The Angels have often been connected to right-hander Gerrit Cole, the No. 1 free-agent starter available, but they’re considering the second-best starter on the market as a contingency plan. The club has held a face-to-face meeting with Stephen Strasburg, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports.
Strasburg, like Cole, is a a Southern California native, but that probably won’t matter if the Angels don’t put forth an extremely competitive offer. In Strasburg’s case, that could mean a proposal approaching $200MM. The Angels already acquired one starter earlier this week, as they landed righty Dylan Bundy in a trade with the Orioles, but there’s still plenty of work left to fix their rotation. To many, this offseason could go down as a failure for the long-suffering Angels if they don’t reel in a front-line starter such as Cole or Strasburg.
Of course, whether Strasburg will leave his only team to date – the Nationals – remains in question. He and third baseman Anthony Rendon are two enormously important free agents for the reigning World Series winners, but Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner has suggested the Nats are only capable of retaining one of the two. If that one free agent proves to be Rendon, it could lead to a Strasburg-Angels union. Strasburg’s agent, Scott Boras, hasn’t gotten along well with Angels owner Arte Moreno in the past, though it seems the two have moved past their differences. That may prove to be hugely important for the Angels, as they need a No. 1-caliber starter and the two top rotation options – Cole and Strasburg – are Boras cliients.
Padres sneak in with 6/175-180 by next week I think.. Preller can’t afford to wait for gore/Patino
Except given his history Preller will sign him for 10/325 because its completely unnecessary and nobody else is bidding even close to that much.
Does the Padres have to grab a wild card or finish above 80 wins for Preller to keep his job?
Can’t imagine a GM surviving a get-rich-quick roster, teardown, suspension, two managerial changes, $300 million dollar contract only to have six straight seasons below 80 wins.
If Boras senses desperation or a win-now mandate…
Preller already said padres can not afford either Cole or Strasburgh.
Let’s get it done, everyone is getting over paid this offseason, why not Straus.
Please no. Wrong side of 30, not durable and won a WS, Straus is only looking to cash in
Please no to a WS MVP? Oh boy…
Been looking for you since you predicted the Yankees would destroy the Astros in the playoffs. How does the crow taste
***trashcan
***trashcan***
***whistle***
Cantrash
We tried that with Matsui, pass
Not durable? He’s averaged 28 starts over the last 8 years…
Since 2015 this was his first year over 200 innings. 23, 24, 28, 22 were his starts prior to this year. I would be wary.
Very few SPs throw,200,innings these days.
You obviously haven’t been paying attention to starting pitcher usages in recent years.
And Straus is not one of them. He’s never healthy
Yet teams want to spend $200 million on him?
He might have learned a thing or two off Max.
Straus threw harder than Max when he first came up. Max is older and now throws harder than Straus
The fact that this website always turns off the comment section in regards to anything Addison Russell related shows, without question, a total lack of balls.
Yawn! Does it really impact your life in any way if you can’t post a comment in the comment section?
I’ll bite. Why? Russell is an abysmal piece of work, lots of readers and fans alike already know it — why does MLBTR have to clog up their space with more reminders and repititions as such? I am honestly surprised anybody cared enough to comment anything, but maybe you can spread the might of your ball determining skills with us right here?
Or, they don’t need baseball articles flooded with non-baseball crap. Simple.
Smooch
How about this?
Fact: no one here cares or wants to read your brilliance on topics related to Addison or domestic violence. You simply do not matter.
Fact: what you are free to do is post your piles of worthless brown roughage on other sites that have “more balls.”
Go get bent.
Lmao had to close the Addison Russell comments box to avoid the obvious surprise the Astros were not linked to interest? Or was it the wife beating comments???? I see what you did!
cole-stras-ohtani-heaney-bundy-canning! not bad at all!
Yeahhh that’s not gonna happen lol but we can dream, though can’t we??
Hate to sound greedy but that the only way i see the Angels making a run at a World Series is with that pitching staff.
