Angels GM Perry Minasian brought back Yoan Moncada to play third base for the Angels; at least when he’s healthy. Moncada signed a one year $4 million deal, meaning every Angels signing this off season has been for one year.
Heading into this week, Angels payroll was over $80 million lower than last season. Now that number sits at $76 million. But in looking ahead, the Angels future payroll obligations are next to nothing and the payroll could fall off a cliff after this year.
These one year band aid deals and a lack of overall roster activity lead to an obvious question: do the Angel have a direction?
This might be hopium, but I think the team’s direction is pointed firmly towards a sale. This is a repeat link, but everything in it keeps ringing truer and truer.
With third base somewhat handled and a clear picture of the Angels spending habits (or lack thereof) I took a look at what might be next for the team.
As of now, this is what a 90+ loss team looks like.
At this point the Angels should just accept reality and rebuild, but many on the board bring up a fair point: do we trust this front office to acquire good talent? Perhaps not.
The Angels did add some really high end international talent this week, though. So that is a good sign.
Across baseball, the talk is of the growing divide between the Dodgers and the rest of the field. Kyle Tucker will cost LA over $110 million once you include his luxury tax hit. That is more than the entire payroll of several teams.
MLBTR looked at whether baseball can have parity without a salary cap. This is a really good article that looks at numerous economic factors of the game.
If you want a cap, you also have to have a floor. And I took a really basic look at how that would work.
Before the Dodgers ruined baseball by signing all of the good player, the Yankees ruined baseball by signing all of the good players. They were back at their old tricks this week, signing Cody Bellinger for 5 years at over $30 million per year.
Somehow the Mets escape the ire of the sports world when they spend big. Perhaps it is because their high hopes are always dashed in brutal fashion. Nevertheless, they pulled off a trade for Freddy Peralta this week.
Unbelievably, we are less than a month away from Cactus League games. Angels prospect Chris Cortez is already out in Tempe and sat down to talk with me this week.
Please watch my interview with Chris Cortez and give Chris a follow on X. I’m hoping to do many more interviews this year and every page view and follow will help me in that quest.
Link what I missed and enjoy your weekend. I’m sure football will be center stage for most of you while I’m stoked about the Andy Cruz vs. Raymond Muratalla fight tomorrow night. My main focus is to do something fun as a family and work as little as possible.
Eugenio Suarez doesn’t fit what we need at 3B (Apparently).
What I still don’t understand is that Arte said out loud last season the Angels would “lose about 40-50 million” why ANYONE would expect the Angels to invest massively in payroll. Is it just ignore what he said and plod along? Is evrwyone thinkgin “the Angels have plenty of money” with no actual PROOF of that? This is a BUSINESS. He didn’t get wealthy pissing money down holes. And WHY should he piss down this hole a dollar of his own money? I suppose it goes back to the tired old “Cowboy opening his saddlebags” nonsense that still clings to the team.
Add the TV woes, and the obvious fact no FA worth a damm would actually want to come here, in spite of zOMG THE (former) GOAT! – why the optimism at all about the “Rendon savings” ?
Julio Arias still on the board.
Did you mean Julio Urias ?
Yeah, that guy. Add Trevor Bower and we can roll into fourth place in style.
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*Bauer
Interesting take particularly for those who still believe some big FA signings are coming. Many of us have been speculating consistent with the below:
“On the one hand, you can view Anthony Rendon’s contract restructuring as a win-win, freeing up several million dollars whilst finally removing any last reason for him to even try to get back onto the field. On the other, the fact they didn’t just eat the last year of his deal and be done with the whole sorry saga could equally suggest they just want to spread their debt around.
There are two certain financial worries hanging over the team, and two potential ones. The ongoing drama around broadcast rights took yet another turn with the Angels one of the nine MLB teams who cancelled their contracts with beleaguered Main Street Sports Group, the parent company of FanDuel Sport Network. And the confidential settlement of the Skaggs family civil trial may have brought that nasty process to an end, but someone still has to pay for it, and even if that’s ultimately covered by insurance it will undoubtably have a huge impact on future premiums, or even the team’s ability to get insurance at all.
