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Mike Trout

AL West Notes: Trout, Angels, Gamel, Sardinas, Vincent

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Angels superstar Mike Trout was involved in a car accident in southern California last night which left two people injured, but Trout himself walked away from the crash unharmed, as Scott Schwebke and Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register report. Both Angels GM Billy Eppler and Trout’s agent, Craig Landis, have stated that the center fielder is uninjured, with Eppler issuing the following statement: “Mike Trout was involved in a car accident earlier tonight. I have spoken with Mike this evening and he feels fine. He is at home with his roommate and is planning on traveling with the club to Seattle tomorrow afternoon. We will update as more information becomes available.” The video atop the above-linked Trout story includes a report from the scene which states that the accident occurred when Trout had to slam on his brakes because of another accident that had taken place in front of him, causing him to collide with another car. The California Highway Patrol does “not have any reason to believe right now that drugs or alcohol were a factor,” said Stacey Butler of CBS Los Angeles in the news report. More concerning at this time is the well-being of the woman in the car that was struck by Trout’s vehicle, as USA Today’s A.J. Perez reports that she suffered “major” injuries and was transported to Orange County Global Medical Center. We at MLBTR join all that are following this story in wishing her a full recovery.

Here’s more from the AL West…

  • The Angels are once again staring at an offseason of uncertainty at the second base position, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times writes. While there are internal options at the ready, it seems hard to imagine that the organization will feel comfortable giving regular playing time to Johnny Giavotella, Cliff Pennington, or Gregorio Petit. There’s some hope that Kaleb Cowart can transition over from third, though that remains a work in progress. From an outside perspective, it seems worth noting that Yunel Escobar is an option at second as well as the hot corner, which creates some flexibility this winter.
  • Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto spoke with Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times about yesterday’s trade to acquire outfielder Ben Gamel from the Yankees and implied that he will get an opportunity to prove that he can help the Mariners in 2016 and beyond. “He has 1,000 plate appearances at Triple A,” said Dipoto. “…He just won MVP [of the Triple-A International League] and he was rookie of the year last year in that league. He’s done what he can do at Triple A and now he deserves an opportunity. … He does a lot of things well. He’s optionable, he’s young and he’s athletic, three of things we are looking for. He’s a polished minor league minor league player who’s ready to cut his teeth in the big leagues.” Nori Aoki and Franklin Gutierrez are both free agents at season’s end, while Seth Smith has a $7MM club option remaining on his contract. As such, there could be plenty of at-bats to be won for Gamel in 2017 if he can prove capable of handling big league pitching.
  • Last month, the Mariners traded infielder Luis Sardinas to the Padres in exchange for a player to be named later or cash, and MLB.com’s A.J. Cassavell now reports that the deal has been completed, with San Diego sending cash to Seattle (Twitter link). The return for Sardinas was never expected to be all that high, considering the fact that he’d endured a poor 2016 season and had already been designated for assignment at the time of the trade. Since joining the Padres, Sardinas has seven hits in 22 at-bats, including a homer and a pair of doubles. On a somewhat related note, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets that the two sides have not yet formally wrapped up the Nick Vincent swap that took place all the way back in March (Twitter link). The Padres and Mariners have until Sept. 30 to complete the trade, which was announced as Vincent to Seattle in exchange for a player to be named later. Vincent has been a nice add for the Mariners, tossing 47 innings of 3.83 ERA ball.

AL West Notes: Trout, Richards, Choo, Gattis

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Angels general manager Billy Eppler tells Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times that he hasn’t taken a single call asking about the availability of Mike Trout in the midst of his team’s injury-riddled season. There’s been a perhaps surprising amount of speculation about the Halos eventually making Trout available with a poor on-field product at the moment (due in part, though not necessarily entirely due to the aforementioned injuries) and the team’s dismal farm system. As one rival GM put it when speaking to Shaikin: “You’re getting a guy who’s being paid at the very top of the food chain and trading three to five potential impact players in return. I don’t think there is a scenario where that is going to happen.”

