The Angels arguably have the 2-best players in Trout and Ohtani, a few plus teammates in Renton, Fletcher, a couple of highly regarded minor leaguers finally maturing to become part of the major league roster in Walsh, Adell, and Marsh, a promising influx of young exciting pitchers jumping in from an average minor system in Detmers, Canning, Sandavol, Barria, and Suarez, and a whole draft board of pitchers that add much needed depth to their minor league affiliates, with a solid veteran closer now locked down for multiple years.
Manager Madden, Trout and Ohtani went public at years’ end stating that it’s time for things to change, it’s time for a top-tier major league starting pitching staff to be added because that’s all that’s lacking for the team to compete for championships for the next 3-5 years. Yet, so far the Angels have added one starter who is a once-feared and hope he will be again starter in Thor that “may” be a no. 1 or 2 if he can return to some resemblance of the past, and then a couple more of the usual 1-year wonders, you know, the “we’ll give you a chance to prove you are a 4 or 5 starter (at best)” type pitchers that have permeated the roster for the last 7 years, instead of holding on to 2 competent proven veterans in Cobb and Bundy that would have been solid, proven 4s and 5s. In the meantime, every healthy free-agent starter qualified to be viable no. 1’s, 2’s or 3’s have all signed with other teams.
In the meantime, the Angels year after year add a piece that most Angels fan have to look up on some stat-gushing website just to find out who the heck the guy is, only to turn away in disgust as the best go to the competitors, some of whom in their own division sign former Cy Young award winning pitchers, the type of pitchers Madden, Trout, Ohtani and most bloggers on this site hoped the Angels would be signing.
Of course no one should have been surprised that Scherzer didn’t join the Angels, why would he even consider a team that hasn’t given a multi-year contract to a front line starter in almost a decade! But it is very discouraging that Arte wouldn’t at least listen to the leaders of his team, open up the purse strings and at least add a Ray, Gausman and/or Stroman. Nope, once again just another has-been, injury prone pitcher, and a relief pitcher who wants to prove he can still be a starter.
Last report I saw said that the two NY teams have the highest 2022 roster payrolls so far this offseason, and next in line is the LA Dodgers. Well the first 3 teams make perfect sense since NY and LA are the two biggest markets in the U.S. But the 4th highest payroll so far belongs to the San Diego Padres, though it’s only the 8th largest city in the country. Congrats Padre fans, you’ve got an owner that wants to win.
And how high do the Angels rank on the offseason payroll list? 9th! That’s right, the 2nd team in the 2nd largest city in the U.S. has only the 9th largest 2022 roster payroll. Heck, I guess that’s pretty good considering the Angels team isn’t in the city of Los Angeles anyway, let alone Los Angeles County. In fact, the Angels are in the 55th largest city in the U.S. and has the 9th highest 2022 roster payroll team in all of MLB! You know Artie, that’s actually something we Angel fans could actually have been proud of….IF you hadn’t changed the name to the Los Angeles Angels!
And friends wonder why I gave up my season tickets after almost 20 years…….