Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford remains "puzzled" by the Angels' pursuit of him on the free-agent market this offseason, writes Jon Heyman of SI.com.
Many, including Crawford himself and the Angels, saw the speedy outfielder as a good fit for the Halos as he embarked on free agency at the end of 2010, Heyman notes, but Los Angeles of Anaheim's offer of six years (with an option for a seventh) and $108MM, though hardly paltry, was easily surpassed by Boston's seven years and $142MM.
But what Crawford found especially confusing is that in the wake of losing out on Crawford, the Angels then acquired Vernon Wells, who has a higher per-year salary than Crawford, from the Blue Jays. To boot, the Halos' offer to Crawford, 30 in August, was well below the seven years and $126MM the Nationals had already paid to acquire outfielder Jayson Werth, who will turn 32 in May.
Indeed, it was something of an odd offseason for the Halos, as ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick wrote a couple weeks back, and their dealings with Crawford seem to embody that the most.
It’s true the Angels didn’t seem to handle this, or really anything else, well this offseason. With that being said, I wish Heyman could possibly write one story where he isn’t crawling up Boston’s @ss.
I think he gets an electric shock if he mentions any team other than the Sox, Dodgers, Mets, and Yankees.
Heyman is piece of garbage as far as journalism goes. He’s NO Red Sox fan at all, that’s for certain. He’s just lazy. His pieces are weak and contrived with very little substance.
He never passes up a chance to take a shot or give a backhanded compliment towards Boston.
heyman just wrote a “story” literally yesterday the sole purpose of which was to downplay boston’s 2011 club
he’s not a homer (except for team boras), just a hack
Heyman is a Yankee homer LOL.
Maybe, he does appear on Yankees Hot Stove on Yesnetwork
That seems to be the dissenting consensus. I recall reading many things from Heyman where he seems to be going down on the BoSox, but maybe I am mistaken. I know that this article ends with something like “And that is why the Red Sox are the favorites in the American League.,” but maybe that is not the norm.
The Halos had a horrible offseason. They could have had Werth or Crawford and AB.
Dont forget Soriano
Pass on Werth and AB.
but would have had to commit to years they didn’t want to commit to so no they couldn’t have.
Except they offered Crawford six years with a vesting seventh year option, so, yes, they could’ve.
Yeah right.
Like they were really going to take that big of a chunk out of the bulk of such a thin free agent market. lol
Even the Yankees couldn’t do anything.
If the Nationals are willing to spend that much money on Jayson Werth, then what does that tell you?
The Orioles are looking quite interesting.
The NL Central is actually going to be competitive.
There’s a reason 8 teams have won the World Series in the last 10 years.
“Like they were really going to take that big of a chunk out of the bulk of such a thin free agent market. lol
Even the Yankees couldn’t do anything.”
Yet the Red Sox managed to upgrade in just about every area of their team and the Phillies managed to compile one of the greatest rotations the game has ever seen. Meanwhile, an already strong Rangers offense has gotten even stronger and the AL Central looks tighter than I can ever remember it being thanks to major improvements to the Tigers.
Honestly, pitching was thing, but this was honestly one of the stronger free agent classes in recent years for offense and bullpen arms, the Angels’ two biggest weaknesses.
The Angels dropped the ball, sorry.
hate hate hate hate!!
Dont hate the player, hate the ANGELS!
In fairness to the Halos, I don’t think you can take the Vernon Wells deal as a pure example of their offseason plan. Yes, they ended up paying out more per year on Wells, but adding him was partly desperation and emergency response to losing out on Crawford.
I get what you’re saying, but because they lost out on Crawford they had to take on one of the worst contracts in baseball? The Angels are in a bad area. They have an aging team that’s getting worse, but they’re not rebuilding. If I were the Angels, I would really have started building the farm system for the Mike Trout era.
As a matter of fact, the Angels DO have a pretty good farm. I really have no idea where all this “Angels don’t have a good farm” B.S. is coming from, but the Angels are actually ranked 8th. Not only that, their farm is backloaded, as in, most of real talent they have are either in A/AA ball. Conger, and Bourjous have already arrived, and hopefully to stay.