More pertaining to the Halos and their division…

  • Angels ace Garrett Richards spoke to MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez (Twitter link) about his decision to hold off on the Tommy John surgery he was reported to require for a tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. “The way my timetable lines up, as far as being back by 2018 if I did have surgery, is not any different if I have surgery now versus in a couple of months from now,” said Richards, who plans to first attempt stem-cell therapy to treat his injury. “This is just something that was an option, and I decided to take it. Why not, right?” Even the most optimistic projections for a Richards return would’ve been a late May/early June return for Richards in 2017, and if he follows a 14- to 16-month recovery timeline for Tommy John, then he’d indeed have missed most or all of the 2017 season anyhow.
  • The Rangers optioned reliever Andrew Faulkner to Triple-A yesterday, which should clear a path for outfielder Shin-Soo Choo to be activated from the disabled list today. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star Telegram tweets that with Choo’s return, he’ll return to his role as the everyday right fielder, with rookie Nomar Mazara sliding over to left field. The Rangers, following Delino Deshields’ recent demotion, will move forward with Mazara and Choo flanking a resurgent (and re-positioned) Ian Desmond in center field. Choo appeared in only five games for the Rangers this season before suffering a calf injury that necessitated a roughly six-week stay on the disabled list.
  • Evan Gattis’ return to catching drew strong reviews from Astros right-hander Collin McHugh, writes MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. Gattis, who was solely a DH in his first year with Houston, was recently optioned to Double-A Corpus Christi to once again familiarize himself with catching, and the plan is for him to catch a couple of times per week when he isn’t serving as the club’s designated hitter, per McTaggart. “The story of today is Evan Gattis,” said McHugh following a strong start against the White Sox. “…He’s a big league catcher and everybody needs to understand that and recognize that. He did a really phenomenal job tonight, both calling the game and blocking.” Despite hitting 27 homers last season, Gattis’ .285 on-base percentage made his work as a DH questionable overall. However, if he can deliver relatively similar production while serving as a part-time catcher in 2016, he’ll obviously become a considerably more valuable commodity for the Astros, even if his defense behind the dish isn’t premium.

Cafardo’s Latest: Trout, Trumbo, Reyes, Chapman, Ruiz

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Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe is the latest to weigh in on the possibility of the Angels trading superstar center fielder Mike Trout, naming 10 teams capable of putting together packages for the 24-year-old. The Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Phillies, Nationals, Astros, Rangers, Mets, Giants and Cubs could all make a hypothetical Trout trade work, writes Cafardo.

Here’s more from the Boston-area insider:

  • The Orioles haven’t begun contract talks with free agent-to-be Mark Trumbo, but that may change if the 30-year-old outfielder continues his torrid pace. Trumbo, whom the Orioles acquired from Seattle for a pittance in the offseason, has hit a tremendous .314/.365/.606 with 11 home runs in 148 plate appearances this year and is putting himself in position to earn an appreciable raise over his 2016 salary of $9.15MM.
  • There’s seemingly interest around the league in shortstop Jose Reyes, whom the Rockies will make available when he’s reinstated from a domestic violence suspension at the end of the month. Reyes, 32, is still owed roughly $41MM – including a $4MM buyout in 2018 – and is coming off arguably the worst season of his career.
  • The Yankees could make closer Aroldis Chapman available in late June if they’re not in playoff contention by then, according to Cafardo. The lights-out left-hander is on an $11MM-plus salary and is slated to hit free agency at the end of the season.
  • Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz is reviving his stock, having hit .291/.371/.509 with three homers in 62 PAs, and could interest teams looking for a cheaper alternative to the Brewers’ Jonathan Lucroy – who will be the best backstop on the market if Milwaukee shops him. “He doesn’t have the arm he once had, so that aspect of his game won’t come back, but young pitchers love throwing to him,” a National League scout told Cafardo. The 37-year-old Ruiz’s contract includes a $4.5MM club option for 2017.

Poll: Should The Angels Consider Trading Mike Trout?

