The Angels opened extension talks with the agents for second baseman Howie Kendrick and shortstop Erick Aybar, GM Jerry Dipoto told Mike DiGiovanna of the LA Times. Both infielders are entering their final year of arbitration, but Dipoto has interest in keeping them in Anaheim beyond 2012.
“At this point, it’s something we’ve begun to explore and will continue to explore,” Dipoto said. “There is no timetable, but certainly, it’s something we’re interested in pursuing.”
Kendrick, a 28-year-old Reynolds Sports Management client, posted a .285/.338/.464 line with a career-best 18 homers in 2011. MLBTR projects a $5.2MM salary for him in 2012. That's $500K more than Aybar, who comes in at $4.7MM in our projections. SFX represents the 27-year-old Aybar, who posted a .279/.322/.421 line with 30 stolen bases as the Angels' shortstop in 2011.
get it done!
Kendrick has by no means been bad, hes been solid. I just had so much more higher hopes for him coming up. Hopefully hes able to put it all together now that hes starting to enter his prime and live up to his full potential.
Kendrick has taken longer than expected to fulfill his potential because he never had a defined role in the starting lineup.
He still doesn’t.
Kendrick still has yet to reach his ceiling, which, if reached, will make him the most productive second baseman the Angels have had since Bobby Grich.
Maybe, but at the same time I’ve never bought into that theory to much. I have always believed if your a natural born hitter (like they claimed Kendrick to be) you should be able to hit anywhere in the lineup.
In SOME cases line-up slotting can screw with your psyche, like if a player has batted lead-off his entire career and all of a sudden gets dropped to the 7/8 hole, but in regards to Kendrick, i agree with you, his approach shouldn’t change very much.
If memory serves correct, Kendrick’s primary slots in the line-up have been 2 and 5. The only reason Scioscia moved him to the 5 was due to the fact that Kendrick was displaying more pop than the alleged big boppers.
Defined role? This isn’t the NBA.
He’s in the line-up when healthy, that’s about as defined a role as he needs.
Kendrick’s only problem has been his inability to put together a healthy season (he missed an average of 67 games/season in each of his first three full seasons).
He essentially missed 1.25 seasons worth of development due to injury. He finally produced a healthy campaign in 2010, put up solid numbers (albeit a somewhat disappointing OBP), and was able to build on it last season.
I expect a monster year avg. wise for Kendrick, assuming he hits in front of Pujols, which he should.
He won’t ascend into the class of Cano/Pedroia but he’ll certainly be the next best thing.
Roles exist in the starting lineup. Why do you think Albert Pujols is such a huge acquisition? Because he becomes the center piece. Hunter and Wells don’t have to “attempt” to carry the offense anymore; neither are equipped to carry an offense on their back. Kendrick has had to jump all over the lineup and that can effect his performance depending who is hitting in front of him and who is hitting behind him. If Kendrick hits behind Bourjos, we can expect a lot more RBI’s, and if he hits in front of Pujols, we can probably expect that average to go back up, with possibly more extra base hits.
My response to that would be that if your a natural hitter it shouldn’t matter who is in front or back of you. its all about plate discipline (PD) and pitch recognition (PR), which guys like Pujols have. If he was in a spot where they weren’t grooving fastballs he should be taking his walks and not swinging out of the zone so much. Too many times i see him in an auto 0-2 count from slider in the dirt then taking a fastball down the middle, which is lack of PD and PR. Improvement in those areas are going to be reflected throughout all his peripheral stats no matter where he is hitting at.
There is a reason why for the high expectations. I seem to remember people comparing him to Rod Carew. Not sure why, but they did.
If the extensions are reasonable it makes a lot of sense. Gives us options with guys in the minors to move for additional pieces.
I watch nearly every Angels game and I’m always more influenced by what I see than by the stats. So Howie’s .338 BABIP in 2011 surprised me because I feel like he hits every ball hard, but often right at people. Still, I believe that he is one of those rare hitters who can sustain that number and show even more production.