Also, if people think all the Angels have is Trout, they need to give Jean Segura a look. He has almost the same skillset as Trout, he hits for a good BA (.313), has great speed (50SB in 60 tries) and has some pop( 10 hrs). He doesn’t have as great as upside as Trout, but he should be an excellent player.
conger’s nothing to get excited about
I like Conger a lot more than Bourjos. Bourjos is only a defensive replacement.
conger looks like a catcher who can’t catch without enough bat for 1B. poor man’s mike napoli
Then I guess it just shows how low I think of Bourjos lol. Conger probably won’t even be given a chance with Scoscia’s man-crush on that catcher they have that I completely forgot his name atm….
jeff mathis, who posted a .838 OPS in the ridiculous hitters’ park that the Angel’s AAA affiliate calls home (conger posted .847 there in as many games last year)
couldnt have said it better myself..
napoli was fine at catcher, especially with the 30 homers he would have put up next year…but scoscia loves his mathis….KISSES!!
so Scioscia won’t play him, ever.
we should have never gotten rid of napoli…
The Vernon Wells deal was a lot worse a few years ago…it’s not as bad now…just has that stigma attached to it. If Wells goes back to what he did in 09 then yeah…bad deal…but if he does what he did last year in 11, 12, and 13 then it’s a good deal. Expensive, but for a team with a 2 year window…not that bad.
There’s no real reason to expect him to be ’10 Wells instead of ’07-’09 going forward though.
2010 wells outside of toronto isn’t that good – especially as a left fielder. but even if he could put up 2010-in-toronto numbers, it’s still a humiliatingly bad deal because there was/is a money cost and a talent cost
it will never be a good deal
Agreed. No matter what Wells does this will be a bad deal simply because the Angels acquired him without getting Toronto to take on more money. In the end getting Wells by itself may prove to be a good move. It’s the money that makes this is a disaster.
Whhaaat? The Vernon Wells deal is at its worst right now till the end cuz it was soooo backloaded! Look it up! Worst contract in baseball, right up there with ARod!
I wouldn’t worry about the Angels farm right now. It’s true that their system has fallen off the last several years, but part of that is because they set such a high bar for themselves in the early 00s. It’s not a “bad” system by any means. On the whole, i’s probably not where they’d want it to be, but there have been some setbacks.
I think the Wells contract is certainly a bad one. The Angels will probably regret this move in about 2 years when he’s getting paid 20+M and declining to sub-average levels. I am not saying that he’s going to be that bad, but I am saying that he’s shown enough ups and downs that it’s hard to imagine him improving to such levels where he justifies that contract. TO me, 20M+ means being paid to play at a near-MVP or perrenial 5-tool all-star level.
To put this in perspective, in a couple years, Wells contract might be the single most significant item that hurts the farm system in terms of all the funds not being able to sign and acquire new young talent.
Emergency? Because they didnt have enough outfielders right? I mean they only had Tori Hunter, Reggie Wilitis, Bobby Abreu, before the trade Juan Rivera…
Calling Abreu an outfielder is a bit of a stretch. The guy’s practically afraid of walls.
The guy IS afraid of walls, there were many times when he was on the Yankees and he would not jump against the wall to make a play and instead the ball would hit the wall and the hitter usually ends up with a double or even a triple at times.
Oh, I know it. I used to love it, watching that guy flop around, rolling over himself in the outfield anytime the ball came within ten feet of the wall. It was even funnier at Fenway because of that weird shape and big Right Field with the low fences where you could easily rob a homer if you were competent.
They didn’t lose out on Crawford, they didn’t even try.
You don’t pay $142 million to a guy who has a .329 lifetime OBP, has never hit 20 homers, and whose #1 selling point is his speed; the first thing to go on any veteran is his legs.
What exactly is Carl Crawford? A table setter? A run producer?
At least Vernon Wells has power numbers to back up a lot of what he is being paid, which is actually an average of $18 million a season when you take away the back load on his contract.
He seems to be caught in this grey area where he’s not patient enough to be a leadoff hitter or to save some AB’s to keep hi BA up (Wade Boggs), and at the same time doesn’t get enough hits to compensate for his lack of patience to maintain a higher BA (Tony Gwynn).
Batting average is a worthless stat, but in this case it seems like it defines this player more than most.
