The Angels have at least had internal discussions regarding the possibility of pursuing free-agent catcher Matt Wieters, according to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag. Whether the team will emerge as a serious bidder remains to be seen, however.
As things stand, the Halos would open the year with Martin Maldonado and Carlos Perez atop their catching depth chart. Maldonado was acquired in a swap earlier this winter that sent fellow backstop Jett Bandy to the Brewers. Both of those players have historically served in part-time roles; neither has reached 300 plate appearances or ended a single campaign with league-average offensive production.
Wieters, meanwhile, has seen much heavier usage over his career with the Orioles. And as a switch hitter who traditionally fares much better against right-handed pitching, he’d pair rather easily with either of the existing players. Though he missed significant time in 2014 and 2015, and ultimately required Tommy John surgery, he was able to return to post a full 2016 campaign in which he logged 117 games behind the plate.
Of course, it’s not clear whether Wieters is still quite the player that he once was. He has turned in several quality offensive seasons, but hit just .243/.302/.409 last year — though he did contribute a healthy tally of 17 home runs. And while Wieters has long been considered a sturdy defender, he doesn’t rate well at framing pitches.
It is certainly interesting to hear of the Angels’ interest. There hasn’t been much chatter surrounding Wieters, who has watched as several potential suitors pursued other routes to fill their needs behind the dish. But there are a few possible landing spots elsewhere; the Diamondbacks have some interest, as might the Nationals in the right circumstances.
2 yr/22 mm
Boras almost certainly has data that says from the time that Wieters was 25 years, 11 months, and 4 days until he was 27 years, 6 months and 12 days, Wieters advanced stats compared with Mickey Cochrane’s. But this is a guy who hasn’t had a good season since 2012. How does any GM pay him the boatload of money Boras wants? It’s a trap contract. The upside/downside risks are substantial.
Good let them get stuck with that
Wieters is a professional and those Anaheim fans expect major league players so go get Wieters. He may not be great but he is certainly better than what you have now. Wieters may still also be healthier going into next season. I say 2 year for about 20 total with incentives up to 30 mil in all.
I am not buying this.
Arte M is not really a fan of Boras.
What I am thinking is Trumbo and Wieters sign with the Rockies
That team would have power and be strong up the middle.
They trade Blackmon for a SP, they could be formidable!!!!
not happening. Rockies want to extend Cargo
Rockies actually have a solid catching tandem in house
Sweet. I’ve been looking for something I can do while watching baseball and eating nachos. This is like a dream come true!
Like I said a few weeks back on a post about how if Wieters is still on the market come late January, the Braves would be interested. What about the Angels? We aren’t even there yet and rumors of the Angels interest have started.
Never count Arte out.
what a dog crap team lol. anybody look at this team and think in that division they can compete in the next 4 years?
Adding Wieters smells like desperation. The entire baseball community outside of the angels knows the best thing for this team is to deal Trout for a huge haul and rebuild. hurt pitchers, old talent, barely replacement level starters. what is this team doing?
How well did the Miguel Cabrera trade help the Marlins? The Angels could get 6 prospects for Trout and best case scenario would be 2 become above average major league players. One might turn into an All Star. The other 3 would be complete busts. More reslistcly, 4 will be busts, and the other 2 will be no better than what they have now.
This is true it’s a huge crapshoot when you’re trading for prospects but if they don’t at least entertain the idea they risk losing him for nothing when he hits free agency and decides to head closer to home to play for a World Series caliber team…if the Angels don’t do some really creatively smart things soon they are not going to be that caliber of a team
How well did the Greinke trade help KC? Answer, it was a key in helping them get to two World Series and winning one.
Not advocating the trading of Trout, but to use one trade (Cabrera) to illustrate your point is just plain lazy. Anyone can use an isolated trade to make their point.
No it isn’t. Players like Miguel Cabrera and make Mike Trout are once in a generation players with Hall of Fame numbers. You want more comparisons ask the Padres how it went with trading Roberto Alomar and the Angels trading Nolan Ryan. Zack Greinke as good as he is (or was at the time) is not on the same category or will ever be.
Mike Trout may be able to make a team win on his own. Don’t think they won’t sign Harper or machado or kershaw when they become available. If they get some good draft picks watch out.
If the halos sign wieters there is a big possibility of winning the AL west. Besides catching can someone name an issue with the angels lineup?
Escobar
Maybin
Trout
Pujols
Calhoun
Cron
Wieters
Simmons
Espinosa
great offense.. pick up holland and some decent starting pitchers and we’re ready for the playoffs.
Cron would be the biggest weak spot in that line up.
Right. .278 avg. 791 ops. 16 hrs.
And he miss a lot of games due to injury.
