emerge a stronger and deeper Organization with a strong farm system.
It seems like we’ve all been saying this since last trade deadline yet impending free agents Rengifo, & T.A.as well as 2027 Free Agent Ward are still here. So I’m not sure we have these coveted players that would produce any real return of substance.Therefore, considering the gapping hole it would leave in our roster now for and that none of these players are really blocking anyone it may be prudent to waiting for another trade deadline bonanza return when contending teams are more desperate to fill roster deficiencies
They’ll both pull a return at some point. Nothing huge, but a return. I don’t see what we’re all getting moist about around here. There’s a shortage of guys like all three of those players, especially in their price point. That shortage only gets worse as the off season drags on. It’s likely that, if we had traded Ward last week, people would be angry about us doing it too soon come late Jan.
Stuff can be going on. we have no idea what Washington’s feeling are on any of this and he does have a likely say in things. It’s unlikely Arte think any of those players are selling mass tickets, but who knows what’s in his head? But PTP, left alone, is likely not rushing into trades either.
Godspeed D-Backs. they aren’t going into 2025 afraid.
RIP-Rickey Henderson. I was able to listen to him twice, one was incredible spacey and the other informative. What a force of nature he was.
Referred to himself in 3rd person…..2002heaven is with incredible company!!!
You mean Rickey is slumming.
Alec Bohm is probably the best of the infielders mentioned in the article but would cost the most in trade and would still only be a 2 year rental. I would rather see them pay the money for a real solution or just put Rendon out there.
Hard pass on Bohm. Rather have Heefo play 3rd.
Me too.
Bohm had 97rbis HELLO!!!.
This is the same community that still loved that guy with wet long hair and a beard {Brandon Marsh}. Too emotional over guys that who aren’t as good as you thought. David Fletcher, Michael Stefanic, Mickey Moniak, Nolan Schanuel, Chase Silseth, Jared Walsh.
Research, data stats, good grammar = 💩 👎 Why? because you’re still way wrong!!!!
Observation, real time intuition= 💰 💰 Grady Fuson..Yay!!!!
BYE!!!
Oooh. maybe we could make a package deal work for Bohm and bring back Brandon Marsh. I understand Captain caveman is now on the trading block because his defense isn’t good enough for centerfield and because he cant hit lefties or anywhere else outside of Citizen Band Box Ballpark
Maybe we can trade Rendon and TA for those 2.
If the goal is to win just enough to keep attendance above 20k per game, then David Fletcher, Michael Stefanic, Mickey Moniak, Nolan Schanuel, Chase Silseth, Jared Walsh all have a meaningful purpose.
By all accounts, DD is not going to sell low on Bohm. So why in the world do you trade prospects to obtain a player that will not move the needle beyond last season’s win total?
The goal is not to play .500 ball. The goal is to win championships. Deal Ward and Anderson. As soon as Trout goes injury-free and is productive, ask him to waive the NTC and deal him to NY or PHI (since those are the likely places he’d waive the NTC for). Average 65 or so wins for the next 3 or 4 seasons and hoard draft choices. Play Rengifo at 3rd until he’s eligible for free agency.
I would support that
Not to diminish the year Bohm had, but RBIs aren’t the be all, end all of how good of a season was. Or have you forgotten 2017 when Pujols drove in 101 runs while being about 20% worse than the average batter?
At 27 Bohm is probably at his peak, so 2 cost controlled years of a good hitting third baseman that looks like he’s learned to field the position and can spell Schanuel at first would be a good investment.
Bohm to me is Rendon 2.0. So yes, just a rental, and coming up on his contract and getting a big payday, but not known for his “clubhouse cohesiveness.” A cheap alternative I’d take a shot on is Nick Madrigal. He showed signs of being special, and is just the opposite from what he brings to a dugout and clubhouse. He can play third or second. Cheap move with upside until Moore is ready (who I wouldn’t rush). Numbers won’t impress – but he’s a dirt bag.
These 1B moves are an example of the HAVES, DON’T HAVES and HAVE NOTS in baseball.
The Yankees: Will sign Goldschmidt as a 12.5M filler option. They are also going to sign or trade for a 3B that will cost them at least 20M. And get a couple other pieces they “need”. If, by July, any of these investments are not paying off, they will trade for another teams expensive player and pay or extend him. If these moves all bomb they will simply pay someone else next year to try and fix it.
The Astros: Will trade for a guy who is a meh 3B, a solid pitching depth arm that’s cheap. They will walk away from their expensive 3B and not sign Tucker to a huge deal. Then they take some of that money and sign a Gold Glove 1B who can mash. They also get a really good 3B prospect. The idea being to get about 3 years of Cam Smith, Altuve and Walker in their infield. They are trying to maintain a high talent level, will pay out money to do it, but will not carry a ton of financial “fat” and clearly have limits. They can’t necessarily trade for and extend expensive players in July.