At least Vernon Wells has some years with enough power to justify a big contract; he’s actually making an average of $18 million a year, which makes his contract exactly the same as Torii Hunter’s contract with 2 years added, which then turns it into Jayson Werth’s contract.
Bitter Angels fan?
Obviously.
Nope. Relieved.
I have a really hard time believing if you could be GM for a day and pick between Crawford and Wells, you would pick Wells.
Trick question. If I were a GM for a day, I’d pick neither.
Bingo.
Agree. I like Crawford but not at that price.
My answer as well. I’m not willing to spend $20m on EITHER player.
If I was the GM last year (where I voiced my opinions often on this site) Bobby Abreu would never have signed and Matt Holliday would have been a Halo. Less money than Crawford or Wells and would have fit in much better with the Angels needs. Plus you knock off the $20m (or soon to be $30m) that we are paying Bobby A.
Me too. Here’s hoping Vernon has a little Andre Dawson left in him. Maybe Crawford’s got a little Vince Coleman in him? He was done at 35. That would still make him good for BOS.
Are you the Angel’s GM perchance?
Vernon Wells is an overpaid/underproducing outfielder who’s only really hit well in Toronto, a hitters park, and now he’s moving to a pitchers park. Angels fans keep trying to defend this move despite the fact if it had been proposed by Jays fans at the beginning of the offseason they would have been laughed.
Wells’ contract looks ridiculous because it was back loaded. He’s actually making an average of $18 million a year, which is Torii Hunter’s salary.
And that back load can only be handled by a handful of teams, such as the Angels.
If the money was such a big issue, they would never have taken that deal.
There’s a perception coming from somewhere that the Angels are financially strapped, or are going to be strapped because of this trade. Not true.
The reality is this: Arte Moreno is a billionaire who refuses to let his investment spoil his reputation as an entrepreneur.
Besides, $20 million will be a more common salary in the next few years anyways.
One of us is missing the other’s point. My point is Wells is not this power hitter you want to make him out to be.
Wells is not the power hitter I want to make him out to be? Hmm.
Vernon Wells’ 162 game averages: 39 2B, 3 3B, 26 HR, 95 RBI, 92 R.
Carl Crawford’s 162 game averages: 28 2B, 14 3B, 14 HR, 78 RBI, 100 R.
Crawford is not worth $20 million anymore than Wells is.
The Angels just basically added another Torii Hunter, with the back loaded end of the same contract Jayson Werth has, and an overall average salary that equals that of Hunter.
career ISO away from rogers center: .177
but hey at least the AL west is full of hitters parks ya know?
So his career average is only 10 points lower away and his OBP is only down 16 points. Do you know what ISO power shows? It’s not a great thing to have a big number in ISO if your other stats suck.
why would you question the usefulness of ISO and then only mention avg and obp? his slugging percentage drops 55 points and thus his OPS drops close to 70. .773
as a left fielder, that puts him a tick above brett gardner last year. except brett gardner is a great defender. the news only gets worse if you use better stats like wOBA and wRC+
unfortunately, his ISO AND his other stats suck.
He’s better then Juan Rivera though.
Wells averages 39 doubles and 26 homeruns a season. Rivera averages 29 doubles and 22 homeruns. Wells didn’t commit 1 error in 2010, and has 3 Gold Gloves. People are reaching for excuses because the media told them it was a bad deal. Anyone with a decent baseball IQ would know that the money is not even an issue for the Angels, but so many people are still creating that issue, lol. As if they know how a billionaire like Arte Moreno’s checkbook is balanced. lol
Moreno being a billionaire has nothing to do with anything. He still would never run the team in the red. The argument is why they can commit x per year for Wells but not just up that per year offer to y per year for Crawford. And you claim money isn’t an issue with Wells yet you would never pay Crawford 7/142? Kinda a double standard there. And have you seriously resorted to using gold gloves and errors (errors for an OFer of all things)?
it would be awfully hard to make an error when the ball falls 10 feet away.
I think you’re really reaching here.
Wells had a great season in 06, and very good seasons in 08 and 10. But he was absolutely dreadful in 07 and 09. Almost without value at the plate.