As I’ve taught my ten year old to say every time Howie comes up, “All he does is hit the ball hard.” An extension for he and Aybar would be great!
at 21%, his line-drive rate was well above average in 2011. but for his career, it’s been about average
as for the results, kendrick was about average (105 sOPS+) in terms of BA on line drives in 2011. he was slightly below average (85 sOPS+) on groundballs, but waaay above average (235 sOPS+) on flyballs, which suggests that many of them may have been hit relatively hard
either way, kendrick’s 2011 BABIP (.338) was actually lower than his previous career figure (.341), so one shouldn’t project much regression based on that alone
HK-47 and The Admiral for life…it’s a trap!
i prefer amarista over aybar, kendrick deserves a 6 yr- 45 mil deal with incentives.
Amarista doesn’t play SS. If you said Segura i might agree with you
The Angels JeDi Master plans to make another solid decision for the future. Both are stars on the rise. Lock em up.
I’m an Alexi fan too. Watched him progress since Single A in Rancho Cucamonga. It’s just not his time yet. His offensive “pop” can’t come close to Aybar’s yet. His time will come, but for this year, and maybe one more, we need Aybar in the hole and at the plate.
I really hope that they can’t reach an agreement with Aybar. He would be a perfect fit with the Padres and he is familiar with Bud Black from when Black was with the Angels. The Padres are looking for a long term solution at SS and Aybar could be it. This is of course coming from a Padre fan.
I agree that they should extend both players. I just would try to extend Dan Haren first. This would make sure they have a very solid #1, #2, & #3 for at least the next 4-5 years. After Haren is locked in, then you go after Kendrick and then Aybar.
Dipoto, you beautiful man! Lets lock up Danny Harren as well. Howie Kendrick in top 5 in MVP this season. You heard it fromme first.
Can’t picture the Angels extending or re-signing both. Izturis is headed for Free Agency as well. Should be quite a bit of turnover coming for the Angels infield. What used to be Callaspo, Aybar, Izturis and Kendrick will eventually turn into Jimenez, Amarista, Segura and either Kendrick or Aybar.
Maybe, but I haven’t been too impressed with Amarista so far. Segura and Jimenez are still unknowns at the MLB level. Aybar and Kendrick are solid everyday regulars. If we can keep them both into their early 30s for relatively cheap, I say do it.
And that’s where I have the most trepidation. Jimenez, Segura and Amarista are all very good prospects with the talent to be regulars in the major leagues, but it’s no sure thing they will. Both Aybar and Kendrick are former highly touted prospects and it took them (Aybar in particular) a while to become anything more than a league average player.
I guess if I had to choose a path on this, I’d lock Aybar up for 4 more years. I think he’s only going to get better at stealing bases and we know what we have with him, which is a gold glove caliber SS that will hit .280 and swipe 30+ bags. Kendrick, I’m not convinced his power is legit and 2B is generally an easier position to fill than SS. Kendrick may end up out of the Angels price range if he’s not extended before the season. Batting in front of Pujols, he’s going to see an awful lot of fastballs and may post career high across the board.
Gotta disagree on this one. Callaspo or Izturis can be let go (and I think it’ll be Callaspo). But for the time being, our minor league infielders are either not panning out (Amarista) or a few years away (Jimenez, Segura). 3 year contract for Aybar, up to 5 even for Howie.
Amarista was 21 years old playing sparingly in his first stint in the majors, what were you all expecting? Amarista will be a fine utility player, capable of replacing Izturis.
Neither Jimenez or Segura are a few years away either. Jimenez is slotted for AAA and most people, myself included expect him to destroy the PCL after he did so well in AA. Segura was solid in the AFL and should make the jump to AA. He’s two years away at the most and could possibly be ready to start in 2013.
I like both Aybar and Kendrick, but I just can’t imagine keeping both.
The Jedi knows what he’s doing
I think Dipoto is looking to find out what they would cost for a multi-year deal. If the price is right, he locks them up, but if it is too high, then they are trade bait.
Trade bait? Why? They just signed Pujols and CJ..And they did this to win a WS..Why would he trade them?