What pitching staff? They can’t compete even with Stras or Cole. Now, if they signed one of the two and a Ryu or Keuchel, then maybe, but Eppler is a joke of a GM and Arte is a drunk who knows absolutely nothing about baseball
racist! have earned $3 billion plus from nothing? shut it!
This escalated rather abruptly.
He spends millions on big names like Hamilton, Wells, and Pujols which eventually handcuffs the team from making future moves to improve. He hires a Fire’s GMs like they’re going out of business, he’s not in it to win, he just wants the big names to draw a crowd.
Racist? Umm… what?
If they sign Strass or Cole, then compare their staff to the A’s staff.
Angels need lf rf 1B, 2B , catcher and third baseman then they might be above 500 but not a playoff team. Negative 99 runs scored in 2019. Astro and A’s will be better still when Angels are done.
LaStella was hitting .300 and on his way to 30+HR before a freak Injury, Upton will be healthy, Fletcher at 3rd was 4 + WAR player.. so 1st and catcher… yeah we already know that
They have all those positions covered except catcher. Uptown, Adell, Pujols, La Stella, and Fletcher. And they have some depth pieces. They simply need a healthy pitching staff to compete. Add an ace and a catcher and they are in the thick of things.
dumb people don’t even know the angels situation but just troll. that’s why they are dumb trolls! if the league goes back to regular balls angel offense is very well built to dominate with defense and singles-doubles-running offense.
You don’t know very much about the Angels. LF? Do the Astros need and LF? Justin Upton’s OPS+ for 2017 and 2018 was better than Brantley’s 2019.
Upton has one freak injury, now he stinks? LaStella was an All-Star. Fletcher was top ten in War for his position. They’ll sign Castro.
And if the Angels sign a Cole or Strasburg, I’ll compare staffs to the A’s, and I’ll like the Angels better.
I agree with you macstruts except for Upton. He’s a career .266 hitter with lazy defense. But he’s with us for a while so pitching and catcher is all we need technically.
If you rate betting on Pujols and Upton to help you win the division, then you are a glass 100% full type of guy ;-).
If the Angels miss out on Cole & Stras, give Chaim Bloom a call. He can dump Price or Eovaldi on your payroll for little in return!
Pujols is with us for better or for worse too. However, he drove in almost 200 runs over the last 2 seasons so he produced when it mattered.
For a 3rd place team. Heaney will go down with another injury, who knows what to expect with Ohtani, and Bundy/Canning have an ERA in the 4.70 rage..
but to you point, there’s no way they get both Cole and Stras. He’ll, there’s no chance of them getting either one
A big market club doesn’t have a chance to land at getting a top free agent? This team has money to spend. That’s on top of extending Trout with biggest contract in baseball which only a handful of teams can do.
Yeah, they have money to spend, but they don’t have the team to contend.
Do you actually think Stras or Cole would want to play for a 3rd or 4th place team with a deluded owner and incompetent GM when they could play for a winning organization?
Talk about injuries? Have you seen the A’s staff?
6/32.5 w/ 7th year club option for 33/5 making it a 200 ,million dollar guaranteed contract. I can see the Angels doing this especially if they miss out on Cole.
Strasburg is going to sign before Cole,
Stras would be a nice pickup for the Padres.
Angels need to sign Stras. Cole is probably heading to the Bronx.
THEY NEED MORE THAN ONE FRONTLINE SP!!!! Bundy? C’mon, man… Heaney? C’mon, Canning had an ERA in the mid 4’s and the rest of their rotation had a 5+ ERA!! And don’t even get me started with their lineup. Nobody around Trout. Arte and Eppler are a joke, they’re not ready to contend imo
Wow. You are very strident.
Strasburg, Ohtani, Heaney, Canning, Bundy. 5 average or above starters with two with top of the rotation stuff. Canning was a rookie last season and he was still league average. in other words a #3 starter.
3rd best defensive team in the AL and exactly middle of the pack on offense. With a healthier Upton and a healthy Simmons we will be even better. We don’t have a single catcher that put up a positive stats last season, so adding one will be important to us becoming a winning team.. .