I think a realistic best case projection for Wells upcoming seasons would be .260 – .280 AVG, .330 OBP, 25 – 30 hrs. Best case. And he has been extraordinarily inconsistent year to year – so there may very well be a year or two where he absolutely flops as well.
Even if the Angels have a huge payroll this deal still hurts them, because he makes so much money they are going to have to play him regularly no matter how poorly he plays. You don’t want to commit to having this guy in your lineup the next four years.
Looks like someone has blind faith in our economy! lol!
Very few educated Angel fans are defending this move. There is literally nothing to defend.
I think the money issue is just an excuse. Salaries are going up, and will continue to go up to the point where players in the mold of Vernon Wells and Torii Hunter will be making $20 million to $25 million a year like it’s nothing. I bet 10-15 years from now players will start breaking the $30 million mark like it’s routine. And if your team can take on a big contract without a problem, then what is exactly is the issue?
They are making 20-25 million because they were centerfielders, a position neither can play anymore. And I dont think in 10-15 years 30 mil will be routine, there have been less then 30 20mil aav contracts handed out right? hell I might even say less then 20.
They don’t play centerfield because they had enough class to let a young centerfielder by the name of Peter Bourjos step forward. Team work. Imagine that. It had nothing to do with their legs.
Salaries are only going up!
The negative UZR says otherwise, but ok continue thinking that.
yes there is – Vernon Wells is better then Juan Rivera.
Better than Juan Rivera & Mike Napoli???
Yes. These questions are easy.
Napoli was 34th in HR’s… he had the lowest RBIs of those 34 players. He had the 4th highest K%. Why do you think he bats 7th in the lineup? Wells has better numbers. Rivera is a non factor in the trade. He is entirely leveraging some of the cost of Wells.
I’m an Angel fan and I rarely see “educated” posts by Angel fans. They are total fanboys that don’t understand how this helps their team.
Come on Adam.
Guess how many batters ahead of Napoli had fewer PA’s than him? ZERO. Take HR’s out of the equation, if your a comparing one hitter vs 34 other hitters and your one hitter has less PA’s (and in many cases the gap is 200+) guess the probability that your one hitter will post the lowest RBI total.
Next, look at team offense. Since 80% of RBI’s are traditionally impacted by those around you playing for a good offensive team should help. Conversely, playing for a crappy offensive team will kill you. Guess where the 2010 Angels would fall in that discussion.
He received less PA’s, played for a terrible offensive team, and as you pointed out, batted in a non-traditional run producing spot in the lineup. Guess I’m not shocked that his RBI totals were subpar.
Napoli + Rivera had every chance to replicate what Wells can provide the team. Unfortunately, the team’s leadership decided that Napoli couldn’t catch. That killed his value and made him worthless to the club.
People forget, or don’t even know, that the Angels only added about $12 million to their current payroll. lol
for an overall downgrade.
WAY better!
I would rather have Vernon Wells then Juan Rivera. That’s all I’m saying.
i’d rather pay 5 million for a bad LF than 20 million for an average LF
Not that I’m necessarily in favor of the signing, but defense matters, and Carl Crawford is one of the best outfielders alive. The total package of Carl Crawford is a very valuable one.
And speedy, high-contact hitters tend to age better than sluggers anyway.
(Accidentally hit “Liked” instead of “Reply.”)
I was wondering what the “like” was about, lol.
Wells will probably be a better defender in LF that Juan Rivera was, Hunter will be better in RF than Abreu was, and Peter Bourjos will be better than either Hunter or Wells in CF. Crawford is obviously a better defender than Wells, but the Angels are hardly going to have defensive problems in the OF this year.
He’s one of the best outfielders alive? Don’t you think that’s a bit of an exaggeration? Are you honing in one specific aspect of being an outfielder?
Yeah, run prevention. Looking at UZR, he’s been by far the best defensive left fielder in baseball for years, and his numbers seem to indicate he’d be damn good in center, too (though he’s said he’d rather not play there). You can take UZR with a grain of salt, but other metrics seem to back it up. And it’s not worth much, but even my non-scout eyeballs tell me he’s incredible out there.
to be fair, his arm sucks.
That total package is worth no more than $12 million a year.