The Guardians: Josh Naylor is too expensive. They want to keep him. They trade away a good 2B for salary relief, then trade the player they got in that trade to the Pirates for a mid-rotation swing man and some prospects. The Pirates also needed a 1B and get that from Cleveland. So Cleveland gets prospects, an OK MLB arm, and the ability to pay Naylor for one more year. The Pirates lose a little pitching/prospect depth but get what they hope is a good 1B they can afford for a while. If any of these moves fail these teams can’t really spend anything to fix it.
I know that everyone everywhere kind of wishes to be the Doyers, Mets and Yankers. But honestly the other two levels of teams, though they are frustrating, are actually way more interesting to me. The Twins. Every year they seem to compete. How? I never know till they do it. Even teams like the Astros, or the D backs. they can spend some, but they still have to have a strategy, not just a check book.
The point being, revenue sharing + a salary floor and spending requirements + a salary cap would serve to make ALL the teams in baseball interesting almost year round. Just like how, in the NFL, they manage to get interested in how the Indianapolis Colts will spend their cap space or how the Cleveland Browns will manage overpaying Watson. The MLB is even getting more interested in making the MiLB a bigger draw. If the importance of prospects became at least half as interesting as High School commits and college player tracking is to college/nfl football pipelines it would be good for the game nationally.
So the real point would be that I should be in charge of everything.
As long you bring back disco demolition night , I’d vote for you
I agree, but we spend and we’re still bad.
TLDR;
you want Pete Alonso to be the Angels 1B next year really bad because you like interesting baseball teams.
I do 🙂
Yep. Pretty much. I like him. I want him to be my friend. Pay him to come near me. It will happen.
Logan, you’re not a catcher anymore, just shut up and learn 1B!!!
Source?
O’Hoppe will be an all-star next year while manning the catcher position, book it
RIP Anaheim Angel ‘97 Ricky Henderson
Ricky is standing in front of God referring to himself in the third person as we speak.
Man of Steel
Very young… never heard if he had health issues.
pneumonia… is the reported cause.
Loved watching Rickey Henderson, one bad ass dude. Mad respect. His impact on when on base was second to none. Died way too early. RIP.
I totally missed the news that Ricky had passed away. Way too young and of the greatest all time.
https://sports.yahoo.com/first-baseman-paul-goldschmidt-reportedly-agrees-to-one-year-125-million-deal-with-yankees-181321966.html
Really looking like the new valuation for 1 WAR IS $10m from the big market clubs. Goldy produced just around 1.25 WAR in 2024.
Tyler Anderson is looking like a real bargain at this point.
Which is why he should have good prospect trade value if our goal is to be better in the future and not next year.
And possibly Soler.
Agree – Amazingly $13m per year buys you very little these days. Crazy that 20 years ago it bought Vladimir Guerrero’s services.
So Anderson is now a value and I would think other teams would target him and offer up some decent prospects for him. But Mr. Trade Sim says he is worth less than zero.
Just under the 4th tax apron now I wonder if they’re still pursuing Arenado . I guess the Cards rejected a trade straight up for Stroman which potentially would only give the cards $28 million of relief over 3 years .
The price on Gleyber Torres must be dropping like a rock.
Stroman. The former guy that Arte was an asshole for not just “committing” and signing to a huge contact just so he could get “someone good” and make CtPG Guy feel like a big boy.
What’s not to like. Yes he is in decline, only 1-year, but can still field a good 1st base and will crank out 30+ bombs.
Maybe not. He only hit 22 last year and wasn’t even as good of a hitter as Schanuel.
He’ll still be pretty good next year. He’s exactly the kind of “piss away money for a year” guy a team that is one solid line up spot away from “win stuff” can make but it makes zero sense for other teams.
Patrick Sandoval gets 18.5 for basically one year of pitching, damn, these salaries are so crazy.
Dec. 20: Angels acquire LHP Mitch Farris in trade with Braves for RHP Davis Daniel
The Angels quickly moved Daniel after he was designated for assignmenton Wednesday to clear a roster spot for catcher Chuckie Robinson. The Angels received Farris from Atlanta on Friday, and he’s had strong numbers in the Minors since being selected in the 14th round of the 2023 Draft. Farris, 23, has posted a 2.96 ERA with 152 strikeouts and 49 walks in 124 2/3 innings. He’s worked mostly as a starter and gives the Angels some pitching depth at Double-A Rocket City.
Good job!
Farris reminds me of the Nats left hander Mitchell Parker. Similar deliveries with stuff that won’t over power you.
Parker…. yeah. They do seem similar. It’s not a bad arm to have as #12 on your depth chart.
Welcome aboard.
Here’s some video:
https://x.com/Jared_Tims/status/1870232101825720471
If he eats his wheaties and can get that fastball over 90 his other stuff could play in the show.
