The Official 2024-2025 Offseason Thread

[Dave Saltzer]

34 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

Nobody is that deep.  Sure you can roll out bodies 10-12 deep if you have a ton of injuries, but it is very unrealistic to have that many guys you are comfortable starting.

Escobar was that deep, supposedly. 

[Stradling]

9 minutes ago, Dave Saltzer said:

Escobar was that deep, supposedly. 

Well done. Someone is feeling better. 

[Angels 1961]

3 hours ago, Stradling said:

Anderson stinks?  Anderson didn’t have the value Perry wanted at the deadline. He and his salary could have been traded. Anderson and Wacha had very similar WARs this season. Also lefties have inherent value. So if Anderson stinks then Wacha stinks. “If he is so tradeable” I said he could be traded numbnuts. I didn’t say his value was exceptional. His numbers last year were good. Unlike a Giolito or Maeda who just last off season got paid. 

You and I both have zero idea what Perry could have got for Anderson. I look at what Baltimore gave up for Rodgers at deadline and would have taken either player straight up for Anderson. I would take Wacha over Anderson anytime.

[Dave Saltzer]

14 minutes ago, Dave Saltzer said:

Escobar was that deep, supposedly. 

And I am definitely that deep. And not just as a thinker. 

[Dave Saltzer]

5 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Well done. Someone is feeling better. 

Thanks. Just got home from the hospital. Go Mets! 

[BTH]

16 minutes ago, Stradling said:

The dodgers had 16 guys make starts this year, 6 of them made 33 total starts which is over 20% of the starts. 

6 of those 16 were relievers pitching as openers and they acquired 1 of those 16 at the deadline (Flaherty).

The Dodgers also entered the year with:

A guy who never has made over 22 starts in a season (Glasnow).

A guy who they were only pitching on 5-days rest (Yamamoto)

A guy who made only 19 starts last season after making only 6 starts the previous 3 seasons (Paxton).

A guy back from his second TJ (Buehler).

A 36 year-old rehabbing from shoulder surgery (Kershaw).

The rest were rookies.

So yeah, you plan for 10-12 starters if your starting pitching options are a bunch of rookies and guys who you know can’t pitch a full season.

[totdprods]

23 minutes ago, Dave Saltzer said:

Gorman is somewhat interesting, but I would not trade Detmers for him. Gorman strikes out way too much, and we need to cut down on free swingers.

Definitely a concern with him, but in his better years he’s also drawing walks above-average and plus-power.

I’d see him less of an everyday piece going forward and more of a Brandon Drury replacement - power, strikeouts, capability to play a couple positions. He’d give us insurance for Rendon at 3B or Rengifo once he departs via trade or FA. Insurance if Moore isn’t ready.

Ideally he plays well enough that he himself can be turned right around and dealt in 2026-2027 once we have someone better developed internally. 

I’m looking for candidates, both trade and acquired via FA, that we can keep turning into trade returns this year and next since Perry has been pretty good at getting value back when he sells.

[AngelsLakersFan]

30 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Thank you for your concerns. I do find it funny that you said what you said and I’m the asshole here. You choose to see things a certain way, as do I.  I’m not the least bit surprised you see it the way you see it. At least I said what I said in response to you in a PM. 

Look, I will admit my response was too much, but you are initiating by constantly attacking the poster and not the post.

[Blarg]

15 hours ago, Dave Saltzer said:

Why Arenado Would Waive his No Trade Clause:  Who wants to go through a multi-year rebuild?

That is exactly what the Angels are going through. If he waives his clause it would be to go to a team with a track record of success rather than the Angels train wreck. 

The Cardinals will want prospects to feed the rebuild, not a pitcher past prospect stage with serious performance problems. 

 

[Dave Saltzer]

9 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Definitely a concern with him, but in his better years he’s also drawing walks above-average and plus-power.

I’d see him less of an everyday piece going forward and more of a Brandon Drury replacement - power, strikeouts, capability to play a couple positions. He’d give us insurance for Rendon at 3B or Rengifo once he departs via trade or FA. Insurance if Moore isn’t ready.

Ideally he plays well enough that he himself can be turned right around and dealt in 2026-2027 once we have someone better developed internally. 

