Here’s tonight’s look at the AL West:
- Angels owner Arte Moreno said the Halos didn’t make any serious offers to any of the big free agents out there this winter, Jeff Fletcher of the OC Register tweets. More specifically, Moreno indicated that Angels did not make an offer to Jason Heyward and that the club is not in serious talks with Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Upton, Alex Gordon, or Chris Davis (Twitter link via Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times)
- Angels GM Billy Eppler told reporters, including Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times (on Twitter), that the team is still “engaged in conversations” with other outfielders even after the signing of Daniel Nava. Nava, it appears, is being counted on to provide the Halos with depth in left field, right field, and at first base. For his part, Eppler feels that there are still going to be opportunities to improve the club, even without the addition of marquee names, Fletcher tweets.
- Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter) gets the impression that the A’s were among those willing to bid more on Bartolo Colon than the Mets did. On Wednesday, Colon and the Mets agreed to a one-year, $7.25MM deal and he reportedly received more lucrative offers elsewhere. Colon enjoyed great success in Oakland, pitching to a 2.99 ERA with 5.5 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9 between 2012 and 2013.
wow. As an Angel fan, this is disappointing to hear. I guess we are not getting a premium OF since we are still paying Hamilton.
they give up newcomb and ellis for simmons but they don’t want to spend money
The point is that Mr. Moreno threw another temper tantrum and got rid of Josh. A Healthy Josh solves ALL the problems with the lineup. Instead, Mr. Moreno is PAYING a man to play for another team in his own Division, while going without. So LAME.
Even a healthy Josh is past his prime and not an elite player anymore. But that’s beside the point. Moreno shouldn’t penalize the team and its fans because he screwed up and overpaid Hamilton to begin with.
Moreno bought the team for $183 MILLION…the team is now worth 1.3 BILLION. Yet, he says “economics” is his reason for NOT pursuing Cespedes and Upton?
C’mon. That is so brutal. Does he think we are ALL stupid?
I hate the Angels offseason. We’re going nowhere
I love Moreno, y’all’s ownership is legit stupid, that’s why your GM left mid season. He knew he couldn’t do what he needed to.
I agree, our left fielder Gordon and bringing back Howie would be great.
How that guy (Colon) can still throw a ball 94-95 2-3 times when he has to, 80-90 pitches deep into a game amazes me. He’s been off the juice for a couple of years now, so can’t be that and saw him able last year still on few occasions to reach back late, when he really needed it to get the ball up there around 93, 94, even 95. Yes.. He sits 90-91 now on his 4 seamer and less than that on his cutter, but at 42? He’s not Randy Johnson and age defying bullet thrower. This is some short tubby dude who can’t see his feet when he looks down.
Giants / Diamondbacks / Tigers / Red Sox / Yankees / Nationals / Cardinals / Rangers
All the big boys seem to not want a part of the rest of the market or are tapped out.
Seems like the Dodgers can chose as they like out of the rest the guys out there.
Angels are now paying the penalty for Moreno treating this club like a fantasy team the last few seasons. As soon as the dead money from the Wells contract cleared there is more thanks to his deal with Hamilton. I can see the next two seasons us being under .500. Artie is going to start loosing the fans.
So you really think this team is gonna be worse then this last season? I see them still winning 87/89 wins w/o that “big bat”….
Perez and Soto will be better then Ianetta/Perez
Escobar will be better then 2/3 of a season of Freese and 1/3 scrubs
Their young pitchers will be better w/ the extra experience…
Weaver will still decline
CJ I believe will pitch better then last season w/ elbow cleaned up. ..not to 2013 level but better
Trout/Kole/Albert will all be themselves
I even think Johnny G will play slightly better…
You’re angry at Moreno for giving out stupid contracts because the result is…he can’t give out more stupid contracts. Well done.
Artie thinks we are ALL stupid and that he is smart. He LIES to us all the time because he thinks he were fools. You are right, the fans are starting to catch on to his deceitful ways.
More like 260 with 10 home runs and 55 rbis but yes he is the most amazing shortstop in the game defensively best since Ozzie smith has been around
More like .200 with 5 HR but yeah the glove is worth 3 WAR alone.
I would say that Vizquel was better than Simmons so far, but Simmons has the rest of his career to prove me wrong
Omar was great but he is no Simmons.
Bring back Howie and sign a decent 7th/8th RP or trade for Papelbon and I’ll consider this offseason acceptable. Otherwise, third place battle between Angels and Mariners here we come.
Howie costs a draft pick so no thank you. We could use another reliever but Pap? Heck no. Dude is a mess in the clubhouse. This team needs positive energy man especially the pen. Pap would make this team worse.
Yeah, this is hard to hear. I check in on MLBTR several times a day (ok, hour) to see if there is any news of the Angels getting a left fielder. Looks like we’re going to go with scrubs.