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The Angels entered the season with some uncertainty surrounding their roster, and though we’re only a week into May, the 13-18 Halos may be facing an uphill battle to get back into contention.  Injuries have ravaged the pitching staff, and the loss of ace Garrett Richards to Tommy John surgery is a particularly crushing blow that will hurt the Angels both this season and next, as Richards likely won’t return until late in the 2017 campaign.  With closer Huston Street also on the DL and the lineup producing middling numbers in most offensive categories,

Compounding the problem for Anaheim is that the club is spending a lot of money (an Opening Day payroll of roughly $164.67MM) for this underwhelming performance, and the Angels’ farm system is widely considered to be by far the weakest in baseball.  Some payroll relief will come when C.J. Wilson and Jered Weaver are off the books this winter as free agents, though the minor league system is in such dire straits that the Angels will realistically need a few years of strong drafts to replenish their stock of prospects.

The rumor mill is already beginning to swirl around the Angels as a possible trade deadline seller, and perhaps inevitably, there has been speculation that the Halos could completely shake things up by dealing Mike Trout.  Needless to say, a Trout trade would be a milestone transaction for baseball as a whole, there’s almost no limit to what the Angels could demand in return for a player whose early-career exploits have put him alongside some of baseball’s all-time greats.

Trout would fetch, at minimum, a multi-player package of several blue chip prospects and slightly more developed talents who are close to the big leagues.  A deal could also includes one or more established Major Leaguers.  Could the Angels even look to move Albert Pujols’ increasingly-burdensome contract by attaching it to Trout’s services?  That last scenario may be perhaps a bit too far-fetched, though it’s hard to really gauge what a Trout market would look like given how rare it is for a superstar player in his prime to be shopped.

Angels owner Arte Moreno and GM Billy Eppler, unsurprisingly, have both flatly denied that the Angels have any inclination of dealing Trout.  Even if this season goes completely off the rails for Anaheim, you would think that it would take another rough year in 2017 for the Angels to even begin considering a Trout trade given his importance to the franchise…and even then, the Angels are free of Josh Hamilton’s contract after 2017 so they’d have even more available funds for a reload rather than a rebuild.  Furthermore, Trout’s six-year, $144.5MM deal that runs through the 2020 season contains a full no-trade clause, so the superstar would have the final say on whether or not he left for another team.

Even the vague idea of Trout being swapped has inspired quite a bit of debate amongst pundits.  Sports On Earth’s Brian Kenny and ESPN’s Buster Olney argue that the Angels would be foolish to deal such a once-in-a-generation talent, with Olney adding the caveat that the club might reconsider if Trout were to tell the Angels that he wasn’t going to re-sign after his current contract is up.  Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron and ESPN’s David Schoenfield, on the other hand, think the idea isn’t completely absurd given how dire Cameron feels the Angels’ long-term situation is and (as Schoenfield illustrates) the incredible potential trade packages Anaheim could command.

While trading Trout is a complex question, let’s boil it down to a simple yes or no question.  Is Trout the definition of an untouchable player, or are the Angels’ problems severe enough that they need a drastic move like a Trout deal to reinvigorate the franchise?  (MLBTR app users can weigh in here)

AL Notes: Chapman, Trout, McCullers, Severino

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Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman will be eligible to make his season debut Monday after serving a 30-game suspension (29 because of a rainout) for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. The league disciplined Chapman for firing eight shots from a gun into his garage wall after an argument with his girlfriend last October, but the 28-year-old is adamant that he did nothing wrong. “I didn’t do anything. People are thinking that it’s something serious; I have not put my hands on anyone, didn’t put anyone in danger,” he told Billy Witz of the New York Times. Chapman shrugged off the fact that his frightened girlfriend called 911 while hiding in the bushes, saying, “It was just an argument with your partner that everyone has. I’ve even argued with my mother. When you are not in agreement with someone, we Latin people are loud when we argue.” Chapman added that he believes Latino ballplayers are targets because of their wealth and their lack of familiarity with the customs in the United States, though he didn’t specify whether he thinks they’re targets of the league, the police or both. “It’s easier to hurt someone who is not from here than someone who is. People think we don’t know what the laws are and they try to hurt you. Many people want money. We have to take care of ourselves,” he said.