He’s no weak spot.
When his back up put up similar numbers, despite playing in less games. Cron every season puts up good numbers for about two weeks. Which makes him numbers look respectful. The rest of the season, he doesn’t do deep. And not to mention how horrible he is defensively.
He was on a tear last year when his hand was broken by a pitch. He came back and was pretty strong again. I’ll take .275+ with 20+ hr and 70+ RBI from a guy who was injured by another player, not like a balky hamstring. Some of the earlier seasons he was truly a victim of the sociassa revolving line up, which is a whole other story of frustration
.278, almost 8 ops and 16 home runs …. that’s a hell of a two weeks!
Missing 46 games and coming back and hitting those numbers, as an Angel fan, I can say he is ahead of former Angels, including Morales and Trumbo (who both had a much higher strikeout rate also).
decent lineup will score some runs, but who is starting games for you?
That’s the bigger question at this point. Shoemaker and Richards are question marks. Skaggs is coming off an ok rebound season from surgery. Meyers may or may not be ready.. Nolasco is a lock to eat innings.. And then we have Jesse Chavez, our big SP pickup (calling him a SP based on his contract bonuses). Rotation is looking pretty iffy. I can see the Halos trading Cron at some point this season for a SP.
What starting pitchers would you suggest? The market is pretty slim on SP that would be considered difference makers
Cron in 3 seasons has a .267 be 43 hrs and 157 ribs. Now if he a defensive catcher, those would be good career numbers. But as a below average defensive first baseman, those are not good numbers. Case Kotchman could put up those numbers. But play gold glove caliber defense at first base. So tell me why I should be impressed by Cron? Marte could give the Angels similar numbers,
Cron…… WEAK SPOT?? This is not one of the angels weak spots, he is one of our best players. When Cron finally plays a whole season, he will probably hit over 25 homers and bat around .280.
Cron one of the Angels best players says a lot. The only way Cron will hit 25 homeruns in a single season, is if calls Big Sloppy and gets some of his vitamins. In late June with him playing basicly every day, he didn’t even have 10 homeruns. And that was basicly half of the season. Sure he is great at hitting in Boston, Baltimore and Texas. Where the parks benefit his hitting style.
If he hadn’t have gotten injured he would have gotten at least to 20 homeruns.
And trading Trout is out of the question. The angels are trying to contend. They can’t contend without Trout. He’s never going to be traded.
Well they aren’t trying very hard…I mean realistically the can’t because they’re hamstrung by huge contracts and they have a terrible farm so trading for someone useful is pretty much out of the question…I hate to say it but the time to start thinking about trading Trout and overhauling the organization is drawing near unless they can get creative
they aren’t contending with him. The angels have the worst 1 through 5 in the AL outside of maybe mini and possibly Baltimore and you think they are contending? this thought process is why the team won’t be in the playoffs again before Trout leaves.
Totally wrong, we are contending with him. We’re only not in contention when we have a season with a full pitching rotation on the DL for more than half the year. That was 2016.
2015 the Angels missed the playoffs by 1 game.
2014 they made the playoffs.
We are not trading Trout to your team, so you can stop these idiot posts about it.
You guys will be fighting to be the 3rd best team in the AL West
If we are, we’ll still have Trout and you won’t.
There rotation isn’t bad with Heaney and tropeano. Richards shoemaker Skaggs Heaney and tropeano is a good rotation
Compared to what their competition has, that is average-above average at best
Their
Texas – Cole Hamels, an injury prone Yu Darvish, what, what and what?
Houston – Dallas Keuchel (former CY Young who was terrible next year), Lance McCullers (we have been hearing he has potential for years), Colin McHugh (same as McCullers), what and what?
-Oakland: Sonny Gray (see Keuchel), Manea, what, what and what?
-Seattle: Declining King Felix, can’t stay healthy Paxton, they just got Smyly (good), what and what?
I don’t see how any of those is better (or at least as questionable) as Richards, Shoemaker, Skaggs, Nolasco and Meyer
This was pretty funny
I agree with what you are saying also
It would be a nice upgrade for the Angels behind the plate if he was healthy and could hit. A one year or two year deal at a discount from the QO would make Angels fans happy and would actually round out a pretty solid lineup (assuming everyone stays pretty healthy).. I could see the Angels going for it if Boras lightens his demands.
2014, best team in baseball.
2015, 1 game from playoffs
2016 bad year (every team has them)
I know…. what a terrible team. The angels are totally contending in 2017.
New editions? Maybin, revere, maybe wieters, maldanado, chavez.
