2020 salary terms still need to be hammered out. But what about what’s owed to players beyond that point? The near-term economic picture remains questionable at best. That’ll make teams all the more cautious with guaranteed future salaries.
Every organization has some amount of future cash committed to players, all of it done before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. There are several different ways to look at salaries; for instance, for purposes of calculating the luxury tax, the average annual value is the touchstone, with up-front bonuses spread over the life of the deal. For this exercise, we’ll focus on actual cash outlays that still have yet to be paid.
We’ll run through every team, with a big assist from the Cot’s Baseball Contracts database. Next up is the Angels:
(click to expand/view detail list)
I can’t believe that nobody’s caught onto it yet.
that you changed your name?
Bingo! You win a prize of imaginary applause.
Can’t wait until you become known as 64yearoldbaseballfan.
Happy Birthday, kid! Wish there was some live baseball for you.
Hmm, I’ll aim for 100yearoldbaseballfanatic.
Happy Birthday!!!
Thanks, bro!
didn’t you used to be 13?
Everyone who lives to be 14 used to be 13.
Well unless your birthday is on a leap day
Yup.
Happy Birthday kid mine is also today but I’m 24:(
Hey, maybe 10 years from now I can relate xD
Pujols is only one more year. It’s no longer a big deal. He has maybe 500 ABs left in his career.
Rendon was a little front loaded. What a bummer for the Angels. They lose one of his “cheap” years.
That would be backloaded.
But yes, this year he’s at 26mil, 28 next then 38 the remainder I believe.
LOL. Thanks. Of course.
Yeah, but they miss out on paying Pujols and Upton. This year is favorable for them overall.
They’re losing a prime year of Trout, Rendon, and Otani. Plus maybe one of the final productive years of Upton’s career. Not paying Pujols his money isn’t really worth losing all of that, there isn’t really that much money left on his deal in the grand scheme anyway.
Actually the Angels are one of the teams benefiting a lot with no season. That’s a whole year of big contracts they don’t have to payout. The Dodgers are making out too. Not having to pay Price, Betts and Kershaw. What other teams have big contracts they don’t have to pay? Oh, how about the Chris Davis contract? SCORE
I don’t work for the Dodgers’ front office, but I would bet they really *did* want to pay Betts, Kershaw, and Price to play, since they don’t have Betts after 2020, and Kershaw and Price will be another year older in 2021–the mid-30s are rarely kind to starting pitchers.
When you’re hitting, 2/4 is outstanding. When it comes to big contracts, 2/4 can set you back a few years. And this current view doesn’t even include past mistakes such as Josh Hamilton and CJ Wilson…
I don’t think CJ Wilson was much of a mistake.
1) He made the all star team with the Angels.
2) The first three seasons he pitched 590 innings and had and had a .614 winning pct.
3) He had 98 starts in those three seasons.
He got hurt in year four and didn’t pitch in year five. But as far as mistakes go, that’s a very small one.
he got hurt in racing and bought a mazda dealership while on dl.
Thank you Halo11 !!!
I have NEVER understood the hated for Cj from Angel fans
Like you said if ONLY the Angels could overpay a guy who pitched 590 inns in the first 3 years.
I think the issue with Wilson was he seemed as though he didn’t care whether he played or not. He was distracted with racing and it made people mad even though he was injured. He seemed apathetic towards baseball while the Angels had huge money tied up in him for no performance.
If your test is visible fire in the player, you must have hated Garret Anderson.
Wait… Vlad Guerrero is the only Angel in the Hall of Fame?
Nolan Ryan should rightfully have gone in as an Angel , but Guerrero should maybe have gone in as a ‘spo, so I guess things balance out
It’s his decision to be in the hall of fame as a ranger.
He should not have had that decision. It wasn’t close.
Ryan had a 40 WAR with the Angels, 25 WAR with the Astros, 15 WAR with the Ranges.
It’s because of players like Ryan that they removed the choice from players. If it’s reasonable, they’ll get a choice. Ryan’s choice was not reasonable.
He did it to parlay a job after baseball. He should be in as an Angel.
Eh, I’m a little torn on that. In some ways, I agree with you- this being a great case in point. On the flip side, there are times when teams and player split… Less than amicably. In that event, is it fair to force a guy to wear a cap he doesn’t want to? I don’t know, there’s no real easy answer.
Maddux does not have a team on his cap. I’m OK with Ryan not having a team on his cap.
It’s just like Reggie Jackson would’ve gone in as an Athletic instead of a Yankee if he didn’t get to choose.
Doesn’t their future payroll always feature that?