We’re gonna lose a lot of games.
All the Angels need is a table setting in front of Trout. Nava/Gentry have strong career platoon splits for that. But I would trade Wilson to free up at least half of his salary and go for Parra, Fowler, or Span. That’s all they need now. Angels fans want Cespedes or Upton and are getting worked up as if they have no idea who is on their team. They only have 3 lefties now in their lineup. You put Cespedes or Upton in LF then you end up with 2 lefties in the lineup and still no table setter. That’s all their offense needs.
Agree, it’d be nice to shed some payroll with Wilson.
Don’t know if you could find a suitor though.
But then again a back end starter for 6m a year isn’t bad.
Maybe making him quite attractive.
CJ Wilson is owed 20 mil for this year making him extremely unattractive for a 1 yr buy in.
They could also use more protection for Trout. They’re just not waiting out she market because there are so many available options. I’ve always pegged them for Chris Davis and I still see it. Can play him at first and left, lefty, huge bat, type of guy Boras can convince Moreno to get. If they make moves to lower their tax number soon, like trading one or both of their expensive pitchers for cheaper players on longer term deals (e.g. Brandon Phillips), then it’s all the more likely.
Arte doesn’t negotiate with Boras lol screw him.
Markakis could be a pretty good table setter for trout. He’s owed 30 mil over 3 years, which isn’t great but he’ll get on base and be the other left handed bat the Angels need.
Halos can sign Span without trading Wilson. As long as the contract is gone in 2 years. Arte has his eyes set on the 2018 season. He wants all the money possible for that off-season.
Uncensored?
As a Mariners fan, I would love to see nothing more than the Angels give a 5 years or more, big money contract to an aging player who will give maybe one or two good seasons and then be almost untradeable the rest of their contract. Eppler is being smart though by not doing that. You would think that after getting burned by contracts to Wells, Pujols, Hamilton, Wilson, etc., Angel fans would be applauding Eppler for not falling into another terrible contract situation. But go ahead, sign another player to another big money contract and in a couple of years you’ll be groaning at how bad said player is and how he is overpaid.
Wells was traded from Toronto.
True, I forgot that. Still, the Angels regretted that deal considering the money he still had owed to him.
I keep waiting for them to trade Heaney for some guy who made an all-star game once.
As a mariner fan, you have nothing to say, because your team has been nothing for as long as any angel fan can remember.
Hey Mariners fans. It was Dipoto who inked Pujols and Hamilton. I think the best move we made was sending Jerry to Seattle. Good luck.
Howie has some experience in the outfield with the Angels .. Maybe sign him to play left field and he would keep us under the tax limit and be a significant upgrade and help our offense
Maybe the Angels can still get Gerrardo Parra and not break the bank or give up their first round draft pick.
I would have liked to see a reunion with Howie Kendrick going back to the Angels, and then signing Alex Gordon. We do need a left handed bat in this lineup, and Gordon would be the cheapest out of Upton or Cespedes. I think Arte could find a way to stay under the luxury tax by signing both of them, but we would have to shed C.J. Wilson’s contract first.
I read a bunch of sites that reported that A’s offered Colon way more money, but he simply wanted to be closer to his home in NJ.
It’s ok for eppler and arte to trade away sean newcomb and chris ellis for simmons but they don’t want to spend the money that would make the angels championship caliber in 2016.
The Angels need an OF and the Braves don’t need Markakis. He would be relatively cheap and would fit well with the Angels so possibly a 3 team trade of Markakis to the Angels, Preston Tucker to the Braves, and either Shoemaker or Santiago to the Astros. Would meet needs all around.
Why don’t we trade hector Santiago and matt shoemaker for an outfielder instead of signing a crap player like nava. Even if we got rid of them our starting 5 would still be
Richards
Wilson
Heaney
Weaver
Skaggs
Which is still pretty solid
I’d rather trade for a 2nd basemen. Someone like DJ LeMahieu.
Relax guys. This is great news. The 2018 free agent market is going to be HUGE! Do you really want Arte to spend money on Cespy, Upton, or Gordon rather than Manny Machado, Jose Fernandez, Clayton Kershaw, Dee Gordon, Bryce Harper etc. Arte is looking at that off-season already. I persoanlly love it. Pocket it the money now and go big for the 2018 free agency class. Can’t let the Dodgers have all the fun that off-season.
Clayton Kershaw? Do you seriously believe that the Dodgers are going to let him go anywhere?
I noticed when I posted that I didn’t put possible free agents(and we can’t edit comments), since some have an opt out clause. I don’t expect Dodgers to let him go anywhere, I also don’t expect Kershaw to opt out. But he can and if he does he is a free agent and anything can happen when a player becomes a free agent.
Another thing is we can still sign Denard Span. Span would be a great addition to the Angels. Even Parra. But I prefer Span, he fills a ton of the Halo needs.