Here’s more from the American League:

  • With the Angels lacking talent at the major league level and possessing baseball’s worst farm system, some pundits have begun weighing whether the team should trade the best player in the game, center fielder Mike Trout. Sports On Earth’s Brian Kenny is vehemently opposed to the Angels moving Trout, arguing that no player they could realistically get in return for the 24-year-old would come close to approaching his otherworldly production.  Kenny cites Bill James’ theory that talent is not distributed evenly; instead, it’s to be thought of as a pyramid, and Trout – given both his output and durability – is at the very top of it.
  • Astros right-hander Lance McCullers could finally be nearing his 2016 major league debut, which has been delayed because of a shoulder injury. The flame-throwing 22-year-old logged five innings (64 pitches) in a Triple-A rehab start Saturday and struck out seven, according to Angel Verdejo Jr. of the Houston Chronicle. That might end up as McCullers’ only start at that level if his body responds well in the coming days, per Verdejo. McCullers’ return will be a significant development for the Astros, whose rotation – like the team itself – has regressed from one of the league’s best last year to among its worst this season.
  • CC Sabathia’s presence on the disabled list won’t preclude the Yankees from demoting right-hander Luis Severino to the minors if his struggles continue, writes Brendan Kuty of NJ Advance Media. “His development isn’t going to have much to do with CC’s injury,” pitching coach Larry Rothschild told Kuty. “I think what he does is what a lot of young pitchers would do and that’s try to power their way through it instead of pitching their way through it,” he continued. Severino has followed his strong 62 1/3-inning major league debut in 2015 with 25 2/3 frames of 6.31 ERA ball this season. The 22-year-old’s strikeout rate has plummeted from 8.09 per nine innings last season to 5.61, and his BABIP has risen 98 points from .265 to .363. Both of those factors have hurt Severino’s cause, though there are some positive signs: He’s walking far few hitters (1.75 BB/9 compared to a 3.18 mark in ’15) and continuing to generate ground balls over 50 percent of the time.

AL West Notes: Gattis, Trout, Calhoun, Hill, Felix

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The Astros have optioned Evan Gattis to Double-A, where he’ll get comfortable behind the plate, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reports (links to Twitter). Houston has yet to utilize the 29-year-old as a catcher, but he broke into the league in that position. With the organization one of several struggling with receiving depth, it seems he’ll have a chance to don the tools of ignorance once again. Gattis, who’s off to a rough start at the plate (.213/.269/.328), says that he’s excited at the development. Kaplan suggests that Gattis is unlikely to spend more than the requisite ten days on optional assignment.

Here’s more from the AL West:

  • Angels GM Billy Eppler made clear that the organization is not going to begin entertaining the idea of trading superstar Mike Trout after the awful pitching news received today, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports. The Halos are looking hard at options for the rotation, he says, and still believes in its chances. “This team was up against a lot of adversity last year and fought to the end,” says Eppler. “We’ve got a lot of character, a lot of the same guys on the club. They will not back down from a fight.” Some aren’t so sure that’s the right approach for the Angels. Dave Cameron of Fangraphs argues that the team’s near-term outlook, depleted farm, and continued payroll constraints provide cause to at least consider taking offers on Trout, who’d surely draw unprecedented trade interest. ESPN.com’s David Schoenfield, meanwhile, draws on that piece and looks at a few organizations that could plausibly make a run at a player whose immense productivity and appealing contract make him the single most valuable asset in the sport.
  • The Angels have another quality young outfielder in Kole Calhoun, and Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times profiles his unlikely path to the majors. Long overlooked despite his performances as an amateur, Calhoun has turned into an eighth-round hidden gem for the Halos. “I don’t know what all of professional baseball was thinking,” said former scouting director Eddie Bane. “We were just dumb.”
  • Former Angels prospect Hunter Green is sticking with his plans to retire, Mike DiGiovanna writes for Baseball America. The wiry lefty dealt with significant injury issues, and ultimately decided to hang ’em up after failing to get back on track. While the organization tried to convince him to stick with it, the former second-rounder has apparently decided to move on from the sport.
  • Having seemingly come from out of nowhere to where he is now — a quality starter for the Athletics — Rich Hill’s back story remains of interest. According to Orioles catcher Matt Wieters, Hill showed plenty of signs back when he caught the southpaw in the upper minors, as Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports. “The stuff for a left-hander, I always thought was something you don’t see much with the type of pitches he could throw,” said Wieters.
  • Felix Hernandez has provided the Mariners with typically productive innings, but there’s some cause for real concern, Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs writes. The veteran righty has seen his velocity steadily decline in years past, but now he’s experienced a sudden drop-off that’s left him sitting below 90 mph with his average fastball. Meanwhile, he’s also struggling to hit the zone. While Hernandez has thus far managed to generate plenty of soft contact, the 30-year-old certainly doesn’t look like the same pitcher he has been in years past. Whether he can continue to put up ace-like results remains to be seen.

