Dtwncbad

It does seem fair to speculate whether or not Moreno is stuck in limbo trying to decide what he wants to do, but I really can’t find anything that isn’t speculation that actually directly supports that. What I will say is the Angels have a PR problem. Having everyone always speculating rather than knowing a direction/philosophy isn’t doing this team any favors. You can’t be responsible for reacting to every speculation, but you should have strong enough messaging where the most of the speculation is dismissed as invalid because it’s not consistent with the strong messaging. What is Arte doing? We don’t know. That is at the heart of all of this.

I am not sure this guy should have a nickname that basically means “salad.”

Every time I visit AW hoping to see some good news, the first image I see is this. It is starting to almost be a punishing meme, a repetitive moment where I am reminded of my own mood and frustration with nothing happening of significance to improve the team.

This is technically incorrect since the team has not improved at all. Wouldn’t you have to improve at least a little to even make the list?

If Arte decided to sell, it is at least conceivable that a transaction could happen relatively fast. . . if there was a front runner from the last cycle that is still interested.

Not true. You are evidently completely ignoring Lorenzen’s CAE+ at 154. (Caught Angel1961’s Eye)

Yesterday

Just curious, but exactly how many “home-grown superstars” do you expect to have at any given time?

I not “upset” with your opinion. Everyone wants the young guys to play and develop. I just disagree that that it is smarter to “punt” on 2024 rather than attempt to add some productive pieces to have a fighting chance in 2024. And I just being direct and honest that I very much doubt you would actually support spending money next year.

Maybe they are friends that trust each other?

I would bet a good amount of money there is no way on earth you are going to support the team spending money on premium free agents next season. Nobody believes you because it’s not in your DNA. Could you maybe spare us the phoniness?

“START some sort of rebuild”? Dude, they are mostly done with the “rebuild” that is somehow invisible to you. 6 of the 8 position players are young guys with upside. Four of the five starters are in the same category and you have a few good young live arms for the bullpen. At this point in the process, you supplement the team with the few additional players needed to be competitive. Sometimes, the success year happens a year earlier than people think. That could be 2024, so you don’t punt on 2024. The timing of the success of this rebuild will fall on how much/how many of all these young players take significant steps forward this season.

Yeah, they should trade Neto for a young shortstop. And Schanuel for a young first baseman. And Rengifo for a young infielder. And Adell for a young outfielder, hopefully with some power. And Ohoppe for a young catcher. And Bachman and Joyce for some live young arms for the bullpen. And trade Sandoval, Detmers, Canning and Silseth for some controllable starting pitching. What are they waiting for?

Yes please

Adding to the FRONT of the rotation is the best way for the Angels to be relevant in 2024. You can go a long way with excellent starters, even with a club flawed in many other ways.

But they don’t have to pay the airlines until 2034.

Right. Just like classic car collectors low on inventory should load up on 2014 Honda Civics.

Oh I get it now. Sign Brandon Belt and then trade him for two top 100 prospects at the deadline. Now it makes sense.

It seems a little weird that a 28 year old would consider a 6 year deal. Who PLANS to hit free agency at 34?

I love how you complain about being stuck in a purgatory of being mediocre and yet every suggestion you have is more or less doubling down on being mediocre.

You don’t think a team with an adequate offense and a rotation of: Snell, Burnes, Detmers, Sandoval, Canning, with depth of Anderson and Silseth can be a contend-for-the-postseason team?

Maybe. But it’s defendable. If the team wants to punt on being competitive for a year or two then you don’t do this. But the consensus opinion is the team intends to be competitive now. So how do you do that best without killing or really hurting the developmental movement? If you made a deal like this to get Burnes, trade Ward for more pitching and heck go ahead and sign Snell. . . You add about $66m to the payroll, stay under the luxury tax, and you suddenly have a stacked rotation and you try to win by being dominant and deep in the starting rotation with a functional offense. And this really does not cost the Angels any prospects or controllable young players (except Ward, who is not all that young anymore, and you can assume they would be moving him for someone they could at least control for more than 2024.) So what is the real downside other than spending some money BELOW the luxury tax to improve the team?

The Angels absolutely do not want to trade away any good young players. Would anyone be interested in improving the team for 2024 by trading for Burnes by taking in the Yelich contract? Yelich has five years and $120m remaining ($23.9m per year), and was a 4.1 WAR player last year. We could all speculate how the details would be worked out but it at least appears that marrying Burnes to Yelich would facilitate someone acquiring Burnes. Burnes is projected to get about $15m in arbitration. If he was a free agent, what would the Angels pay him on a one-year contract? $25m? If the Angels acquire a pitcher that has $10m in value for 2024, that effectively makes the cost for Yelich 5 years $110m, or $22m per year. While that isn’t a steal by any stretch, it’s digestible. The points of criticism for this kind of transaction are surely money related. But the Angels don’t have many options to improve by other means. Further, if you had Yelich, that frees up someone like Ward to move in a deal elsewhere to improve the team some other way. Anyway, it is at least notable that taking the Yelich contract matches up with acquiring Burnes. . . and there isn’t much else to talk about.

This is the biggest Angel move of the offseason so far (Ohtani signing with the Dodgers is a Dodger move, not an Angel move).