The Angels and third baseman David Freese are said to be “making progress” in talks on a new contract, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register adds (via Twitter) that GM Billy Eppler acknowledged yesterday that the two sides have continued to talk but wouldn’t specify how close the two sides were to an agreement.
Freese, 32, has spent the past two seasons as the Halos’ everyday third baseman after coming over from the Cardinals alongside right-hander Fernando Salas in a trade that sent Randal Grichuk and Peter Bourjos to St. Louis. Eppler and his staff decided against extending a one-year, $15.8MM qualifying offer to Freese, though the team reportedly considered tendering the QO due to Freese’s solid production and what looks to be a barren market at third base.
Freese would fill a notable void with a familiar face for those in the clubhouse. Over the past two seasons, he’s been a steadily productive player at the hot corner in Anaheim, batting a combined .258/.322/.401 with 24 homers in 981 plate appearances. Those numbers don’t jump off the page (or screen, in this instance), but when paired with respectable defense at third base (in the estimation of Ultimate Zone Rating, anyhow), that’s made Freese about a two-win player per year.
Outside of Freese, the free-agent market at third base contains Korean slugger Jae-gyun Hwang, who is currently posted for MLB clubs (bids are due at 5pm ET today) and possibly Daniel Murphy. However, Hwang is obviously an unproven commodity in the Major Leagues, and Murphy has considerably more experience at second base than at third base (even though some scouts feel he’s better suited to play third than second). Trades are another avenue for teams like the Angels that have glaring holes at third base, though one target in whom the Halos were said to have interest, Trevor Plouffe, may not on the market after all, per Twins GM Terry Ryan.
Would be lucky to get Mr. Freese back. Offensively he had a pretty solid year last year. Not the biggest fan of defensive metrics, not really sure how he ranks there. But I watched just about every Angels game this season, and my eyes told me he was at least MLB average defensively if not better
Defensive metrics line up with your eyes… He ranks right around 13th-15th in most defensive categories. Relatively speaking, that’s league average.
Knowing Scioscia isn’t a huge fan of metrics. What direction is the new gm and co going with in your opinion?
What are you talking about? Mike Scioscia managed a lot of speed and defense oriented Angels’ teams in the early 2000’s. His disagreements with Dipoto were about defensive shifts not defensive metrics. You are also talking about a team that just traded their best prospect for Andrelton Simmons, clearly they value defense.
Agreed, however there really hasn’t been much speed in the last 5 years or so. Even with Trout on the team, Aybar was the biggest steal threat last year. Simmons is going to be fun… that’s for sure. Just hope his bat can improve even moving into a pitcher-friendly park like Angels stadium.
I wouldn’t put too much into Simmons. The only thing he has is defense.
Didn’t infer they didn’t value def. I was under the impression there was a metrics dispute between manager/gm. Just inquiring how the new relationship would be based.
Put him next to Troy Glaus and Freese looks like Brooks Robinson.
Put him next to Simmons and all he has to do is catch the balls hit to him Range shouldn’t be a big factor in the Angels search for a 3B just a guy who can make routine plays.
The Angels are in tough spot. They have no LF’er, they have no 3B, they have few if any prospects to trade and they have about 22 MM to spend before hitting the luxury tax. Depending on how you feel about Arte Moreno’s willingness to cross the luxury tax line, personally I do no think it is likely, spending 10 MM or so a year on Freese probably takes them out of the running for players like Heyward and Gordon.
Heyward probably. Alex Gordon is 31 though, so his AAV and years won’t be nearly as much I don’t think. Still think either Gordon or Cespedes is attainable… Arte says that he’s will dip into the luxury tax.
The AAV of Heyward and Gordon’s contracts are going to be awfully similar, Gordon’s contract just wont be as long. Cespedes really doesn’t fit the Angels need for a left-handed hitter.
Maybe not, but if Heyward and Gordon are off the board, I gotta imagine the Angels would rather have a powerful right handed bat in LF than to have an average left handed bat…
They would have a pre arb and potential stud LF’er if Dipoto didn’t get rid of Grichuk for Mr.Freeze
That would be nice but hindsight is always 20/20
I liked that trade far more for the Cardinals than the Angels and still prefer Grichuk’s upside to what Anaheim receive, but I’ll say that it’s still far too early to anoint Grichuk as an everyday player. He struck out at a 31.5% clip last season and BABIP’ed .365, which he’s not going to sustain.
I’m a believer in his power, but if he doesn’t cut down on the strikeouts or dramatically improve his walk rate in the Majors, he looks like someone that could hit .230 to .240 with an OBP in the .290 range.
There can certainly be value in that if he hits for power, plays well in the outfield and runs the bases well, but he’s far from a sure thing in left. And, the Angels got two pretty nice years out of Freese plus a pair of useful seasons from Salas with more to go in the deal.