AL West Notes: Lee, Peralta, Ruggiano, Rangers

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Some news from the AL West…

  • Dae-Ho Lee can opt out of his minor league deal with the Mariners on Sunday and become a free agent if he isn’t on the 40-man roster, Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune writes.  It seems as if Lee is on track to indeed make the M’s as the right-handed side of a first base platoon with Adam Lind, and Lee will earn a $1MM base salary if he makes the MLB roster (plus another $3MM in possible bonuses).  If Lee beats out Jesus Montero for the job, Dutton figures the M’s will try to deal the out-of-options Montero before exposing him to the waiver wire.
  • Also from Dutton’s piece, the Mariners face the Tuesday deadline for Article XX(B) free agents to let Joel Peralta know if he’s made the roster, though Dutton figures Peralta is a pretty safe bet.  Peralta signed a minor league deal with Seattle last month that will pay the 11-year veteran $1.25MM in guaranteed salary if he makes the M’s roster.  While Peralta hasn’t had a great spring, his case has been helped by some injuries to other Mariners relievers.
  • Rangers outfielder Justin Ruggiano could become a trade target for clubs looking for outfield help, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal opines (Twitter link).  Ruggiano signed a one-year, $1.65MM Major League deal with Texas in December to provide depth in left given Josh Hamilton’s injured status, though with Ian Diamond now signed as the regular left field, Ruggiano has become a bit of a surplus.  Ruggiano turns 34 in April and owns an impressive .272/.336/.520 career slash line after left-handed pitching.
  • The Rangers could use a modified four-man rotation as a way of sidestepping a roster crunch in April, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News opines.  The club’s fifth starter candidates operate as swingmen to cover both those spot starts and the role as eighth man in the bullpen.  This could also allow Texas to keep out-of-options Sam Freeman rather than exposing him to waivers.
  • “A baseball team can’t ever be carried by one individual player. Yet Mike Trout comes the closest,” Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan writes in a piece about his site’s outfield projections.  Trout’s projected 8.8 fWAR for 2016 almost single-handedly gives the Angels the best projected outfield in baseball (with right fielder Kole Calhoun contributing 2.8 fWAR and the Daniel Nava/Craig Gentry platoon in left at 0.7 fWAR).  Sullivan feels Trout alone is keeping the Halos competitive, as without him, “the Angels are a group we’d think ought to be rebuilding….the Angels’ situation is miserable. They’d be a bad team with a bad farm system. That’s the worst situation to be in.”
  • In other AL West news from earlier today, the Astros released veteran southpaw Neal Cotts…the Angels shut down C.J. Wilson’s throwing program, and thus the lefty will be sidelined until at least May.

AL Notes: Encarnacion, Coghlan, Trout

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Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion reiterates that remains open to an extension, but is setting an Opening Day deadline so that talks do not become a distraction, according to various reporters (including MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm). Via Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi (on Twitter), Encarnacion would like to finish his career in Toronto. “I love this team, I love this city,” he says. “But it (doesn’t) depend on me. It depends what they’re thinking.” It was reported earlier this month that the Blue Jays would explore extensions with Encarnacion and Jose Bautista, both of whom are eligible for free agency after the season. The 33-year-old Encarnacion has hit 34 or more homers in each of the last four years, and in response to a question about what figure he might have in mind for a new contract, he says (via Chisholm) the only number he’s thinking of right now is 40, for the number of dingers he’d like to hit this season. Here’s more from the American League.

