Some news from the AL West…
- Dae-Ho Lee can opt out of his minor league deal with the Mariners on Sunday and become a free agent if he isn’t on the 40-man roster, Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune writes. It seems as if Lee is on track to indeed make the M’s as the right-handed side of a first base platoon with Adam Lind, and Lee will earn a $1MM base salary if he makes the MLB roster (plus another $3MM in possible bonuses). If Lee beats out Jesus Montero for the job, Dutton figures the M’s will try to deal the out-of-options Montero before exposing him to the waiver wire.
- Also from Dutton’s piece, the Mariners face the Tuesday deadline for Article XX(B) free agents to let Joel Peralta know if he’s made the roster, though Dutton figures Peralta is a pretty safe bet. Peralta signed a minor league deal with Seattle last month that will pay the 11-year veteran $1.25MM in guaranteed salary if he makes the M’s roster. While Peralta hasn’t had a great spring, his case has been helped by some injuries to other Mariners relievers.
- Rangers outfielder Justin Ruggiano could become a trade target for clubs looking for outfield help, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal opines (Twitter link). Ruggiano signed a one-year, $1.65MM Major League deal with Texas in December to provide depth in left given Josh Hamilton’s injured status, though with Ian Diamond now signed as the regular left field, Ruggiano has become a bit of a surplus. Ruggiano turns 34 in April and owns an impressive .272/.336/.520 career slash line after left-handed pitching.
- The Rangers could use a modified four-man rotation as a way of sidestepping a roster crunch in April, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News opines. The club’s fifth starter candidates operate as swingmen to cover both those spot starts and the role as eighth man in the bullpen. This could also allow Texas to keep out-of-options Sam Freeman rather than exposing him to waivers.
- “A baseball team can’t ever be carried by one individual player. Yet Mike Trout comes the closest,” Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan writes in a piece about his site’s outfield projections. Trout’s projected 8.8 fWAR for 2016 almost single-handedly gives the Angels the best projected outfield in baseball (with right fielder Kole Calhoun contributing 2.8 fWAR and the Daniel Nava/Craig Gentry platoon in left at 0.7 fWAR). Sullivan feels Trout alone is keeping the Halos competitive, as without him, “the Angels are a group we’d think ought to be rebuilding….the Angels’ situation is miserable. They’d be a bad team with a bad farm system. That’s the worst situation to be in.”
- In other AL West news from earlier today, the Astros released veteran southpaw Neal Cotts…the Angels shut down C.J. Wilson’s throwing program, and thus the lefty will be sidelined until at least May.
Depending on how this season turns out, Angels really should consider what Trout could net them(as crazy as it sounds). From worst to one of the top 6 farm systems.
why? They have abot 50mil coming off the books this after this year. Then Hamilton coming ofc the books a year later. Plus the luxury tax should go up, giving them plenty of mony to spend.
In your opinion, which players with that money freed up, will allow them to be a top team then?
Overpaying free agents is what got them in to this mess. Also when hamilton comes off the books trout goes up 14 mil and pujols goes up a mil a year, so really only half of hamilton comes off the books. They have so many holes and nothing to help from the minors. The inly positions they are set at are ss, cf, dh, rf, sp1, sp2 and closer. Thats assuming heaney is legit. They have skaggs who maybe can be a third starter, but by that time shoemaker and santiago are non tender candidates. Filling 2 sp’s, basically a whole bullpen, and 5 positions is expensive, even if they have 100 mil to spend
How about Trout for Betts, Bogaerts, Rodriguez and Owens? Or I guess swap Moncada for one of them to make it more prospecty.
Man, that’s a really tough call. I think I’d do it with Betts, Bogaerts, Erod, and Owens but not if you swapped Moncada in for Erod or Owens. Betts, + Bogaerts + Moncada + Erod/Owens is too much for even someone as amazing as Trout.
I’m done…… I’m really done.
Wow so if you, who seem to be a big Sox fan, approve (if barely), I’m guessing others will find it wildly pro-Sox, while that wasn’t my intention, though admittedly it wasn’t thought out for more than a few seconds.
With how often I hear mainstream people say Betts is one of the best players in baseball, and that Bogaerts isn’t terribly far behind (though certainly a good ways), and that Rodriguez could emerge as an elite pitcher over the next couple of years, top 20 or 30 or whatever that means, I forget that these guys have about a year’s worth of track record of major league success on average between them, and that doesn’t really make you elite, or elite in the sense that two or three such players would be worth close to Mike Trout.
I can only imagine what praise the Red Sox would receive if they would have had Kershaw, Trout, or Harper in their system compared to others.
Trouts valuable, he isnt that valuable. Remember those guys are still making the minimum and are already all star caliber players. The angels would snap do this. Basically this year those guys make 2 mil bucks and project for 10 war, trout projects for 8 and change but u pay trout 16 mil, so ur down 2 war and 14 mil bucks.
You’re comparing 3 guys combined to a total 10 war to just one player making almost the same amount of war.
Trout isn’t going anywhere. I think Arte is waiting for money to come off the books and then they will spend again on pieces they need.
Ian Diamond?
Please link Ian Diamond’s name to his Baseball Reference page, I do not believe I am familiar with him : ) Have a great Easter guys.