Another soft tossing lefty. Cornering the market slowly.
Gotta get them all so no other team can run them out to the mound against The Angels. Angels kryptonite has always been soft tossing lefties.
Perry sure likes trading with his old team!
It’s a bad sign that he can’t trade with anyone else. He’s probably going back to Atlanta when he leaves here in 2 years.
What Brave deal has Perry made where Angels have benefited?
Newcomb/Simmons
That was Billy
haha oops
What Braves deal has Perry made that has been detrimental to the Angels?
Most all of the deals he made with the Tomahawkers were insignificant or salary dumps and the most significant attempt at an upgrade with the Soler acquisition is still untested .Here’s a list of their deals:
2/25/21 Angels Purchased Capt Jack Mayfield
7/4/22 Angels Purchased Touki Touki
7/18/22 Angels Selected Goose Gosselin off of waivers
8/2/22 Angels Traded Raisel Iglesias to Atlanta for Tucky D & Jesse Chavez
8/30/22 Braves select Jesse Chavez off of waivers
12/8/23 Angels traded Max Stassi & David Fletcher to Braves for Tyler Thomas & Evan White
5/2/24 Braves purchased Jimmy the Glitch Herget form the Angels
5/9/24 Braves traded Luis Guillorme to Angels for PTBNL
10/31/24 Angels traded Griffin Canning to the Braves for Jorge Soler
12/20/24 Angels trade DFA’d Daniel to the Braves for Mitch Farris.
Not sure I see anything here earth shattering except for some salary dumps . The most significant trades that Perry has made during his tenure have been with other teams like the Reds ( D cell) Brewers ( Renfroe) Twins ( Gio) the Red Sox ( The Garcia 4) &The Orioles ( Cobb) with the most prolific being The Phillies ( Marsh/O’Hoppe, Moniak & Estevez)
Good stuff
Solid swap. Soft pitch command lefty with two above average secondaries. Equivalent value to Davis as and up/down starter, but he’s three years younger, has been more durable, and has options.
It would have sucked to have received nothing for Davis, who is frankly as credible as Koch as a swing / taxi starter piece. This is a reasonable substitute.
But doesn’t Koch throw much much harder? I though he was hitting 98 MPH a few times on the radar gun last year.
Silent C averages 95.8 mph with his sinker and 96.3 with the FB.
MLB Shortens Draft To Two Days Beginning In 2025
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-shortens-draft-to-two-days-beginning-in-2025/
Competitive balance tax payments were posted. Dodgers owe $103 million. Mets $97 million. Yankees over $60 million. These three teams were BY FAR the biggest payers.
And unsurprisingly those were the three teams at the end with the best chance to win it all in 2024. So there’s your player evaluation winning formula. Spend as much as you can — and keep buying. Unless you are a total idiot, you’ll be close or win it at the end.
The ghost of Scioscia comment from yesterday might just be true.
https://www.si.com/mlb/angels/angels-news/angels-sign-former-royals-catcher-as-busy-offseason-continues-01jfdyfhmcbt
Hometown kid is gone to Miami.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/marlins-to-sign-eric-wagaman-to-major-league-deal.html#comments
Is today, sign/trade for an Angel day?
Wagaman
Daniel
Adams
Sandoval
Yes it is, come on down!
Let’s hope they don’t out perform the guys we kept.
Maybe we should have an ex Angel WAR tracker for next season ?
More heartache? Let’s do it!
If you count Canning and Cobb and Thaiss it’s like Angels Stocking Stuffer Week.
So everyone is getting lumps of coal?
It’s a Festivus miracle!
How about those Rams!! Will they play down to their competition this weekend?
Who are your breakout candidates for 2025?
1. Jo Adell
2. Nolan Schanuel
3. Mike Trout (breaking out from the IL)
I would put Silent C on the list, but hard to know how many starts he’ll get in 2025.
Jake from State Farm
The helpful Honda Guy
And Peanut Boy!
Jake from State Farm has been star for the longest time tho ??
“I heard it. The pure sound. I heard it.”
https://youtu.be/3m2qgmo9yfE
I think both Nolan and Jo will improve but not “break out”. I think they both have talents and skills that will show up a little more as they get more ABs. Nolan will likely see an uptick in how many hits he gets and how hard he hits the. Jo will hit a few more home runs, maybe walk a few more times, still strike out a ton, maybe steal a few bases.
Or they’ll both collapse. Or, cause ju ju, they’ll just explode like watermelons full of m80s.
Those two + O”Hoppe getting even slightly better results is basically what will show if the team itself is “breaking out” or not. If Neto stay big pappa and one other guy in the IF or OF shows up on the MLB roster and looks solid then we’re on our way to having a core and we can start thinking about FAs etc.
