Angels Countdown to Spring - 27 days
1/15/20 - Jay Sheehy - Founder and Editor-In-Chief 11:13 AM PST
We now return to your regularly scheduled Los Angeles Angels off-season. Today is the first day of our Countdown to Spring series, which will give 27 reason in 27 days as to why the Angels will make the playoffs in 2020. Why 27? You know why.
First off, let’s look into how the dust finally settled on the big names of free agency: Josh Donaldson signed a 4-year/$92 million deal (with a club option for year 5) with the Minnesota Twins. Congrats, Mr. Donaldson, you earned it. Now, will he be earning the 20ish million he is set to make as a 37-year old? We shall see.
As for what the Angels have been up to? Well, they signed the best catcher available when Jason Castro agreed to a one year, $6.85 million contract. Definitely needed that to happen, though I’m a little disappointed they couldn’t convince him to stay around for at least two years. His league average hitting makes him an exponential upgrade from last season, where the Angels catching options were a disaster. Castro has always been known as a solid defensive catcher, though his defensive metrics appear to be league average at best, at this point in his career. Either way, Angels fans won’t have to assume an 0-fer night from the position in 2020.
Yesterday, the Angels acquired Matt Andriese from the Arizona Diamondbacks for minor league pitcher, Jeremy Beasley. The initial word from GM Billy Eppler is that they plan on bringing Andriese to camp as a starting pitcher. That’s fine, in spirit. However, despite the advanced metrics saying Andriese got a little unlucky last year (3.82 SIERA, 3.72 FIP, 3.88 xFIP versus his ERA of 4.71), he doesn’t project to be any better than the Angels current options. What are those options? Shohei Ohtani, Julio Teheran, Andrew Heaney, Dylan Bundy and Griffin Canning. What Andriese does allow, however, is someone who can spot start to keep Ohtani on his schedule AND can pitching two plus innings of long relief. He was definitely worth Jeremy Beasley for that role. At $1.395 million, he doesn’t cost much either.
The arrival of Matt Andriese pushed the Angels over the 40-man limit which led to Luis Madero being designated for assignment while the Angels also released Adalbeto Mejia. This follows up the Angels acquisition of Kyle Keller, a right-handed pitcher, from the Miami Marlins (Angels traded minor league catcher, Jose Estrada). Jake Jewell was DFA’d after that transaction, leading to the San Francisco Giants claiming him on waivers.
Reason #27 the Angels will make the playoff in 2020: Their #27…Mike Trout.
The Golden God himself: Michael Nelson Trout