Rendon making more than Trout in any year is a joke. He’s a fine player, but seriously, not close to Trout. Fortunately for the Angels, they have only one more year of Pujols’ terrible deal and two more on Upton’s. After this year, they’ll be able to spend a little more freely and hopefully make smarter decisions. I’m not an Angels fan, but it’d be a shame for the best player of this generation to only get to the playoffs once.
pujols deal brought in extra $1 bil in tv money. that allowed rendon to be signed.
People forget that. As a business move, the Pujols signing was a great move. As a baseball move, it stunk.
Baseball is a business.
As a Rangers fan, we all know pitching wins!!! Texas has had serious offensive over the years but very little pitching!! Looks like the Halos are in the same position!!!
Tell that to the 92 and 93 Blue Jays.
Run Differential wins typically wins. It’s hard to have run differential if you can’t pitch.
Juan Guzman was an All-Star in 1992 and was in the hunt for the Cy Young until he went on the DL. They also traded for perennial All-Star David Cone. Having Jack Morris and Jimmy Key didn’t hurt either. 1992 Blue Jays bullpen was deep.
1993, Pat Hentgen made the All-Star team. Still had Guzman. Had Dave Stewart, Al Leiter and Todd Stottlemyre (no slouches). Still had a deep bullpen. Any one of them is an ace on your Angels. No, Ohtani is not an ace until he can actually start and finish a season.
If it wasn’t for the stupidity of Arte Moreno, John Mozeliak would have been fired years ago. Damn you Arte!
Unfortunately DiPoto set the Angels back a decade. I’m sure he wasn’t the only one in on some of the big garbage deals (Hamilton, Wilson), but he did destroy the farm. He took them from one of the top systems to literally the worst. They are still trying to build a respectable system.
signing baldoquin for $8 million bonus set us far back also.
You’re on fire today.
That Upton deal is just devastating so far.
We committed all that money to an older mediocre outfielder and look at how the corner outfield market has turned the last few years. Eppler has made terrible terrible terrible calculations.
Upton had a freak injury last year.
His OPS+ with the Angels was 136 and 121. His deal only kills the Angels if the freak injury affects his play.
and dipoto not reading market trends and adding 1 more year and more money to the deal.
That I didn’t understand. Adding time on the Upton deal made no sense.
I know “Dipoto” was a brain cramp when you meant “Eppler” and no edit tool exists on this site.
But I will argue that Eppler’s deal was smart at the time, and had we played a full season 2020 that would have been borne out. Upton was on fire when he arrived to the Angels after the trade, and was under contract for about $22M a season through 2021. Because of the opt-out he could have left, but Eppler’s deal kept Upton and restructured his salaries to *lower them* for 2018-2020, and added 1 more year (2022) for $28M.
That restructuring helped to get Trout signed to his extension, since it allowed for a bump in his salary immediately, and showed him the Angels were spending for the offense in the lineup.
2019 was horrible for Upton due to the toe injury which clearly threw off his lower body at the plate when he finally did return to action. But he did post 1 WAR just in the few weeks with the team in 2017 post-trade, and 3.6 WAR in 2018. A healed (no pun intended) Upton in 2020 could easily been in 2018 form (he doesn’t turn 32 until August)—we don’t know now if there will be a 2020…
Halo11 – Upton is a mediocre career hitter and lazy defender. His career BA is .266. His 2 pre-injury years with the Angels he hit .245 and .257 – again very mediocre. I’ve never seen the hype match the performance. If you compare Calhoun’s highlight video with Upton, Calhoun is leaving his feet for impossible catches, showing off his cannon arm, etc. Upton’s highlight videos include a bunch of catches he made at the wall and a couple homers…that’s it. I just don’t see it.
That’s just my opinion.
Prov, it’s everyone’s opinion outside of Orange County.
I hope so Bill. I think the contract has been a waste of money.
check his war numbers. he has been a very valuable player when not injured.
Vizion – I’m not a stat expert, but WAR is subjective. The three entities that calculate it each use a different method. There is no objective formula for WAR so it’s based at least partially on speculation. It’s not recognized by MLB as an official stat.
war is good at determining overall value of a player. it is not perfect but better than determining valu of a player based on batting average alone.
I agree BA is not sufficient for a total evaluation, but I prefer stats that are based on hard numbers. For me, watching Upton play is the best indicator.
No—WAR is objective, since the numbers say what they say.
This is different from a subjective analysis, such as “CJ Wilson stinks because I never saw him look fired up.” It isn’t that your eyeball test is worthless, only that it is colored by your subjective point of view.
Yes, BRef, Fangraphs and BBProspectus do calculate WAR/WARP *slightly* differently, but rarely do you see wild divergence in the scores across a full season. The core data used are common to all.