I’m looking for candidates, both trade and acquired via FA, that we can keep turning into trade returns this year and next since Perry has been pretty good at getting value back when he sells.

I totally am with you. I'm trying to scour teams to see whom we could pry. Our team needs more than FA solutions. Hopefully Perry can find some. 

[totdprods]

13 minutes ago, Dave Saltzer said:

I totally am with you. I'm trying to scour teams to see whom we could pry. Our team needs more than FA solutions. Hopefully Perry can find some. 

I’m trying to see an offseason where we sort of add these piggy-back/bridge players, who fill similar roles for guys we have/had, for similar (or less) money/control.

• Drury -> Gorman/Cincy IF/Westburg/Mountcastle
• Anderson -> Manaea/Kikuchi/Boyd
• Rengifo -> Amed Rosario/Dejong/Farmer/Kiner-Falefa/Brendan Rodgers
• Ward -> O’Neill, Santander or Teoscar
• Canning -> Irvin/Matz/Mikolas/Lynn/Gibson/Littell/Bassitt

All of those additions not only have a place on  the 2025 team, but (aside from Drury) also serve as a built-in vet replacement for that player, allowing us to deal them and add to the farm. And none of them cost too much that they themselves can’t be traded, DFA’ed, relegated to bench/lesser roles in a year or two once a more promising, internal option surfaces. 

Obviously, some of those command more money, time and commitment than others, but you get the point. 

 

 

[Stradling]

51 minutes ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

Look, I will admit my response was too much, but you are initiating by constantly attacking the poster and not the post.

Sorry but I absolutely attack the actual post. If the poster has a history of of repeating themselves about certain topics, like Lorenzon or Nevin, then I’ll also attack the poster as well. My “attack” on you was “you just choose not to see it which really isn’t surprising at all” 

[Ochocinco!]

You know what our problem is? We don’t have a silly fat bald dude. 
 

GIVE ME JAKE BURGER!!!

He can play 3B everyday, he’ll hit .250 with 30HRs. Silly enough he’s exactly what we need on this team and in this lineup and easily obtainable considering he’s on the Marlins 

[Chuck]

17 hours ago, Dave Saltzer said:

I can see trading Ward. His streakiness is not that helpful to us, and, I want to open up LF for Trout. 

Yeah I'm over Ward. Way too streaky and to your point, LF should be where Trout spends most of his time on the field. 

I'm not sure about trading Rengifo but he has been very injury prone so if you can get a good return why not?

100% you trade Tyler Anderson. 

[Inside Pitch]

37 minutes ago, Chuck said:

Yeah I'm over Ward. Way too streaky and to your point, LF should be where Trout spends most of his time on the field. 

I'm not sure about trading Rengifo but he has been very injury prone so if you can get a good return why not?

100% you trade Tyler Anderson. 

Ward was one of three Angels players total that managed at least 2.0 fWAR -- there were all of 26 OFers in MLB that managed to put up a 2.7 fWAR last season -- someone please point me towards who is available that will cost as much or less as Ward in 2025 and should they keep him, 2026 -- I'll wait..  Anyone willing to move him and rely on an OF of Trout, Moniak, and Adell isn't interested in seeing the Angels win, not now not in three years. 

Rather than continue to repeat myself..  

 

[Vlad27Trout27]

I like that idea of going out an making a trade with the Cards, but instead of Arenado, I would rather target Gray, which would give us a solid front of the rotation guy. 

 

[Vlad27Trout27]

I would keep Taylor Ward and signing him to a three-year contract extension, along with Luis Rengifo. In contrast, I don't believe Tyler Anderson holds much trade value, especially considering his poor performance in the second half of the season.

honesty it'll all once again depend on Arte and how much he is truly willing to spend. 

 

[Chuck]

55 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

Ward was one of three Angels players total that managed at least 2.0 fWAR -- there were all of 26 OFers in MLB that managed to put up a 2.7 fWAR last season -- someone please point me towards who is available that will cost as much or less as Ward in 2025 and should they keep him, 2026 -- I'll wait..  Anyone willing to move him and rely on an OF of Trout, Moniak, and Adell isn't interested in seeing the Angels win, not now not in three years. 