WAR says the total package was worth more than $25 million in each of the last two years. Not that he would get that in free agency, obviously, but you’re grossly underestimating Crawford by cherry-picking the one or two things that Wells does better and ignoring everything else that a baseball player can do to help his team win.
While I think the Sox overpaid for Crawford, Crawford was the best FA position player on the market.
His OBP for his career is .337, not .329. But his OBP 3 of the last 4 years never dipped below .355. The other year he was dealing with injuries, his first without at least 143 games played.
His offensive skillset has plenty of value outside of AVG. And throw in his elite defensive skills and you’ve got a damn good ball player.
“You don’t pay $142 million to a guy who has a .329 lifetime OBP, has never hit 20 homers, and whose #1 selling point is his speed; the first thing to go on any veteran is his legs.”
No, what you don’t do is take on one of the worst contracts in baseball entirely and give up a valuable piece in the process. Sorry, but it makes a lot more sense for the Red Sox to give $142 million to Crawford than it does for the Angels to take on Wells contract.
If you are afraid of guaranteed years then doesn’t. The Angels are afraid of years so it made sense for them to take on Wells contract.
Apparently what they are really afraid of is quality years. At least with Crawford they would have got the “good” years of the contract to offset the bad ones, instead of just picking up the more expensive years of a contract that was bad to begin with.
Just what the Angels need right? Another overaggressive hitter.
funny how you call Crawford an overaggresive hitter. One of Wells’ nickname was Vernon “first-pitch-swing” Wells
You know how to tell if a contract is bad?
You’ve got to compare it to Jayson Werth’s …
“which is actually an average of $18 million a season when you take away the back load on his contract.”
If Vernon Wells had stayed with Toronto for the life of the contract, that would actually be a fairly good point. But of course he didn’t. What you have instead is the Angels who got the expensive half of the contract, which Wells can’t even come lose to living up to even if he repeated his 2010 numbers for the next four years, who would be a LOLfest if he repeated his 2009 numbers for the next four years, and who, realistically, is going to be worth only about half of what he cost when all is said and done.
Your comment did make me look up Wells’ contract and see something I did not know, however: Wells got a $25.5MM signing bonus, paid out $8.5MM at a time for 2008-2010 (the Blue Jays’ portion of the contract). The Blue Jays actually got at terrible ROI on their half of the contact as well (56.5% I believe) almost exclusively because of that. Made me realize exactly how terrible this contract really was. I thought they had gotten some benefit by managing to dump the contract before it got expensive and with the terrible backloading of the salary, but it was mediocre for them too.
In any event, I’m not $142MM high on Crawford either. I do think he has a better chance of living up to a higher percentage of his contract than Wells does, however. Even if we’re talking (percentage-wise) Crawford’s entire contract against Wells’ next four years.
The Angels can afford it though. People are creating the issue of money while Arte Moreno is swimming in a pool of cash.
The Angels added another Torii Hunter, that’s all that should matter. If they want the money to be an issue, they will bring it up to the LA Times.
No matter the case though, if I were GM for a day, I’d pick neither.
Crawford is a 5 tool player. He can do everything. Hit 19 Hr’s .307 BA and stole 47 bases last year. Add gold glove defense and Crawford is one of the best OF in the game in his prime. The huge contract means nothing to sox fans because they have the money to spend. I’m sorry bud, but the Angels signing Vernon Wells stinks of desperation. They needed an outfielder, missed out on 2 premier free agents (Werth, Crawford) and went with a suckier more expensive option in Wells. I don’t think most sensible halo fans will agrue this offseason was a bust and the ownership of that franchise has issues.
one of the five tools in a strong throwing arm. so no. but he’s a very good 3 and a half tool guy
Why exactly is Crawford still talking about it?
I was wondering the same thing above. Earlier he was talking about the Yankees, too. Weird.
Why do you think? The baseball media is making the rounds to all the different clubs and the question is being asked. What do you expect them to ask him? His favorite color?
the angels have a policy not to sign anyone with character issues.
The Angels’ off season has made me truly worry for the first time in years. I’m used to them not coughing up ridiculous amounts of money for long-term deals, but the over-reaction in trading for Wells made things much worse. With Texas and Oakland on the rise, the best move would have been to play hard the next couple of years and hope for the best until Conger, Trumbo, and Trout are ready to fill in the holes.