Yeah the new editions part is less than inspiring…love the enthusiasm but just don’t see them improving enough to keep up with the Rangers, Astros and now the Mariners since they brought Smyly into the fold
And it’s actually additions
And typically you consider the team that wins the WS the best in baseball and that wasn’t the Angels in 2014 so your homer goggles are on very tight this afternoon
98 wins in 2014 was the highest total in MLB, so by that standard, yes–best in baseball.
Trout isn’t being traded and your reasoning is ridiculous. He has four more seasons under contract, so the team isn’t “losing him to free agency” before the 2021 season, unless an extension is signed before then.
The Cubs won 103 games last season. Two years prior, they were 73-89. The Indians were 81-80 in 2015, 94-67 last year. The Royals were 81-81 last year, but 95-67 in 2015, winning the Series.
Swings in the standings are hardly unheard of in the past decade. Your thinking is lazy and ill-informed. Your suggestion is laughable.
They had the best record in baseball, 3 seasons ago…if you’re trying to say that they were the best in baseball that isn’t an accurate statement it should be stated that they had the best record in baseball…the Giants won the World Series so from where I sit they were the best team in baseball and have hardware to show for it…as far as the Cubs going from 73 wins to 103 wins in 2 seasons, there is a reason behind that…they REBUILT their team…Theo had a plan in place and they’ve followed it to perfection…that’s how you turn around in the standings…the Angels don’t have those young assets like the Cubs did or acquired…Aside from Trout they are lacking in most areas and have spent money on aging veterans that aren’t worth what they get paid…I wasn’t saying that they absolutely need to to trade Mike Trout right now to my favorite team, what I said was that if they don’t get creative and get that way soon they will squander his prime years and get to the point where they’ll have to consider moving him despite the fact that he’s the best player in the game in order to get the resources they need to be a top team again…the only thing that is laughable and lazy is your reading ability! Try it again and get back to me, thanks
The Cubs could’ve won their championship even if they didn’t rebuild. Why? Because they had Lester, Arrieta, Lackey, and Hammel in their rotation and had good veterans in their bullpen, and eventually Chapman. They could’ve easily built their lineup with affordable productive veterans mixed with their young players without doing a full rebuild and could’ve still done it with the good veteran pitching staff that they had. Winning it all because they rebuilt is just a media narrative. They rebuilt their starting lineup from within, and built a veteran pitching staff. And they still felt the need to sign Jason Heyward to a huge contract. And on top of all of that, the Cubs had the fourth highest payroll in MLB…
Weiters is not a good pitch framer, I would pass on him and go after Jason Hammel and Greg Holland
Wonder why Hammel hasn’t been sign yet.
*signed
I agree
I meant the best team in baseball, by record. So if the cubs didn’t win the WS, they would not have been the best in baseball? What about the 2015 Cardinals? Oops… sorry they weren’t the best in baseball because they didn’t win the WS. You could look at a lot of teams that had the best record that year but very rarely won it all. The new additions ARE inspiring. Think of who we had as LF and 2B in 2016. Marte , Petit, and a bunch of other below average players. Now we have maybin, who is a guy that can hit for average and has good defense too. For 2B, we now have Danny Espinosa, a guy who can hit over 25 homers and has outstanding defense. (finished eighth for defensive runs saved in the mlb). Then we got Ben Revere. He hit .305 with 190 stolen bases in 5 years and pretty good defense. Sure he had one bad year, but so did Bryce Harper and Andrew Mccutchen. He’s still young and can easily rebound. This is a team that is coming together.
Again I’m sorry but I think you’re drinking the kool aid…and that’s fine there is nothing wrong with being excited about your team…that being said you weren’t specific by saying they had the best record in baseball…I’m on the side of the fence that believes the best team in baseball is the one hoisting the WS trophy at the end of the season…also, the mentioned players they have added may be improvements but are less than inspiring…we all know what Maybin is capable of but let’s be real, he’s made of glass…Espinoza is a nice player but hardly the difference to get them past the Rangers, Astros and now the Mariners…I don’t see the Angels finishing better than 3rd place in the AL West this year with their current roster and if they don’t get something going very soon they should really consider blowing things up and restocking the farm so they can effectively put a team together once all of their disastrous contracts are of the books…that being said good luck to your Angels, I’m only an Angels hater when they play the Dodgers or Red Sox
I would naturally read “best team in baseball” as the one that had the best overall record. Postseason is small sample size. Seems like more often than not we’ve had teams that might not have even been best on their division or league win a series. Its the team version of player sample size. Ill take a 162 game judgment over a postseason sprint. Thats just me though.
Baseball is theoretically structured now in a way that could possibly give us a World Series Champ with a losing regular season record. If the bottom 4 teams in a league should happen to be in a single division its possible. Padres made the playoffs one year right at .500 I believe and the 2006 Cardinals were not too far over…mid 80s wins.