I still like St. Louis’ end better (especially since I think they grossly underutilized Bourjos), but the jury is still out on the deal.
And no one cared about Randal Grichuk UNTIL he started putting up some unexpected numbers. Just like no one cared about Jean Segura, Patrick Corbin, or Tyler Skaggs until after the fact. That was a trade that filled needs on both ends and which side it’s helped more is up for debate.
I disagree. I was irritated at the time they traded away Jean as part of the rental trade to get Zach…I knew he wouldn’t be retained…I’m also irritated they traded away Newcomb BUT knowing they got Simmons for 5-6yrs makes it much more worth it…
Because Grichuk had so much hype as a prospect right? Even when he was in the Angels’ system, they still got hammered over how thin that system was because they had no impact players. No one cared about Randal Grichuk until after the fact. He’ll likely be another Kole Calhoun-type, in that he probably becomes a good every day player that FanGraphs writes another article about, asking why he wasn’t a top prospect. Every team has players they’ve traded away that became something they could possibly be using in a spot of need later down the road.
Grichuk was expendable because Hamilton wasn’t expected to be playing for the Rangers.
What I think they’ll do is trade a pitcher. Maybe dump Wilson for no return and use the savings on a LF like Venable or Parra. Or maybe trade a younger guy for a good LF and backfill with a cheap free agent starter.
I believe Arte will be willing to go over for Heyward. He’s just such a perfect fit for the Angels, I don’t see how Eppler let’s him slip away.
I agree. He would fit in the short term and also in the long run
I heard the As were willing to move brett lawrie. i think hed be a great fit in LA
They would probably have to overpay to get him.
Angels don’t have a lot assets to trade and the asking price to trade Lawrie within the division is going to be high
Could get Middlebrows for cheaper. Freese and Middlebrows..YAWN.
Might as well just let Cowart get shot then, he has more upside than Middlebrooks at this point.
I can’t wait until ol’ Arte can’t sign a FA because the player has a close relative/friend with an addiction problem, and the player saw how Arte handled Hamilton. Arte = classless. No player wants to play for someone who lacks empathy. All the other organizations are going to remind FA’s of that too.
Arte throws a huge hissy fit and pays Hamilton to play for a division rival. Hamilton gets showered in ginger ale by the Rangers. That explains the two organizations right there.
Money is money man. Even if you think that will happen it wouldn’t be applicable for this situation and how much Freese enjoyed his time with the Angels.
You’re right in that it doesn’t belong here. Got side tracked in the comments section since very little has been said about the player this article pertains to.
This so-called ’empathy’ you speak of can only be expressed to an addict so many times before it simply becomes an enabler. Josh Hamilton had more than enough chances and got what he deserved. Playing a sport professionally is a privilege, not a right. Hamilton was blessed with a talent and was lucky enough to be discovered. But he took that for granted, became an addict, and suffered the consequences. Simple as that. What Arte Moreno did was a slap on the wrist compared to what Josh Hamilton could have (or should have) gotten had he not come forward himself. The man was once banned from baseball for the same thing.
Spoken like a true Arte fan.
So you are implying that Arte was trying to help Hamilton by not enabling (I guess “disabling”) him? That was absolutely not the case. He doesn’t care about Hamilton’s health AT ALL. He was using it as an excuse to void his contract and get his overpaid salary back. You know that. He made himself look like a total classless clown in the process.
He got what he deserved? So he deserved his entire contract and going back to a place he enjoys more? That certainly is a weird punishment.
I’m not the biggest Arte fan at all, I do like his wallet however. I was pretty disgusted with how everything was handled with Hamilton. HOWEVER, just because he had previous addiction problems and because of how out front in the media Arte was with his attack, I really feel like Hamilton got a complete pass on the whole situation.
Let’s face it — he was the second-highest paid player on the team, a team that certainly had huge needs and expectations from him. I don’t fault him for a relapse, he’s human. But he did go behind the team’s back and went straight to the MLB about it, which is really in his best interest financially. So, not only was he not playing, but he was limiting the Angels ability to acquire other players.
Still can’t believe that there wasn’t relapse language in his contract, but I feel like most everyone in the general public took pity on Hamilton and absolved him of any blame.
But yeah Angels, please re-sign Freese 🙂
Spoken like a good human.
You are right in that most people took pity in him, but that was also in part of Arte acting like Hamilton was the scum of the universe. Is the general public going to side with an MVP who has addiction problems, in turn showing us how human these players really are? Or are they going to side with the billionare who acts like that addict is a worthless waste of space?
Arte could have won people over if he had handled it in a better way. Then if still necessary, he could have sent him to the Rangers with less money than he did. The Rangers would have taken on more money had Arte not shown his hand. But I also think he wanted to send that much cash just to show Josh that he absoluely despises him.
Anyways, I’m sure this will never be read. Thanks for being empathetic though.