  • GM David Forst says the Athletics see new acquisition Chris Coghlan as a “[Ben] Zobrist-type guy,” via a video from the Bay Area News Group’s John Hickey (on Twitter). Forst mentions that Coghlan has played second and third base in the past, along with left field and center field. Of course, Coghlan has mostly been a left fielder in his career, but it sounds like the Athletics could be preparing for him to take on a slightly different role this season. He did appear in 15 games at second base with the Cubs in 2015.
  • Angels star Mike Trout hopes to steal more bases in 2016, Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times writes. “I gotta get my confidence back,” says Trout, referring to his base-stealing. Trout led the AL with 49 steals in 2012, but that number dropped to 11 (against seven caught stealings) in 2015. Trout is, obviously, plenty valuable whether he steals bases or not, and Moura notes that much of the Angels’ brain trust isn’t concerned about whether Trout racks up big base-stealing totals.

Moreno: “It Has Never Been About” Luxury Tax

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The Angels have taken quite a bit of flak for a seeming unwillingness to exceed the luxury tax threshold, but owner Arte Moreno strongly denied to MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez that he is firmly against exceeding that $189MM threshold. “It has never been about that,” Moreno told Gonzalez. “It has never been with the threshold. …We have a budget, and every year, I’ve overspent our budget.” Moreno says that his operating budget has typically been in the $140-150MM range, but he’s consistently exceeded that mark to the point where he suggested to Gonzalez that the team is barely avoiding debt. Moreno, though, seemingly conceded to the fact that the possibility of exceeding the tax barrier played some role in the club’s offseason, as Gonzalez goes on to mention that the owner “wasn’t confident that the Angels would be able to comfortably get back under the threshold given their potential holes,” which prompted them to pass on high-profile free agents. It would seem, then, that his assertion is that while he wasn’t entirely resistant to the notion of exceeding, the proper situation didn’t present itself this winter. The Angels do have a record payroll for the 2016 season, Gonzalez points out, even with a Craig Gentry/Daniel Nava platoon in left field and Johnny Giavotella/Cliff Pennington in line for most of the second base at-bats. Just as importantly, though, he adds that the Angels are about $2MM shy of the luxury tax threshold at present. Notably, Moreno denied an interview to the Los Angeles Times, as Pedro Moura writes.

A bit more from Gonzalez’s column and several more Angels notes on an evening with plenty of news coming out of Anaheim…

  • Regarding the possibility of eventually looking to trade Mike Trout — a notion that stemmed from a fairly innocuous comment in Keith Law’s farm system rankings at ESPN — Moreno shot down the possibility in definitive fashion. “One hundred percent we are not trading Mike Trout,” Moreno told Gonzalez. “…It’s not even in the thought process.” Honestly, it’s fairly surprising to me that this even reached the point where the owner felt the need to comment, but Moreno’s firm denial merits a brief mention.
  • While the Angels didn’t make the big deadline splash that many fans were hoping for this past July, it wasn’t for lack of trying, Gonzalez tweets. According to Gonzalez, the Halos “tried hard” to pry Yoenis Cespedes from the Tigers, but Detroit wouldn’t budge on its asking price of Sean Newcomb. Eventually, the two sides scrapped the talks and, of course, Cespedes was traded to the Mets for right-handers Michael Fulmer and Luis Cessa. Newcomb was later traded alongside right-hander Chris Ellis and shortstop Erick Aybar to bring Andrelton Simmons to the Halos. For those wondering why the Angels didn’t make a run at Cespedes this winter, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register got the sense that Cespedes preferred the East Coast and didn’t want to sign with the Angels, who would’ve had to drastically overpay in order to sign him (links to Twitter).
  • Another interesting note from Fletcher, who writes in a full column that left-hander Hector Santiago said his agent called him in November to inform him that he was on the verge of being traded to the Orioles. A deal (clearly) never came to fruition. The Orioles are known to have been seeking rotation help all winter, and Santiago was an oft-speculated trade candidate when the Angels were seeking ways in which to bolster their outfield situation. Specific parameters of the apparent near-deal aren’t known, though  if the agent and player are being informed that something is close, that would signify rather advanced discussions.
  • Also within that piece, Fletcher writes that setup man Joe Smith would like to remain with the Halos beyond the expiration of his contract at season’s end, although there have been no extension talks between the two sides. “I would love to (re-sign) but there were a few more important things this winter to be keeping our eye on,” said Smith.
  • Former Angels GM and current Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto discussed his relationship with Moreno and manager Mike Scioscia candidly in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (audio link). Dipoto praised Moreno’s willingness to spend and called Scioscia a likely Hall of Famer, but he admitted that there were challenges. “There were times where it was very difficult to the job that I was asked to do, but that was because I was caught in between, perhaps, two different dynamics,” said Dipoto. “And I would say the same of them. I had some different ideas that maybe they weren’t as comfortable with…” Dipoto went on to say that Mariners ownership has been more receptive to his ideas. “…And, as importantly, I have a manager now in Scott Servais who I do see eye-to-eye with,” Dipoto continued. “We have discussed every move, we have disagreed on many ideas as we’ve gone through this offseason, but in a really productive way. And, fair or unfair, that was not always the case with Mike. … Healthy disagreement is a good thing, and sometimes in Anaheim as you saw played out nationally multiple times over the four years, it wasn’t quite as healthy.”
  • Scioscia was made aware of Dipoto’s comments, Moura notes in his aforementioned column, though the longtime Halos skipper didn’t seem to take much umbrage with anything that was said. “I think there were certainly times that you are not going to agree on everything,” Scioscia explained. “I think there were times when the communication was there, maybe times where it wasn’t what it could have been. But I’m not looking back.” Scioscia said he operated similarly under former GMs Bill Stoneman and Tony Reagins. “I think you have to have that free-flowing of ideas,” he continued. “I think at times, we did.”