Adding Stras would be enough to put us in a place to contend for the WC and we saw last season that being in the playoffs is all it takes.
rockies just cut a defense first catcher. we should pick him up as a back up plan.
Koamalu
What you say makes sense but if Upton and Simmons are healthy it’s likely others will succumb to injury.
It must be hopeful Angels fans upvoting you because if you’re counting on Ohtani as your number 2 starter (with ‘top of the rotation stuff’), then you’re delusional. He pitched 10 games in 2018 and none last year.
Will Arte pony up? After Wheeler established the market, Its going to take 6-7 years and a $31 million AAV to get Strasburg signed. Cole is going to take 7 years and closer to $35 million AAV. I would be happy with either one at the top of our rotation.
Don’t do it Artie. Didn’t the Hamilton and Puhols contracts teach you anything!!??
pitchers are what the team needs. those hitters were signed to make money for the owner.
They did, spend money on pitching, not aging hitters
it has nothing to do with Addison Russell, this website blocks comments from any player associated with any kinda suspension, drugs, abuse, etc, the comments are also closed for the pirates pitcher that was caught in the underage sex meeting situation.
And that’s a good thing. Let’s talk baseball.
i can see david price in Anaheim, no pressure to win and a laid back fanbase, he would thrive being on a team that wants nothing more than 70 wins a season and reporters that ask you absolutely nothing after the game, plus he would be re united with maddon, signed sealed delivered, hes all yours
no pressure to win? why do you think the angels are trying to sign top startinng pitchers?
There isn’t any support for the statement that Strasburg is the 2nd best starter.
Huh? No one seems to be disputing that Strasburg IS the second best starter?
Except for his stats among FA starters:
-5.7 WAR (2nd to Cole)
-10.81 K/9 (2nd to Cole)
-51.1% GB (2nd to Brett Anderson)
-3.32 ERA (3rd behind Cole & Ryu)
-3.25 FIP (3rd behind Cole & Ryu)
-3.17 xFIP (2nd to Cole)
-3.49 SIERA (2nd to Cole)
Now do it again without ignoring the preceding 7 years of data.
Career stats:
Strasburg: 36.7 fWAR
Cole: 28.8 fWAR
Strasburg: 10.6 K9
Cole: 10.1 K9
Strasburg: 3.17 ERA
Cole: 3.22 ERA
Strasburg: 2.96 FIP
Cole: 3.06 FIP
Strasburg: 2.95 xFIP
Cole: 3.22 xFIP
No question, Cole was better in 2019, but that doesn’t make him the better pitcher.
Ohtani is a question mark coming off TJ there will be setbacks during the season and he cant be counted on should the Angels make it to the playoffs because of innings limit Angels need 2-3 more starting pitchers
A lot of fans think their teams need 2-3 SP’s. They’re not going to get them.
Why not?
This is a unique situation in that Boras has both Cole and Strasburg. It’s like a Dad has 2 hot daughters and you want to date the slightly hotter one, but if shes not into you, you’d be open to take his other daughter. Either way, the Dad is difficult to impress and carries around a $200M+ shotgun.
It obvious the Sox aren’t getting any of the top pitchers available this offseason. They should reconsider their strategy and offer Rendon $260MM/8. If he accepts, move Moncada to RF, or move him to LF and Jimenez to DH. Then focus on getting Ryu or MadBum to lead the young pitching rotation. Sign Puig to a 1-yr deal with a team option for 2-yrs at $12MM AAV. That should be enough to make them a playoff team in 2020. Just signing Keuchel and MadBum ain’t going to cut it. MadBum is declining due to high innings on that arm, and Keuchel is just a #3 starter at best. Well, though already have that. Ryu may be prone to injury, but he’s lights out otherwise.
Arte should break the bank for Cole, then sign someone like Porcello as a bounce back candidate. At the very least, Porcello gives you 30 starts and at least 180 innings, which is exactly what Anaheim needs. They can spend the rest of their money improving the bullpen and grabbing a couple of cheap catchers to round out the roster. If they can do this, they have a legit shot at a wild card. Just not sure Cole is enough to put them past Houston and their superior offense for the division title.