I think we have some pen arms that may also show out as fixtures this year. Soriano is in Neto’s boat. The rest of the kids who will get starts are a mash up of “could be” and I hope they throw a bunch of innings and that tangle starts to sort out.
Sori is a good call. Ace in hiding
Soriano, Neto, and Joyce are the core that currently exists. The pitching is looking promising, but not so much the position players. there is a chance that Adel becomes something useful but not all that good, but I don’t see much promise for the rest. We have a ways to go. But, if our #1 choice this year and Moore both become legit, that could help change things. And, if we can get some assets back by trading Anderson, Rengifo, and Ward, that could also move the needle. There is a path, but I don’t see the will from the organization to do it so far.
I have not given up on O’Hoppe.
My bad, neither have I. I momentarily forgot about him. He showed great potential and with the addition of a veteran catcher and coach to help he could become a star but last season as a whole was very disappointing. He regressed last year as a hitter.
Soriano, Neto and Joyce sound like a solid core. They may not remind anyone of Pettitte, Jeter and Rivera by the time they’re done, but they’ll give me a reason to renew my hopium prescription.
Pathetic CtPG Loser Guy!!
Jo Adell, most likely.
He’s still on the upswing in his career.
Schanuel looks like a prime candidate to be exposed this year, in my opinion.
And you can never count on more than 40 games from Mike until he proves you wrong.
I disagree on Nolan, but most of the site probably sides with you.
20-25 HRs + .350 OBP doesn’t seem outrageous imo.
It does to me, but I’m hoping you are right.
I agree with you P12 he has enough plate discipline to take the next step provided he can learn how to square up the baseball . Right now it’s a pulled HR over the yellow line , and ground ball that probably won’t make it out of the infield or a duck fart “line drive” . He needs to develop Gap power by improving his exit velocity. This is not an impossible goal to accomplish and I’m curious to see if he has developed any swing changes during this off season
My take –
In ‘24 Adell generated approximately 1 WAR in his most productive season as a major leaguer. The Angels better hope that it was not a fluke and that he improves on it to maybe 2 WAR. If he does that would be a bonus and important. If he regresses it’s a big negative. I think Adell is a very important question mark.
Schanuel is a high floor low ceiling type player. He also produced approximately 1WAR last season and I would expect him to do the same in ‘25.
Trout all comes down to being healthy and having the bat speed to catch up with fastballs. Of course the harder he swings the more prone to injury he is. So if Trout could play 80 games and generate 3WAR it would probably have to be viewed as decent. Any more than that would be a bonus.
In short I would not bet on any of these guys but believe Adell has the bigger potential to either soar or crash.
Chalk me down for none other than, The Sicario, Jose Suarez
El Demente revenge tour LFG
My breakout candidate is Edwin on the ground crew. He’s going into the season in the best shape of his career. He’s worked hard this winter perfecting the grooming of the base paths, which is a critical success factor in the team stealing bases. In addition, the rumor is that he’s perfected Carl Spackler’s field formula of Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia. In case you didn’t know, the amazing stuff about this is that you can play a day-night doubleheader on it and take clippings home and just get stoned to the bejeezus.
I’m picking Mike the usher in the Diamond Club. He had a rough 2024 because of some personal stuff but that won’t be a distraction in 2025, and he will be on top of it!
I’m picking John the roster guy at the lower fields in Tempe.
#3-Trout
Happy trails Davis Daniel. Now he’ll be closer to home and sea level.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/braves-acquire-davis-daniel.html
Interesting. Mitch Farris is a two way player.
He appears to have zero professional at-bats. So I think he’s just a soft tossing lefty.
he throws so slow he can hit his own pitches ?
Indeed. A shocking lefty with a solid curve and change up acquisition.
So he’s destined to break our hearts and sign with the Dodgers?
Actually Atlanta plays at Truist field which is tied for the second highest altitude among Major League Ballparks so he can let it fly in Georgia too.
1000 feet is still about 4000 feet below Salt Lake.
I didn’t realize ATL was that high.
Walker to the Astros.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/astros-sign-christian-walker.html
No way, did not see that coming. Guess Astros giving up on Bregman. I wanted Angels to get him but we still have Schanuel to figure out. Good pick up for Astros, even without Tucker they will now continue to stomp us.
Or Walker will be the next Astro fiasco to age out overnight!
i like what the Astros are doing, move off the player who will be asking crazy money; Correa, Tucker, etc and bring in more manageable contracts and prospects. Astros still own the AL West.
Yep. And if Cam Smith’s bat is as advanced as I think it is, he’ll be on the roster soon too.
There are never any guarantees but the Astros are currently the best run organization in the American League.
FK DUH RAVENS!
Oh wait…. wrong site.
Never a wrong site to diss the Ravens.
Although I have a bad feeling about tomorrow.