On top of those certainties are the possibilities of another lengthy legal fight over the upkeep of Angel Stadium, and even a sale of the team itself. Arte Moreno may view the expiration of the current CBA, the debate with the city of Anaheim over who pays for the stadium, and a potential lockout in 2027 as a prime time to revalue the team and offer it up for sale, again.
But before you all dig out the celebratory music you just put away after New Year’s Eve, be careful what you wish for, at least in the short term. Any potential sale could signal a complete freeze on signings, extensions and multi-year acquisitions, and the one-year deals that both Perry Minasian and Kurt Suzuki are now on would seem to support that argument.”
OTOH, it would be a great day for Arte to say screw it, we will go for it and sign Gallen, Framber and Eugenio.
Those billions won’t do him any good on the other side of life, wherever he ends up. Carole and the kids are already set for life. Go out a winner Arte!
Yeah….and your prediction of Ohtani re-signing with the Angels was spot on! 😂
He may not have as much free cash as you think.
Ohtani WOULD have re-signed, because zOMG Trout! The Beach! The Monkey! But those evil, probably illegal, dirty and mean Dodgers (Blue Jays, and Giants too) offered him something the Angels never did.
A chance to win.
Arte should have paid him, but he definitely doesn’t seem to have the billions needed.
and news flash- everyone that said trade Sho for prospects was completely right.
Another news flash – i am a delusional optimist
Being delusional and optimistic about things that truly matter is one thing. But this is baseball. If the team wins or loses it really doesn’t change your life. Maybe you open up a special bottle or jump up and down if they win – but your life stays really the same. And if they lose – even 100 games – your life stays the same.
So why be delusional and unrealistically optimistic about something that has no real ability to change your life? With something like that I suggest it’s better to be realistic so that you can make good decisions – like not wasting too much emotional currency on a team that is so poorly run and on such a miserable Org.
Even if all three were sighed who plays second base and center field? And who is next up when an injury happens?
The kids, what we have in-house. Moore/Vaughn and Rada/Teo.
in this fantastic complete fantasy plan I have that won’t happen, my goal is still the al West.
sign pitchers, then see where we were at the end of May, then patch holes as needed if the start was promising. If it turns out we need something more legit at 2b, Cf, etc., get it then.
I’ve always wanted any FA money to go all to pitching. To make a playoff start in 2026, it’s the only path I see to get it. And with Framber and another, it would give a chance to even go further than the WC round.
even though it won’t happen, I want to be competitive in 2026 and not worry about it beyond that. If the mandate was playoffs or bust in 26, this is the way, but yes it’s a long shot but also the only shot, so take a shot. I agree right now we are sitting at less than 70 wins. We need talent, I wish for Arte to go get it.
Okay your last sentence was the first realistic thing you’ve written all day – sitting at less than 70 wins. So at least 20 WAR needs to be added to come close to a wildcard. .
Where is 20WAR coming from and at what cost? One WAR averages $8 million per typically. So that’s adding $160m in payroll this year at a minimum. You think that’s in the cards with Arte not having a television deal and with the uncertainty of ‘27 looming?
I just don’t see any realistic path so in my opinion the team should be sellers and focused on building up the farm. I didn’t see any way Ohtani was staying an Angel so I was aggressively soap-boxing for his trade in ‘22 and ‘23. It’s the same perspective now. At some point reality needs to be considered.
A question for you and everyone:
with an updated IIWPM,where things stand now with the roster and theoretical budget, you still have $70million or so to spend, right?
so where do you allocate that cash that needs to be spent to meet the exercise target? To me, that’d get 3 prime players on a one-year deals, and nothing wrong with that except losing draft picks. But again I’m very short term 2026 focused.
Woah, woah. Where in the IIWPM rules does it say you have to spend all the cash to meet the probable budget of last year?
Given the poor state of the farm, losing draft picks is among the worst possible long term strategies.
I’m just curious why and how you would be short term focused. There is no realistic short term fix for this team. Arte isn’t spending and only the most desperate want to play in Anaheim. The team has so many holes and problems that you couldn’t fill them all even if Arte was willing to meet last year’s budget (and all signs point to he is not willing to invest anywhere close to that).
So what does a short term focus result in other than more expensive failure?
oh right….Stephenson. I forgot about him. Any word on his health? I can’t find any news
No news.
is Joyce ready to start the season? or when?
I’m interviewing Jeff Fletcher this week. I’ll ask for health updates.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Who?
