Dear Angels Front Office, Did You Forget About Pitching?

12/16/19 - Jay Sheehy - Founder and Editor-In-Chief

Dear Billy,

There was a beautiful dream heading into the offseason where we ended up getting Gerrit Cole, the best pitcher on the planet, to anchor our staff in 2020, after having the worst starting rotation in baseball in 2019. Or, maybe even Stephen Strasburg, if he was truly committed to leaving Washington. Do you remember, Billy? Do you remember talking about improving the starting rotation?

Do you, Billy? DO YOU?!?!

What do they all have in common? THEY DID NOT SIGN WITH THE LOS ANGELES ANGELS, BILLY!!!

Gerrit Cole - Signed with New York Yankees. Nine years, $324 million.
Stephen Strasburg - Re-signed with Washington Nationals. Seven years, $245 million.
Zack Wheeler - Signed with Philadelphia Phillies. Five years, $118 million.
Madison Bumgarner - Signed with Arizona Diamondbacks. Five years, $85 million.
Jake Odorizzi - Accepted Minnesota Twins Qualifying Offer. One year, $17.8 million.
Cole Hamels - Signed with Atlanta Braves. One year, $18 million.
Tanner Roark - Signed with Toronto Blue Jays. Two year, $24 million.

Hyun-Jin Ryu remains unsigned. He’ll be 33 in March. He threw more than 150 innings in 2019; it was the first time he had hit that number since 2014. From 2015-2018 he threw a total of 213.2 innings, so he’s definitely an injury risk. Now isn’t time to be picky, Billy. SIGN HIM!!!

Dallas Keuchel remains unsigned. He’ll be 32 New Year’s Day. His fastball velocity has been trending downward since his Cy Young season in 2015, with his fastball velocity landing in the bottom 3% of starting pitchers, according to Baseball Savant. Don’t care. SIGN HIM, BILLY!!!

Julio Teheran remains unsigned. He’ll be 29 in January. He’s averaged 191 innings pitched over the last seven seasons. He’s been to two all-star games. He may never live up to the hype of being the #4 prospect in all of baseball (he dropped a 15-3, 2.55 ERA, in Triple-A as a 20-year old), but Teheran takes the ball every fifth day and competes. The Angels could learn from someone like him. For the last few years he seemed like a guy who could improve with a change of scenery. Since his first full season in 2013, Teheran is 4th in baseball with 222 starts, and ranks 9th with 1334 innings pitched.
SIGN HIM!!! SIGN HIM!!! We need a stabilizing force in the rotation, even if it isn’t an ace. SIGN HIM!!! Forget the other guys and their endless injury histories, sign Julio Teheran. DO IT!!!!!

What about the trade market? Well, Cleveland dumped Corey Kluber for a bag of peanuts that Texas was happy to pay (Delino DeShields Jr. and Emmanuel Clase ((To be fair, Clase looks like he will be an important part of the bullpen, maybe even a closer, but if Kluber returns to health that won’t matter—this will look like a salary dump because it is))).

The Madison Bumgarner signing makes Robbie Ray seem even more expendable, though now we are talking more about rotation depth than rotation revival if he is acquired. Ray, for all his positives (12.1 K/9 over the last three seasons) has never averaged six innings per start during any season of his career. Matthew Boyd? He gave up a league high 39 home runs last season as he faded in the second half. Chris Archer? Not very good now and never really has been (2015 season excluded). Hopefully the Angels don’t give up prospects for any of these three. Instead, just sign Julio Teheran and realize that this offseason was a total mismanagement of resources.

David Price? He will turn 35 in August of next season and has three years and $96 million left on his contract. Whoa. Over the last three seasons he’s averaged 119 innings pitched and 21 starts. Not exactly $30+ million seasons, if you ask me. So durability is a concern, though he has thrown more innings than Ryu over the last two and four and five and six seasons (not three seasons though). BUT, beggars can’t be choosers and right now the Los Angeles Angels are surely beggars. Those three injury filled seasons saw Price post a 3.75 ERA, which was an ERA+ of 122, or 22% better than league average. That means something. Not $32 million a year for his 34-36 year old seasons something…but something. So, what needs to happen for the Angels to make this gamble?

Simple, the Red Sox need to pay it down.

Now, that doesn’t mean the Angels need to give up a Brandon Marsh, Jeremiah Jackson or Jordyn Adams in the deal. No, the Red Sox want to get rid of this contract more than anything so they’ll be willing to pay some of it without a top notch prospect returning. Otherwise, no chance at Mookie Betts ever signing. Would the Angels pay $24 million a year while giving up Patrick Sandoval and Jahmai Jones? Seems likely. Would the Red Sox do it? Depends on what they see in Jones, who has struggled at the plate the last couple seasons (he did, however, have an incredible run in the Arizona Fall League this year). We got Bundy out of the AL East and he will surely improve (I promise, the next article will be the deep dive I promised weeks ago about him) and getting Price out of the cold will only help his aging body as well. Hell, the Angels could even throw a Joe Gatto type on top as a lottery ticket. Anything to add to a staff that needs top of the line arms.

Why? Well, in case you missed the photo at the top, the Angels missed on every major pitcher in the free agent market. Every. Single. One. (Sorry Hyun-Jin Ryu, Dallas Keuchel and Julio Teheran, but you aren’t bona fide #1 starters).

Oh Billy, Billy, Billy…

David Price (Let’s say $26 million, to be safe)
Shohei Ohtani ($583,500)
Dylan Bundy (Projections sit at about $5-5.5 million)
Andrew Heaney (Projections sit at about $5 million before Fantex takes 10%…is that still a thing?)
Griffin Canning ($583,500)
Roughly $37.5 million for these five? That’s not too bad. Remember, the Angels paid Matt Harvey and Trevor Cahill a combined $20 million for the duo to produce a -1.0 bWAR, go 7-14 over 162 innings with a 6.39 ERA. They should be glad to pay the extra $4-8 million so David Price can start 20-25 times with a 3.75 ERA.

Or, you save that $15+ million a year and give Julio Teheran a three year deal (team option for a fourth year) for $33 million (option year for $14 million or $1 million buyout). Honestly, that’s probably a better idea than David Price. Lower upside, sure, but the Teheran is a gamer who is always ready to pitch.

Sign Julio Teheran, Mr. Eppler. Go ahead…do it…do it now. We need him.