They just shipped Trout and Weaver to New York for Carlos Beltran.
n.y. sent $1 billion along with beltran.
in IOUs
Over-reaction in trading for Wells? What makes you think they were ever serious about Crawford or Beltre in the first place? They just got a player with higher 162 game averages than both of those players. The money isn’t even an issue.
The BoSox offered Crawford $20m a year and the Angels offered him $18m a year. I’m puzzled by how Crawford can be puzzled.
and then the Angels basically gave 20m a year to Wells. I’m puzzled by how you are puzzled by how Crawford can be puzzled.
They bought up Wells’ contract because they then desperately needed a bat. I’m puzzled puzzledldeuppuppuepppzppupuz etc.
(pssttt. Wells’ bat isn’t that good.)
I’m puzzled by where you found any reference in my post to Wells.
Look at their 162 game averages, and then ask that question.
Look at their home/away splits. Then shut up.
Jon Heyman and Carl Crawford appear to be the only ones not over this story. All Angels fans have moved on. Did Crawford really want to be an Angel? He must have it this is still a story.
I’m not even going to try to defend the Wells trade here, but I have to say, I’m sorta glad we passed on 7 years of Crawford. Before you call me bitter and whatnot, hear me out.
Crawford’s game is centered around speed. 2 out the 3 reasons the Angels badly needed him is his defense and baserunning. Now Crawford is 30, and everybody knows speed is the first thing a veteran loses. So 2 out of 3 of Crawford’s main assets should should be pretty deteriorated in 3 or 4 years. As for his bat, I truly believe his bat was overrated, even during the weeks the Angels were pursuing him. He doesn’t have the power to be a middle lineup force, or the patience that a real leadoff hitter needs to have.
I may be wrong, Crawford may retain that speed when he gets older, like Juan Pierre or Bobby Abreu did, though Pierre was a true lead-off while Abreu had MUCH more than speed. Call me bitter, but I could easily imagine Crawford with much of his speed diminished in 3 or 4 years left on his contract.
Speed is not the first thing a guy who is as athletic as Crawford loses. You’d be right if he were a bigger guy but Crawford’s speed will probably age like a Kenny Loftan or a Henderson.
Do not even put Carl Crawford in the same sentence as Rickey Henderson. lol
If they played in the same era Crawford would probably have just as many steals. But my overall point is in body types and athleticism. Crawford is a guy who keeps himself in terrific shape and guys like that don’t just lose their speed. I could see Crawford having the ability to steal 20+ in his 40’s if he got playing time
You just did. :/
Bill James did a study and concluded that speedy players age better than others
nevermind all of that i have an opinion that must be voiced
who care about your opinion?
I WATCH THE GAMES NERDISTICIAN. CALCULATE THAT
Joe Morgan is that you?
i believe you mean joe morton
– tim mccarver
well played sir. I cannot top that.
I thought power was the first thing to go.
Really? I always thought it was logical for a player’s legs to go first, resulting in a decrease in speed. I’m may or may not be wrong about the speed part but i’m pretty sure power is not the first to leave. Look at how many old sluggers that are still in the league just because they can bomb it LOL!
And logically, wouldn’t it be easier to maintain your strength by working out regularly.
That’s why the DH works for the AL.
oh disqus
Too bad Crawford didn’t go to the angels… That wouldve been cool… But my guess is that red sox will go all the way… And I hate Yankees so if the red sox kill the Yankees then I would be happy lol
personally I think Crawford is a bit wasted in Boston. He doesn’t fit well into that lineup unless he hits leadoff, which he apparently does not like. I wouldn’t like Crawford batting 6th or 7th.
I think the plan is to hit Pedroia first with Crawford 2nd. At least that’s the way I would do it.
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The Angels probably don’t want to have a lot of LONG-TERM commitments to free-agents. They probably preferred 4 years at 20MM a season for Vernon. However, there is no reason why they should have let Adrian Beltre go to a division rival when they clearly had a need for production out of third base.
By the end of next year Crawford will be 31 already… sad…
Youkilis shaved his beard off!
I saw that on MLBN last night. It looked very weird.