AL West Notes: Rangers, Trout, Davis, Astros, Castro

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Rangers GM Jon Daniels wouldn’t say that the Royals’ success served as the blueprint for constructing his team’s bullpen, but it’s clear that Texas is counting on big production from its relievers, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes.  Texas is optimistic about being able to get strong performances from Shawn Tolleson, Sam Dyson, Jake Diekman, Tom Wilhelmsen, Keone Kela, and Tony Barnette in 2016.  “You can dream it up to be a pretty powerful bullpen, and we have the luxury to shorten the game if we need to,” manager Jeff Banister said. “Our bullpen has an opportunity to be as strong a bullpen as there is in baseball.”

Here’s more from around the AL West…

  • Could the Angels trade Mike Trout?  It’s a far-fetched notion at the moment, though ESPN’s Keith Law off-handedly raised the subject in his recent farm system rankings when he opined that Anaheim might have to consider dealing Trout unless it drafts some good prospects for its beleaguered farm system.  Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register doesn’t think a Trout deal is anywhere near the Halos’ radar screen right now, though if the 2016 season is a disappointment, the Angels may indeed have to unload some Major League talent to get younger.  Even if this scenario happens, however, Garrett Richards or Kole Calhoun are more likely to be shopped than Trout.  Four of five executives and scouts polled by John Perrotto of Today’s Knuckleball wouldn’t trade Trout, and the fifth would only do so for a big package of MLB-ready talent and elite prospects.
  • Perrotto’s piece also contains comments from a scout who feels the Athletics made a “great pickup” in obtaining Khris Davis from the Brewers.  “Power has become so much more scarce in recent years that I’m surprised that Oakland could get a guy like Davis so cheaply,” the scout said.
  • The Astros’ rebuild may be over in the sense they reached the playoffs in 2015, though Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle observes that this offseason has given little indication as to how the team will operate in business-as-usual mode rather than as a team that’s still adding pieces.  Houston has had a relatively quiet winter, though two sources tell Drellich that the team made some strong pursuits for major free agents and also had “substantial” extension talks with core players.  GM Jeff Luhnow reiterated that the Astros is ready and willing to spend when the opportunity arises, though they won’t sign or extend players just for the sake of staying active if such deals aren’t a fit.
  • Also within Drellich’s piece, he mentions that the Astros and Jason Castro discussed multi-year contracts prior to the filing of arbitration numbers.  The two sides talked about two-year deals and a three-year deal with an option, though since no agreement was reached before the filing deadline, Houston took a “file-and-trial” stance and went ahead to an arbitration hearing.  (The club won that hearing.)  Castro is entering his last year under contract, and while the backstop’s hitting numbers have declined over the last couple of years, he is still a highly-regarded defender known to have a good relationship with the Astros’ starters.
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