Expected to be ready for Spring Training and in THE SHAPE IN HIS LIFE!
Well played!
Eric – the real question to ask is “has he injured anything new since the end of the 2025 season?”
Chad Wallach off the board, he’ll be back.
He’ll be catching Luis Garcia in Anaheim in September.
He will have been signed and released twice by the Angels before he’s catching Louie in September
I’m starting to think he is the fourth Molina brother.
Great article. I also enjoyed the SI article and forwarded on to fellow Halo sado-masochists.
“Halo-masochists.” I like that. Gluttons for abuse.
Not sure how much inflicting of abuse the team will be doing this year, so the “sado” might be extraneous.
Thank you.
JJ I totally agree with Dodgers ruining controversy and the Yankees being the original ‘buy players’ evil empire, who are still in the business. I don’t like the Yanks either, but as for that dynasty they had it’s much different from the Dodgers. That hated team had a core of great players they brought up: Jeter, Posada, Petite, Bernie Williams, Rivera. Even with the guys purchased they wouldn’t have won anything without that young core. Dodgers on the other hand are full of all stars from other teams, too many to list. Just point out the single drafted star: Smith? And what did LA do before 2024 purchase of Ohtani, Yamamoto, Teoscar: swept by a wild card. Sure the Yanks will be the first Evil Empire but LA has taken that crown to a whole other level, trying to destroy any competition with $$.
Following the long standing tradition of New Yorkers coming to Los Angeles to become more glamorous fake assholes. The perfect team for LA. Phony but expensive transplants and those who serve them all get to have fun rooting for the team Gilded Age villains buy them so they feel like champions. Zero for originality.
Everybody talks about developing young guys but never actually covers it or what it entails. Last week I asked if the AAA manager was good, but nobody knew we didn’t even have an AAA manager. Doug Davis was just hired with the Bees. He will be overseeing Dana, Aldegheri, Klassen, Rada, Guzman possibly Moore, Cortez, etc etc. would love to learn something about Doug Davis and what his impact is.
You would think that Angels PR would be doing a story about our minor league managers and coaches, why they were hired, how they are developing young players. But we never get that.
The Bees put out this release but there is nothing from the MLB club on why he was chosen other than the minor league release mentions that he had been successful elsewhere. https://www.milb.com/salt-lake/news/doug-davis-named-salt-lake-bees-manager-ahead-of-2026-season
In order to develop players, they need to be good. For example, with the #2 pick this year they drafted someone who is clearly not the second best player in the draft. Other than saving money, there is no plausible explanation. I don’t think the guy is close to major league ready and his ceiling isn’t really that high anyway. Just another example why our system is so low rated. In order to fix our problem, we must acknowledge we have one.
The plausible explanation is Johnny Slawinski and CJ Gray not heading to college.
The damnable fact is… they didn’t save that much, if any, money. Drafted him No. 2, paid him like a No. 4.
Here you go.
Looks like he was involved with the Rangers system that produced some OK young players… his debut as a player with the 80s Angels is also interesting….
If we want to look up recent prospects he’s been involved with we can…. but that would take looking shit up. Not a CtPG strong suit.
I really wonder how much development really happens at AAA. Taking infield and shagging flies does not count, that is repetition work. Guys just play games against a mix of ex-MLB guys and fellow prospects. The really good prospects seem to leap frog AAA – Neto.
Doug Davis, to my limited knowledge, actually looks like a “AAA Manager”. He’s older. He has a “coachy” track record. Seems like the kind of guy you send Christian Moore to for work in the OF and reps working on swing issues the development scouts have found. Not a lot of in depth “development” but a guy who puts guys who need tuning through their paces.
Best case, he looks like a guy who handles players who have managed AA well but are just not quite cutting it in the MLB. And maybe he can implement small changes while a player gets max innings he wouldn’t have failing in the MLB.
So he was the guy putting players like Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter through their paces. Greg Allen, Oswaldo Cabrera, Thairo Estrada, Jake Baurs… so yeah nothin too flashy, just guys trying to get from point B+ to point A.
As a long time high school sports coach, I feel like the offseason is where most improvement happens. Watching my 9 year old son play team sports I feel even stronger about it. But I assumed in pro sports they get better in developmental leagues. If that’s not the case then is next month the most crucial month for the organization, because it gets treated like they’re just stretching and warming up after sitting on the couch since September.