Id be fine with mlb valuing the regular season more. With the top few teams theres always going to be sincere debate over who’s best…but add the wild card teams and it can be muddled.
Maybe we’ll head away from the division format to a league standings…have a balanced schedule. Teams in a division NOT playing an identical schedule is ridiculous baseball wise.
Agree to disagree…to me the team that grinds out an entire season, makes the playoffs (regardless of their record), and then goes through an entire postseason and ends up World Series champions is the best team in baseball that season
Interesting conversation, and interesting takes. I am on the fence with this one. At the beginning of every Postseason, the team with the best record will be given the name as “best team in baseball this year.” Obviously, that is too early to tell and not quite official just because some commentators and media people are throwing the term around.
The postseason is strange though. It’s a totally different ballgame (no pun intended). A team can barely sneak into the postseason and then seemingly dominate as long as they have 3 solid pitchers and a great bullpen. Of course they have to score runs, but that’s a given; and they don’t have to score too many, at that.
The differences are obvious—no team could get away with that same style of play for any stretch in the regular season. They’re two drastically different seasons, these days especially.
There’s no denying though. Anyone would rather have a team that squeaks into the playoffs and ends up winning The Series, versus what the Halos did in 2014. That team was fun to watch, but that postseason was a heartbreaker.
You’re failing to account for level of competition within a division and the wild card races. A team that makes the postseason with a win total in the low 80’s is lucky more than anything. Lucky there’s not a 100 win team there making it impossible. And All teams in a pennant race are grinding it out. There’s nothing special going on there. The 2006 Cardinals were incredibly lucky.
I think the same thing. It takes 162 games to make the playoffs. The playoffs does not determine the best team. The playoffs is always affected by emotions and a little bit of luck on your side.
To me the World Series champ is the best team in baseball every season regardless of their record…the team with the best record in baseball is the team with the best record in baseball…I think that’s the difference between old school baseball and this new wave statistical driven way of baseball…I think if you asked every player whether or not having the best record during the season makes them the best team in baseball or if winning the World Series makes them the best team in baseball, you’d get an overwhelming majority of the latter
Players say that because they’re supposed to say that. There are unwritten rules among players where you just leave the comparisons at the door and just say your sound bites. The industry itself rates the best teams/organizations by regular season records. And the new wave of analytics gives a much clearer understanding of whether or not one team’s success or failure was a fluke, and allows a GM to understand exactly where he needs to focus on in any offseason. The Rangers for example were 13th in the AL in ERA the last two seasons, and only had a 8 run differential last season, which means they had no business making the playoffs. They had a fluky run of hitting the bullpen lottery and winning a record setting number of one run games. That’s a lot of luck. Too much luck. Calling the world champion the best team regardless of record is just lazy. Or it’s just a player saying what he has to say to avoid internal conflict.
OK I guess I’m just old school like mike sciossa. I’m cool with that.
I just personally think that the 15 to 20 games that you play in the playoffs doesn’t make you the best team. Like I said before the playoffs are full of pressure and other aspects that completely change the way everyone plays in the regular season.
I totally agree that the best team in baseball is the team who has the best record. 162 games is a lot different than 11-19 games. The playoffs are nothing like the regular season. The playoffs have lots of pressure which either makes you play worse or better. I like halosfan4ever27’s comments because they’re reasonable. Unlike you Mcdusty. Looks like YOU’RE drinking too MUCH kool aid, whatever that means.
I think it is funny that all these Angel “fans” keep saying we need to trade Trout!!! Hahaha without Trout we have NO team, No future! If they traded Trout it would be the dumbest move of ALLTIME!!! And as for Cron, he is a younger Trumbo! He has some work to do but has raw power! I think the only thing we need is a catcher and pitching! Our outfield is the best in the majors, by the numbers! And that’s all because of Trout! By himself he is top 10 lol when he plays we always have a chance to win!!! Why would you trade the best player in the mlb??? For a chance? Not worth it! He is baseball!!!
I LOVE YA MAN!! FINALLY SOMEONE WHO AGREES WITH ME! A true angels fan who loves trout as much as me! As for cron, I have said the exact same thing over and over. 2017 is OUR year to stun everyone! Sign wieters get some starters and we can do this!
GO HALOS!!!!! GO TROUT!!! I am liking your comment!
Thanx bro!!! It’s just hilarious that people think that trading trout would help lol without him we have NO future!!!
Yes. everyone listen to him (and me)! Who would ever have the thought of trading trout, cron, or calhoun?? NO FUTURE!!!!!! Because THEY ARE the future of Angels baseball for years to come! That includes Shoemaker, Richards and Heaney, too (when he comes back, of course.)