It may put the fan base in a state of shock, but the Los Angeles Angels are actually making baseball moves. They’ve hired a new manager—okay, he’s a rookie, but he also played for 15 years—plus they cleaned house with the coaching staff.
They traded for a young front-line starter (pay no attention to those medicals, please) and the signed a reclamation pitcher who’s exactly the kind of guy the Angels should be going after.
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They still have work to do on the eve of the winter meetings, however, as an ESPN piece written by Brandon Doolittle made clear. They’re ranked 27th going into the annual confab, but Doolittle also made an intriguing point that hasn’t been raised much.
By trading outfielder Taylor Ward, the Angels got younger. This is very necessary considering that the Halso have nine players who were 31 or older, plus a 29-year old, who reached free agency. Adding pitchers like Grayson Rodriguez and Alek Manoah will take some of the pressure off some of the younger pitchers on the staff who are and should be headed for Triple A.
Next up? Bullpen help, for sure, along with a glove-first centerfielder. Doolittle mentioned outfielder Harrison Bader as a possibility in center or left, and he correctly stated that at least there’s some sort of coherent direction in place now.
Can it last? It’s probably wise to pump the brakes a little, or maybe a lot. We’ll know a lot more about what’s going on with manager Kurt Suzuki, pitching coach Mike Maddux and head hitting coach Brady Anderson after this week’s meetings, but a couple of small moves and bullpen adds would be a reasonable set of expectations.
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One of the strangest thing about the Angels is that a lot of their success will depend on keeping the owner out of the equation. Arte Moreno has been known to step in at the worst possible moment and make an unthinkably bad move, but Moreno has his hands full with the civil suit trial of late Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, and it’s looking increasingly likely that he’ll be facing a large judment that could further limit what’s expected to be one of the lower payrolls in the league.
No matter. The winter meetings are a time when hope should reign supreme. Keep your expectations low and your hope level high, and maybe the Angels can come through this time and actually deliver the goods and make some moves.