Rather than continue to repeat myself..  

 

I actually don't want an outfield of Moniak, Adell and Trout. If Arte really wants to improve the team I think he should sign Santander or Soto for RF and then let Adell take CF since he's really improved tracking balls in the outfield. To me Moniak is a decent 4th outfielder but not an every day starter. 

I would even look at Bellinger for CF if he opts out with the Cubs. An outfield of Santander, Bellinger and Trout would be superb. Then you can trade Jo Adell if he can return something. If not, he's our 4th outfielder to spell one of the three out there with Moniak. 

[Ochocinco!]

One of the Adell, Moniak, Ward trio has to go this off-season if we are assuming trout plays 100? Games this season and putting him in LF for half of those games/DH for the other half. 

[Inside Pitch]

46 minutes ago, Chuck said:

I actually don't want an outfield of Moniak, Adell and Trout. If Arte really wants to improve the team I think he should sign Santander or Soto for RF and then let Adell take CF since he's really improved tracking balls in the outfield.

Just how much are you willing to pay the guy on the bottom and on why would you move the guy on top?  If the goal is to "really improve" and not just move shit around then you're not moving the cheaper player with the better predictive data only to add a more expensive player.

It's not like Ward can't play RF.   

If the Angels try to show fans they are really trying to improve by signing someone who hits HRs when they already have a player capable of filling his role then it's just history repeating.

How much do you think Santander will cost vs someone like Gleyber or a league average 2B?

 

[Inside Pitch]

My biggest concern with this year's FA and the Arte mandate to "compete" is that they will overspend on mediocre bats when there is less talent available there than in the pitching FA pool which is shallow itself.

If they believe they are the verge of building real pitching depth from within then adding to the front of the rotation should be their biggest priority.  As always, they have never done what I wanted and I don't expect things to change this year but FFS it's getting really old watching them not see the forest for the trees.

There is no question they need to add bats, but run prevention is still the best course of action and always has been. 

[Angelsfan1984]

Torres and Flaherty would be my top 2 choices for realistic additions. 

I'd also reach out to the cardinals about Jordan Walker, the orioles about Kjersted/Cowser and to the braves (Waldrep) and marlins (Noble Meyer and Max Meyer) about some of their young arms. 

I dont want a single QO player unless its burnes or Soto. Everyone else i would take a lesser player than give up that very high 2nd rounder.

 

[jsnpritchett]

35 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

My biggest concern with this year's FA and the Arte mandate to "compete" is that they will overspend on mediocre bats when there is less talent available there than in the pitching FA pool which is shallow itself.

If they believe they are the verge of building real pitching depth from within then adding to the front of the rotation should be their biggest priority.  As always, they have never done what I wanted and I don't expect things to change this year but FFS it's getting really old watching them not see the forest for the trees.

There is no question they need to add bats, but run prevention is still the best course of action and always has been. 

Agree with all of this. 

And on Santander specifically, he's a poor defender with a pretty good arm, and as a batter, he's someone with solid but unspectacular StatCast metrics.  He seems like the type of guy who could easily fall off a cliff.  Sure, his HR numbers look appealing--but he's a guy with a career OBP of .308. 

[BTH]

I’d much rather trade for Soler or Yoshida than sign a guy like O’Neill or Santander.

Both guys are blocked and may be essentially given away by their team.

ATL has Acuna, Harris II, Ozuna, Kelenic, and Laureano for OF/DH.

BOS has Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, Refsnyder, Anthony, Campbell for OF/DH.

[DMVol]

12 minutes ago, BTH said:

I’d much rather trade for Soler or Yoshida than sign a guy like O’Neill or Santander.

Both guys are blocked and may be essentially given away by their team.

ATL has Acuna, Harris II, Ozuna, Kelenic, and Laureano for OF/DH.

BOS has Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, Refsnyder, Anthony, Campbell for OF/DH.

I'm not sure if Perry mentioned it specifically or @Jeff Fletcher raised it as a possible avenue this offseason but the Diamond bankruptcy may create some salary dump bargains, if Arte is willing to take on the salary.  We'll see.