OC Register: Angels eyeing Logan Morrison to upgrade offense

[AngelsWin.com]

Logan Morrison is among the players the Angels are considering as they look to beef up their offense, a source confirmed. It is likely he is one of many players the Angels are pursuing, with the offseason in its early stages.

Morrison, a 30-year-old free agent first baseman, is a left-handed hitter who hit 38 homers with a .353 on-base percentage in 2017 with the Tampa Bay Rays. He is a natural target for a club trying to add left-handed bats and improve its on-base percentage.

Morrison is likely to earn around $10 million to $15 million a year, for two or three years.

Before he headed for the GM meetings, which began Monday in Orlando, Angels general manager Billy Eppler said adding offense remains the priority over pitching.

The Angels’ .703 OPS at first base was second-worst in the majors in 2017. The players who were mostly responsible for that — Luis Valbuena and C.J. Cron — remain under control for 2018. Valbuena can also play third, and Cron, a right-handed hitter, could be traded or platooned with a left-handed hitter.

Morrison hits the free agent market after his best season. His .868 OPS in 2017 was well above his career mark of .741 heading into the season. He previously played for the Miami Marlins and Seattle Mariners.

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[Chuck]

YES!!! 

[m0nkey]

No homo, just lomo?

[Erstad Grit]

With valbuena, cron, and pujols I'm not sure spending money on a 1b/dh is wise unless other moves are in the works. 

Personally I don't want valbuena anywhere near 3b. 

[krAbs]

If he can repeat 2017 in any way, we are in pretty good shape. Even with some regression, should be a real upgrade at first for not a ton of money.

[KDWells]

With how flush the market is with first base types this offseason and not a ton of need out there, I'm guessing Eppler is going to sit back and wait and see if he can get one of these Morrison/Santana/Alonso types for the best value possible a little later in the offseason.

[totdprods]

Slightly related...

Jon Heyman‏Verified account @JonHeyman10m10 minutes ago

MAngels, phillies and cardinals are 3 more teams considering 1B options. Also tex, colo, clev, bos, kc, sea.

[Chuck]

5 minutes ago, Erstad Grit said:

With valbuena, cron, and pujols I'm not sure spending money on a 1b/dh is wise unless other moves are in the works. 

Personally I don't want valbuena anywhere near 3b. 

Valbuena was better defensively than Escobar and if he can hit 20+ bombs and improve a bit (which I think he will on the BA/OBP side), I think we'll be fine if we upgrade at 1B and 2B.

I'm seriously done with Cron outside of him just being on the weak side of a platoon or backup guy. 

Morrison walked 81 times and hit 38 bombs.

I'll take it! 

[floplag]

Morrison scares me a little.  A career year in the walk year and outside of that he was never better than Cron.  Its a bit of a gamble if he can put up more similar seasons, but the fact that hes left handed helps.   I see them as similar players in the end with a slight edge to Morrison so is that worth the price tag?   
Obviously even half of last season is a large upgrade, i just dont like the pattern.  Cant overpay for that IMO. 
I like it just not sure i like the rumored costs i guess. 

[totdprods]

I still think Carlos Santana should be the top target for 1st base - out of all the FA 1B, he's the only one who really has any sort of track record/consistency of significantly outperforming our current guys like Cron/Valbuena. 

But, guys like LoMo, Alonso, Bruce, even Hosmer, Duda, and perhaps Moreland (in their own different ways) should be able to produce what Cron has done year-in, year-out, with the opp to go way above. Wait it out and get a deal. 

[Vlad27Trout27]

I think a third year will get this deal done. 3yrs 32 mil.

[NorCal Halo]

Yuck!

.245/.330/.433 career with an eight year 5.2 career war (3.6 of which came from 2017). 

This would be a horrible mistake, IMHO.

So welcome to the Angels Mr. Morrison!

[Tyler]

No thank you.

[totdprods]

8 minutes ago, floplag said:

Morrison scares me a little.  A career year in the walk year and outside of that he was never better than Cron.  Its a bit of a gamble if he can put up more similar seasons, but the fact that hes left handed helps.   I see them as similar players in the end with a slight edge to Morrison so is that worth the price tag?   
Obviously even half of last season is a large upgrade, i just dont like the pattern.  Cant overpay for that IMO. 
I like it just not sure i like the rumored costs i guess. 

