6:00pm: It’s a one-year, $1.375MM deal for Nava, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (on Twitter).
5:32pm: The Angels announced that they have signed outfielder Daniel Nava to a one-year, major league deal. Nava, 32, was a free agent for the first time in his career this winter.
Nava, 33 in February, suffered through the worst season of his career but has been a regular or semi-regular contributor in each season dating back to 2010 (primarily with Boston). The switch-hitter batted only .194/.315/.245 in 166 plate appearances between the Red Sox and Rays this year but is a career .265/.358/.383 hitter overall and sports an even more impressive .281/.377/.409 batting line against right-handed pitching. Nava was projected to earn $1.9MM through arbitration in 2016 but the Rays designated him for assignment, prompting the veteran to elect free agency.
Nava’s track record against righties and history of above-average defense in the outfield corners led to interest from multiple teams this offseason. Nava could form a platoon in left field with the newly-signed Craig Gentry but it’s not immediately clear if that’s the plan. Gentry inked a one-year deal with the Halos that could be worth up to $1MM. Gentry is a career .274/.354/.366 hitter against lefties with a less impressive .256/.321/.311 line vs. righties.
The Rays wanted to bring Nava back on a minor league deal but they were rebuffed as he searched for a better opportunity. The Padres were also believed to have interest in Nava.
Not Upton or Cespedes?
Hello 3rd place.
Am I the only frustrated Angels fan? Platoons don’t work as we learned from last year, we need another big bat to protect trout and pujols. The lineup isn’t deep enough, rotation is solid, with an iffy bullpen IMO
The Angels have been burned by bad contracts to Pujols, Hamilton and Wilson. The last thing they probably want to do is sign another big contract free agent. Its easy to say sign Player A and Player B when its not their money being burned.
Trust me I’m all against big contracts. I love the thought of cheap and young. However, you might as well trade everyone if we’re building a team that’ll win no more than 85 wins
Platoons do work. Just because it didn’t work right for the Angels down the stretch doesn’t mean all platoons don’t work. Platoons have worked time and again. You just gave to find the right pairing. Refer to their platoons splits listed on the article. That’s the point if a platoon.
Rarely do they work in the Angels organization over Scioscia’s tenure….I don’t expect Arte to bust his cap but I did expect him not to scrap the sledge off bottom of the barrel…
Evidence please? They have worked with Scioscia as manager. Several times. When Kendrick and Aybar were first coming up, they had to platoon for a few years with Figgins and Izturis. Angels had platoons in the OF outside of Vladdy and GA. The Angels are trying to go back to the versatility and action baseball that worked so well before.
As a Rangers fan, I’m totally fine with this. The Angels management being clueless Again
say hello jonny gomes, daniel nava, 2013
toaster leavins
The platoon of Gentry/Nava will be worse then the Joyce and company last season…better defensively but WORSE offensively….
I have never expected them to sign Heyward/Cesepedes/Upton/Gordon b/c they would force Arte to bust his cap….despite saying “he would for the right player”…
I did expect them to get better thenbthe ULTRA bottom of the barrel….
If I’m not mistaken, Nava has some experience at first. Could just be a depth move. Platoon with gentry if they can’t get a better guy and depth for Pujols.
With this signing I expect the dominoes to start falling in the OF market.
Comedy
It’s OK only if. We trade for Brandon Phillips, Sign that Kim kid out of Korea and then make a run at a high OBP OF or Starter. I don’t mind not shelling out for a super expensive player, especially if it’s not Upton, as the others either are passed peak years or are more vanity stats.
You get your wish. They will sign a high OBA starter, like Masterson or Simon.
What did we not learn from last year? Matt Joyce all over again, very frustrating if he was signed to be anything other than a bench player
Wow! This is disappointing. Arte bagel is not willing to go over the luxury tax.
I’m surprised he got a major league deal… How does middle brooks get a mi or leave deal and this guy get a major league one don’t understand d
Minor league deal* understand* gotta love autocorrect ._.
Right?
Both of them had atrocious years so Nava and his agent must have made one hell of a case for a Major league deal, I guess there’s more value in Nava then middlebrooks but who knows
Smh my god.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
Lame
Hyun-Soo Kim is who the Angels should be giving money too. Barely will cost
This! It’s crazy that this hasnt happened. He’s gift wrapped, left handed, slow slaary, high OBP, average OF defense.
Too bad the Angels don’t sign asian market players
What a joke. Quick b.s.ing and sign or trade for a legit left fielder
Dont see the problem with the signing at all. Yeah Nava struggled the last two seasons, but hes only 2 seasons removed from hitting .300 and provides value from both sides of the plate. Id say hes a sleeper signing for the Angels
A sleeper, more like a crap shoot… Dude is washed up. He is a good for PH and that is about it.
How many light hitting Outfielders is Eppler going to sign? It’s like he is trying to emulate Bill Stoneman on the interim. Aquire as many cheap outfielders you can and hope one sticks. If we are going the platoon route they might as well have kept David Murphy.
Murphy cost too much, he wasn’t worth what he was gonna make. Its not a bad deal and by no means does it take them out of the running for Cespedes, Upton or Gordon. Nava would be a perfectly fine back up for a fraction of Murphys cost.