Exactly. The AAA guys are there to prove what they learned in A+ and AA wasn’t a fluke.
I’ve sent emails to each of our minor league affiliates and only received a reply from the Quakes (our A ball team again).
I follow the Trash Pandas on X as well as Angels PR but it is tough getting information directly from teams right now.
Thanks for the info!
This could be the year…
That they hit 100 losses.
That Arte sells?! 🙏
That would be amazing and I’d celebrate like it was 2002 again!
Me too!!
Could well be both with the way the lineup is shaping up.
I’m thinking this.
About the time loss number 60 comes in we get an announcement of a sale. So All Star break time.
Nothing preventing both Arte selling and 100 losses!
Well the Brewers pulled off the Pitcher for Prospects idea that some of us suggested. As part of the deal, they get a young and controllable starting pitcher and Jett Williams – a Pat Murphy type player (he’s only 5’6″) – who plays with an engine. Other than Yelich – their entire position player roster is 6’0″ or under, even their first basemen. They have several 5’10” or under. So many college and pro teams only going for guys 6’1″ or taller – the Brewers go for baseball players and have built a program that is consistently competing. It’s a fascinating return in perspective to how orgs used to think.
Performance > Potential
Milwaukee: Short King sanctuary?
Interesting insight but I doubt it reflects some kind of org-wide scouting philosophy. Here is the Brewers’ Top 30 prospect list… looks pretty vertical, including a 6’3″ shortstop at No. 4. https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/brewers/
So tonight I got a hold of a friend of mine in their org and he told me they are looking for ball players. They’ve done well with all sizes. We talked theory and he said there are some benefits to size – but there are also benefits to shorter levers. It was a pretty cool talk. You can’t get any secrets out of him – but clearly they have a bunch of shorter guys and everyone knows it.
I heart the Brewers. Even their logo is cool.
Not to mention the home run slide into the giant mug of beer.
Their short guys are better than ours I guess.
Moncada has played : 84, 12, and 92 games in the last 3 seasons. His high water mark for games played was 2018 with 149. We all hope that 2024 was an anomaly and not a trend of pattern. All that greatness for 4 million!
With less than 30 days until camp opens, he took the only deal on the table.
What other free agent was available who could play 3B and was willing to sign a relatively small one year contract. Those financial and time limitations shrink the available player pool significantly,
Kiner-Falefa, Urias’s, LeMahieu, Frazier, Solano…
Those guys are available, yes, but do you think they would sign a one year deal for less than $5 million?? And do you think any of them want to come to Anaheim on a one year deal for less than $5 million?
If only there would have been 3rd basemen available in the last 4 drafts. They are modern day unicorns apparently.
Our last two second round picks have been relievers the Angels pray turn into starters.
Rather than outfielders or third basemen who profile as outfielders and third basemen.
The most likely third baseman they have picked early is Moore, who is short on power. He’d only move to third because he can’t handle second.
We’ll soon find out. I say at least half of them do.
Personally, I’d like new blood on the team. Moncada, injury prone, clearly was not getting any feelers or he would not have taken a cut to join the Angels.
Minasian saved Arturo One Million Dollars, too. Awesome.
Yes, pro-rated he’s making more like $7.8m.
Vaughn Grissom has played in the number of playoff games: 3, as Trout. Doesn’t mean anything except to emphasize, again, the Angels futility for past 11 years.
The 90+ loss lineup indicated in the article is a team looking at another serious run at breaking the all time strikeout total. Not to mention an error making factory.
And for around $20,000 you can buy two average season tickets to watch it all with the added privilege of $8 hotdogs and $20 beer!
Just imagine how tv networks must be fighting each other to televise this squad.
…..
how bad is it?
Bobby V: they suck!
Patty O: they’re trash!
Arte probably wishes that KTLA Channel 5 was a part of his Angels purchase. Like the old days of the 70s
And KMPC.
Are you kidding? It’s all about “content” these days. Entertainment folks don’t care a bit about the quality of the “content”, they just want more of it. If you don’t believe me, just spin your TV dial and make your own evaluation. Television used to be called a vast wasteland. Nowadays it’s a giant cesspool.