The Angels 2021 Offseason Checklist, Pt. 2

By Jay Sheehy
Reading time: Relatively short as far as this site is concerned.

The Los Angeles Angels 2021 offseason checklist began, in Part One, with reference to team salary and starting pitching issues. Those are probably the two biggest parameters involving moves that will be made this offseason. Yet, there are other major issues that must be rectified by GM Perry Minasian and the Angels front office. First, they will need to greatly improve the bullpen. Second, they need a shortstop…no, not a middle infielder. Lastly, they must solidify their catching depth. Mike Trout might be the best player in baseball, and Anthony Rendon is surely a superstar, but they can’t do everything.

RELIEF PITCHING

In Part One, we made the case that the Angels should non-tender Justin Anderson, Matt Andriese, Keynan Middleton and Hansel Robles. While Andriese pitched well enough to be retained, the Angels need the financial flexibility during this unprecedented offseason to buy low. Jacob Barnes is already gone. Cam Bedrosian and Hoby Milner (if not, he should be) are too.

The remaining relief pitchers on the Angels roster: Mike Mayers, Felix Pena, Ty Buttrey, Noe Ramirez.
They combined to pitch 104 innings, with a 3.72 ERA, 1.221 WHIP, 2.1 bWAR and 1.4 fWAR. Amazing? Hardly. The four of them did contribute to heavily to the blown save count: 10 of the league-leading 14. Mayers was exceptional and Buttrey was terrible so if they both revert closer to the mean it will (hopefully) offset each other.

What is abundantly clear is that the Angels must acquire a proven bullpen piece. Most likely, the person will be who they expect to close games for them in 2021. And, if they are lucky, a few seasons after that. The five best options were written by a handsome devil over at Last Word on Sports, which you can read here. Yet, it isn’t as simple as getting a closer and calling it a day. The Angels need a lefty and a little more depth. GM Perry Minasian has to be hoping for deflated prices due to baseball’s sustained losses in 2020.

Organizational options include players who pitched sparingly in 2020, like Luke Bard, Kyler Keller and Jose Quijada. To be fair, they don’t inspire much optimism; Bard had the lowest ERA at 6.75. Those who didn’t pitch in 2020, but could factor in to the bullpen hierarchy, include Packy Naughton, Garrett Williams, Gerardo Reyes, Oliver Ortega and Zac Ryan. Where is Reid Detmers? Hector Yan? Chris Rodriguez? Hopefully, getting starts in down on the farm. While they would definitely help the Angels current bullpen situation, their long term growth is more important for the team.

ANGELS 2021 OFFSEASON CHECKLIST:
#1 - Keep the team salary in the $175 million range for the 2021 season.
#2 - Acquire a quality starting pitcher (or two)
a. Do NOT sign Trevor Bauer
b. Do NOT sell out the farm
#3 - Improve the Bullpen, starting with a Closer

SHORTSTOP OR BUST

While the majority of articles out there say the Angels need to find a middle infielder, it’s quite clear that David Fletcher is an excellent second baseman. Not a good one, an excellent one. With that in mind it would make sense for the Angels to play him there and acquire a shortstop. If they cannot acquire a shortstop to their liking, which is very possible, then settling on moving Fletcher to the left side seems like a reasonable fallback plan. However, it should be their last choice.

Most of the offseason talk has centered on the Cleveland Indians openness about wanting to trade their star shortstop, Francisco Lindor. While news of his trade will surely be one of, if not the biggest story of the offseason, it is not a direction the Angels should go. Why? Simply put, one year of Francisco Lindor is not worth whatever top prospect (under control for AT LEAST five seasons) the team would trade. As for getting a leg up on re-signing Lindor, that doesn’t much seem to be true since he will definitely test free agency. Plus, do the Angels really want to take the Albert Pujols money and immediately invest it in another 10+ year deal for more than $250 million? Even if it is for an all-world shortstop? Probably not.

The Marcus Semien/Didi Gregorius/Andrelton Simmons trio is filled with injury issues and declining production, but the Angels might be smart to jump in all the same. Well, maybe not Simmons after the end of his 2020 season. Of course, there is one more excellent option: Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) star, Ha-Seong Kim of the Kiwoom Heroes.

Dan Szymborski wrote an excellent piece about Kim at FanGraphs. To sum it up, Symborski thinks Kim would be worth of a $100 million contract in a normal offseason. So, if a team can sign him in the expected $50-75 million range they will be getting great value. Also, ZIPS thinks highly of Kim's chances, predicting 20-HR power, 15-SB speed and roughly 120 OPS+ at the plate. Defensive metrics are difficult to predict due to lack of statistics for Kim, yet he rates as an above average shortstop due to decent range and an excellent arm.

ANGELS 2021 OFFSEASON CHECKLIST:
#1 - Keep the team salary in the $175 million range for the 2021 season.
#2 - Acquire a quality starting pitcher (or two)
a. Do NOT sign Trevor Bauer
b. Do NOT sell out the farm
#3 - Improve the Bullpen, starting with a Closer
#4 - Get a shortstop!

CATcher

According to Baseball Reference, the Angels production at catcher was 6th best in baseball; FanGraphs had them 10th best. Therefore, finding a catcher should be a distant #5 on the Angels 2021 offseason checklist. Yes, they do need better depth, especially with Max Stassi returning from injury (he might not be ready by Opening Day). But talk of J.T. Realmuto should be non-existent. And though James McCann is the hot name at the moment, and definitely worthy of exploring, the Angels front office should keep his overall track record in mind. Not just his last couple seasons in Chicago. Yet, even when we look from 2018-2020, McCann doesn’t jump off the page. Of course, 2018 was spent in Detroit before he made changes.

Again, if the move was done in a vacuum then by all means grab James McCann. At FanGraphs, they predict a 2yr/$14m deal for McCann. MLBtraderumors says 2yr/$20m. The depth options here make a lot more sense for the Angels in 2021. Big money is going to be spent on Realmuto, which SHOULD knock the Angels out of the running. McCann and Yadier Molina will also get somewhere near $10m/year, give or take. The Angels shouldn’t be involved at that price point either. As the list shows they still have other viable options.

ANGELS 2021 OFFSEASON CHECKLIST:
#1 - Keep the team salary in the $175 million range for the 2021 season.
#2 - Acquire a quality starting pitcher (or two)
a. Do NOT sign Trevor Bauer
b. Do NOT sell out the farm
#3 - Improve the Bullpen, starting with a Closer
#4 - Get a shortstop!
#5 - Improve catching depth

Next up…

In Part 3, of the Angels 2021 offseason checklist, we will dig into what moves the Angels front office should make within their normal salary range. There are quite a few different avenues this offseason might take so hopefully GM Perry Minasian can take advantage of the uncertainty to shore up the roster.