Bill Stoneman didn’t do that. He had a deep farm system and supplemented with depth pieces. And if I’m not mistaken, Stoneman’s approach led to 4 playoff appearances and a Workd Series in his 8 year tenure with the Angels. Probably should be taking a few pages out his book.
I was talking about his interim stint after Dipoto bailed.
I agree Bearcat, after seeing the Raji Davis deal for 5.25mil plus incentives I think the Angels got a deal for 4 mil less. Especially if he is a 4th outfielder. I am still hoping for a Gordon signing, it makes too much sense. Either way not a bad addition.
There are so many negative people on these forums. They act like every move a team makes is the end of the world and they know more then the professionals. Nava was not a terrible end of a franchise deal. It cost the Angels 1.4mil!!!! It doesn’t take them out of the running for Gordon, Cespedes or Upton. They can still sign one of the big 3 and have Nava as the 4th outfielder, a switch hitter with good defense that could probably play all 3 spots in a pinch for a fraction of what they would have paid Murphy. Settle down and lets see what other moves the Angels are gonna make.
This. It’s like some people expect their team to sign a top-notch guy and either completely disregard their team’s cap or expect them to sign for below their market value (as in what they feel is his value, which may or may not be his actual value but usually isn’t). Then if the team signs a lower-tiered guy, they flip out because they were expecting a bigger name.
There are a lot of factors at play that we don’t hear about which could include a player not wanting to play there, a player might price themselves out of a team’s range early, or a team doesn’t value a certain player as much as the player will probably end up getting. Plus, depth is just as important as fielding the best possible lineup/rotation. A team is bound to suffer injuries during the course of the season, having a quality depth player like Nava to replace an injured/resting starter is a better move then having some over-the-hill or inexperienced player come in and try to put up replacement level numbers.
It’s not just here. I used to be in several Angels Facebook groups but left them all because I got tired of the negativity and ignorance. “Defeatist” is the word I default to. The Angels don’t sign Cespedes or Upton, which would be counterproductive since they’d only have 2 lefty bats in their lineup, and Angels fans go nuts and just hand the division to the Astros and Rangers. Even though the Astros were only a .500 team after their 18-7 start, and the Angels were 12 games over .500 after starting 11-15. Rangers were 13th in the AL in ERA and looked terrible in July. But to Angels fans, nothing their team does is right and the Rangers and Astros are gods.
More like a 7th OF… Just sayn… How many do we need to play left???
Is trading Trout for Matt Kemp next?
Seriously you guys are killing me repeatedly calling him a switch hitter. He gave it up.
He dabbled hitting strictly left handed for a good portion of 2015 but only had 8 at bats against lefties all year to begin with, so even though some reports say hes done switch hitting, its not concrete until we see a larger sample size of nava hitting lefty versus lefties on a consistent basis. We saw the same with victorino but hes now returning to switch hitting
Well that’s a reasonable counter point. Wish they’d at least acknowledge that though. He hit lefty from ST on, spoke openly about it and has never mentioned going back that I’ve seen.
Read David Brown’s article at CBS Sports. Looks like we’re not getting a big bat for this year. Good grief.
he’s 32, but by the time you read the next sentence he had a birthday and he’s 33.
I am sickened with this move. They could do so much better without wasting the cap room. If they wanted to improve and win this year, many moves could have resulted in a better product. The team is getting older, and these contracts are going to go bust, even with money comming off the books next year, what will they do then…? Sign these cats that got a year for cheap again, cuuuzz Next years crop aint this years crop, and they could have spent some coin and bought a few years… Lets get honest, Eppler aint Beane, and this team unless a miraculous underdog has a big bark, we are destin for 4th place. With Trout in his prime, they dont seem to want to give him the best for his effort. Simmons is da shizzle BTW, but cmon, did we really need to do that to win this year, and give up the arms we could use in the next few years and a few after that… Nope, Confussed is all I come up with… Forget about that OBP, cause these cats cant be on base when they are going to see a doctor for prostate issues, or their wheels fall off……
Unless the Angels were gonna blow past the luxury tax, theres no way they would be able to field a competitive team without trades. Trades for good players can only come by giving up good prospects. But enlighten us. What would you have done differently?
I don’t get why everyone is getting worked up about this move. He’ll be a backup or depth piece at most. Best case he returns to form as an extremely solid 4th outfielder worst case he is DFA’d
Relax guys. This is great news. The 2018 free agent market is going to be HUGE! Do you really want Arte to spend money on Cespy, Upton, or Gordon rather than Manny Machado, Jose Fernandez, Clayton Kershaw, Dee Gordon, Bryce Harper etc. Arte is looking at that off-season already. I persoanlly love it. Pocket it the money now and go big for the 2018 free agency class. Can’t let the Dodgers have all the fun that off-season.
Another thing is we can still sign Denard Span. Span would be a great addition to the Angels. Even Parra. But I prefer Span, he fills a ton of the Halo needs. The main issue with the Angels offense was getting on base for Trout and Pujols. Way to many solo shots and not enough 2/3 run shots. With Span and Escobar on top of the lineup that could solve that problem.