The Angels are showing interest in free agents Amed Rosario and Enrique Hernández as they continue their search for infield depth, writes Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tied the Halos to Hernández last month. They hadn’t been directly linked to Rosario before this point.
Rosario is coming off a pedestrian season split between the Guardians and Dodgers. The right-handed middle infielder hit .263/.305/.378 with six homers and 15 steals through 545 combined plate appearances. His power production ticked up a bit after the trade as the Dodgers more frequently leveraged him against lefty pitching. His .256/.301/.408 slash in 48 games was still a bit below average, though. Los Angeles left him off their playoff roster.
The former top prospect had posted roughly average numbers for Cleveland over the preceding two seasons. A durable fixture in the lineup at shortstop, he combined for a .282/.316/.406 slash between 2021-22. Rosario has always been an aggressive hitter who doesn’t hit for much power. His plus contact skills have contributed to three seasons batting above .280, giving him a decent offensive floor.
Where Rosario fits defensively is a bigger question. Public metrics have never looked kindly on his glove. His grades were especially poor in the first half of last season. Statcast and Defensive Runs Saved rated him between 11 and 16 runs worse than an average shortstop in fewer than 800 innings with the Guardians. The Dodgers used him more frequently at second base, his first MLB action on the right side of the infield, down the stretch.
Despite the mediocre platform year, Rosario is one of the better middle infielders available in a thin free agent class. He drew some interest from the Blue Jays and Red Sox early in the winter before those teams added other righty-hitting infielders (Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Vaughn Grissom, respectively).
More recently, Rosario was among a handful of shortstop possibilities tied to the Marlins. Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald wrote this morning that Miami has shown more significant interest in Rosario and Gio Urshela than they have in other reported candidates like Tim Anderson, Nick Ahmed and Adalberto Mondesi.
While Miami has a path to everyday reps at shortstop, the Halos would likely view Rosario as multi-positional insurance. The Halos have second-year player Zach Neto penciled in at shortstop. Anthony Rendon, Brandon Drury and Luis Rengifo could split time between second and third base. Rendon hasn’t reached 60 starts at the hot corner in a season since 2019. Rengifo is a fringe defender who underwent season-ending biceps surgery last September. The Halos haven’t replaced Urshela, who served as a righty-hitting versatile infielder before a pelvis fracture last season.
Owner Arte Moreno said this week that he didn’t anticipate matching last year’s spending level. A run at Rosario should nevertheless be well within range financially. The 28-year-old is looking at a one- or two-year contract. Roster Resource calculates the club’s projected payroll around $173MM. They opened last season with approximately $212MM in player commitments.
Just resign Gio Urshela and forget about Amed and Kike.
Four teams have made offers to Urshela– including the Angels. The Angels keep low balling everyone until someone says yes.
Why? Sit out the offseason to then sign this turd gobbler? What does that accomplish?
Yeah for this team to have any shot they need a real needle-mover. Stop looking at these middle reliever type bullpen arms and bounceback position players and go after someone like Snell, Monty, Chapman.
Otherwise there’s a real risk (15%?) they finish behind my A’s.
Yeah, no team is finishing behind the A’s,,,,
“There’s two or three potential All-Stars in there”
but remain terrified of quality starting pitchers, considering them possessed by the devil and not Angels material.
Is no better than anyone else already on the roster including depth only guys
The Angels need MI depth, but all the options have warts – offense, defense and/or health. If Neto could be counted on for 140+ games, I would suggest a glove first guy like Nick Ahmed. Unfortunately, it’s premature to suggest that Neto can play 140+. With that in mind, I guess Rosario is as good as any other MI depth option.
They do? Then why did they get rid of David Fletcher and Livan Soto?
Dumb GM?
Have a feeling fletcher asked for a trade after what they did last year. He definitely would’ve been great off the bench and would’ve solved the infield depth issue. If they can’t get urshela. What about Brandon Crawford?
This team is trash picking there only 3 players they need to stay in the race Blake snell and Trevor Bauer, Cody Bellinger what a stop dumpster diving
At what point do people accept that Trevor Bauer is not getting signed to a MLB team anytime soon?
Why? Worse characters not only played game but made into the Hall. Having mutually agreed rough sex is not a crime.
It was a vastly different world 100 years ago than it is today
Of course the Angels are interested– they are interested in everyone and low-balling them all. Whoever is left and the most desperate will be on the Angels.
@carl probably why they have been attached to a lot names just seeing if anyone bites. I wouldn’t mind another infield piece of the bench
Sounds like trash heap dumpster diving continues for Arturo Moreno and his inept management. Gonna be fighting off Oakland hard for worst record in the AL this year. These big signings almost lock up 3rd place in the west. Bang!!!!
I’m a Tigers fan, but I can’t believe the Angels couldn’t put playoff teams around Trout and Ohtani. Horrible money management. They probably should’ve traded them for a minor league all star team in hindsight because they could’ve got it. Those guys would’ve been good by now. It’s hindsight, but everyone knew they were failing miserably by season 5 (conservative. Probably sooner). So, we seen it but they preferred the attendance money I guess. (Fans coming to see those two). They would come for a playoff team too.
We need our utility guy to be good at third base.
Urshela is the only guy in that group who is.
FYI….we need pitching!
The Angels also need offense. They just lost their top offensive threat (Ohtani) and have struggled scoring runs and hitting with RISP over the past years.
I’d really like to see Bellinger join the Halos, who would give Trout regular time at DH and can lead to a Moniak or Ward trade for pitching or a couple prospects.