Yeah, he's actually the scariest to me of all the 1B FA types, except Hosmer, who really only scares me due to his price tag. 

Lucas Duda seems like he'd be around LoMo production for less cost.
 

[wopphil]

14 minutes ago, NorCal Halo said:

Yuck!

.245/.330/.433 career with an eight year 5.2 career war (3.6 of which came from 2017). 

This would be a horrible mistake, IMHO.

So welcome to the Angels Mr. Morrison!

Few free agents are perfect. If Morrison was a career .270/.380/.500 hitter, he'd be looking at closer to $100 mil than $40 mil.

[NorCal Halo]

How about this left-handed hitting first basemen who has also played right field?

.261/.330/.426 career with a six-year career war of 13.

Kole Calhoun

[greginpsca]

Reminds me of GMJ. Has one good season and now people are talking about throwing 3 year $30+ mil at him. I don't see him worth the $  as an upgrade.

[greginpsca]

Just now, NorCal Halo said:

How about this left-handed hitting first basemen who has also played right field?

.261/.330/.755 career with a six-year career war of 13.

Kole Calhoun

The versatility makes this a better option than Morrison.

[Blarg]

55 minutes ago, AngelsWin.com said:

The Angels’ .703 OPS at first base was second-worst in the majors in 2017. The players who were mostly responsible for that — Luis Valbuena and C.J. Cron

[Chuck]

31 minutes ago, totdprods said:

I still think Carlos Santana should be the top target for 1st base - out of all the FA 1B, he's the only one who really has any sort of track record/consistency of significantly outperforming our current guys like Cron/Valbuena. 

But, guys like LoMo, Alonso, Bruce, even Hosmer, Duda, and perhaps Moreland (in their own different ways) should be able to produce what Cron has done year-in, year-out, with the opp to go way above. Wait it out and get a deal. 

But Santana will cost us a draft pick though right? I do prefer him, but I'd like the Angels to continue building their farm. 

[Billy_Ball]

Interesting splits, he hit better on the road than at home (Tropicana Field.)  .219/11 HR at home, .272/27 HR on the road.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/30536/logan-morrison

[Chuck]

2 minutes ago, Blarg said:

58 minutes ago, AngelsWin.com said:

The Angels’ .703 OPS at first base was second-worst in the majors in 2017. The players who were mostly responsible for that — Luis Valbuena and C.J. Cron

C.J. Cron sucked in the first half. He had a resurgence in July & August after yet another demotion down to the minors, only to flame out again in Sept when we needed him. 

Sept: .221/.276/.400

I'm done with Cron other than a platoon guy vs. lefties. His slugging pct. vs. lefties was an all-time  best this past season of .500

 

[AngelsFanSince86]

Lets see:

.245/.330/.763 career while averaging about 23 HRs and 28 doubles per 162 games.

.262/.307/.756 career while averaging about 23 HRs and 27 doubles per 162 games.

The first is Morrison and the second is Cron.  They are virtually identical with the distinction being Morrison's numbers would be quite a bit lower than Cron's if you take out what I would consider a fluke year.  Cron is a couple years younger.  If you are going to upgrade then it needs to be for someone worth upgrading for.  Unless you get someone to bite on a trade involving Cron. 

[Chuck]

Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston reports that the Red Sox are meeting with Logan Morrison's reps on Monday.

The Angels are also showing interest in LoMo, according to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. Morrison, 30, had a career year in 2017, playing in a career-high 149 games while batting .246/.353/.516 with 38 home runs and 85 RBI. He will come cheaper than a lot of the other free agent bats.

Related: Angels, Red Sox

 

[Chuck]

1 minute ago, AngelsFanSince86 said:

Lets see:

.245/.330/.763 career while averaging about 23 HRs and 28 doubles per 162 games.

.262/.307/.756 career while averaging about 23 HRs and 27 doubles per 162 games.

The first is Morrison and the second is Cron.  They are virtually identical with the distinction being Morrison's numbers would be quite a bit lower than Cron's if you take out what I would consider a fluke year.  Cron is a couple years younger.  If you are going to upgrade then it needs to be for someone worth upgrading for.  Unless you get someone to bite on a trade involving Cron. 

Cron has yet to hit more than 16 HR's in a season for the Angels. 

He's simply just too inconsistent and needs to be sent down to the minors to fix his shit like once or twice a year before helping out for a month or two.