Hi Geo – “No—WAR is objective, since the numbers say what they say.”
I have no idea what that means. However, unless WAR is based on a formula at it’s foundation, I believe there is subjectivity in the basis used to derive at a number. Let’s agree that whether WAR is subjective or objective is subjective.
The fact that MLB doesn’t recognize it as an official stat partially drives my lack of interest in it also.
J-Up can be streaky, but he’s a really good ball player. The contract wasn’t a mistake, by any means. Team and player just caught a bad break with the injury. It’s unfortunate, but those things can’t be helped.
i agree. maybe getting him hitting disks help him more. i forgot the coach’s name, though.
towny townsend! what a great coach!
Nothing Wrong with the Upton deal. He was hurt last year. The year before he hit 30 home runs and had 85 RBI. He has had a very good player over the last six years. Now if he returns to his normal numbers the next couple of years than it will become an excellent deal. If he has two more injury years than it could be considered a bad deal.
56 players hit 30 hrs last year in the Bigs
Thats not a thing anymore, and certainly not a 25 mill/yr thing
Excellent deal? Hmm
Just look at those four Angels contracts and try to believe that many fans accuse owners of being cheap … truly unbelievable.
angels stopped paying minor leaguers and scouts.
sandman – I give the Yankees three years before the fans start complaining about that horrible Cole deal that will tie them up for years to come. The people who complain that Moreno didn’t pay a billion dollars to snag Cole are the same people who complain when a player falls off his performance and is still owed a lot of money. Some people are never satisfied.
10 years in 12 career playoff abs for Trout….
Maybe some are just satisfied too easily?
For those of us reading on a phone, it would be better to put a summary in the article itself (player, last year of contract, total dollars) so we don’t have to click to open something with unreadable tiny print.
Todays Fun Fact-
If the Angels dont make the postseason again with Upton, Trout will go into 2023 with more yrs played in the bigs (13) than playoff abs (12)
The problem with Justin Upton isnt Justin Upton himself its what his salary doesnt represent in starting pitching- Ofc thats all Arte and sadly this one man holds one more chance to deliver fame to the greatest baseball player who probably ever has existed in Trout. Will he learn to spend on the mound? THeres no help coming from below, Im skeptical
Before the Upton acquisition the Angels struggled to field a decent outfield. Upton was very productive for the 1 1/2 seasons following. The freak injury at the end of 2019 Spring Training cost him all of April and May and part of June. When he came back he struggled to find any rhythm at the plate. I was expecting a good bounce back year from him. Joe Adell is almost ready and will play right field and Marsh is not far behind to play left field or vis versa. This will allow Upton to be a DH when Ohtani isn’t pitching. Of course, the pitching is at best suspect.
So sick of hearing about how trout is the best player ever….. he’s not. Get over it. He is the best there is right now. Nobody can debate that. But to say the greatest ever is ridiculous. Up to this point in his career, Pujols killed his numbers with the stick. KILLED….. i know people don’t like counting stats but they exist, and up until a few years ago war didn’t. You know how phony war is? Some years Arenado is worth just over half the war of mike trout, despite out hitting him in homers, rbi, and hits almost every year dude( I know there’s a Coors effect ) guess them walks trout gets are more valuable than ANY counting stat…. Trout plays a good center but he’s not as good of a defender at his position as Nolan is at his. Coors doesn’t help Nolan field on the road now does it? I know I know but… but it’s center and it’s harder to play….. so I guess we penalize people for some made up stat because they don’t play center. Had trout played anything but center, his war would never touch 9 or 10. Trouts a great player, the best there is. A way better all around player than Pujols was, but he isn’t the same hitter. Know why Albert had 93 rbi at age 80 last year? He hits in the 5 or 6 hole a lot yes, but he hit .294 with risp mike the greatest ever the god trout hit .297. pretty much the same! In Alberts age 27 season he hit .331 with risp. Mike won’t ever hit 300, 30+, and 100 rbi ten years in a row. Sorry to rant like stand up guy, but I have had enough trout goat talk. Your basing it off war too much dude.
Meant to reply to human rain delay, sorry. But my rationale stands! Lol
The Angels had been searching for a every day left fielder sine, Garrett Anderson. His last season with the Angels, was 2008. They tried Juan Rivera, Vernon Wells, Mark Trumbo, Josh Hamilton, Matt Joyce, JB Shucks, Rafial Ortega, Cameron Maybin. Other than Trumbo, none of those players gave the Angels much production. Upton had an opt out. So adding a year, to keep him, wasn’t as a big of a deal as people want to make it out to be.
Gotta sign Pujols to a new 10 year extension soon, Arte.
Lol and I thought I was trolling
How many of these players end up in the HoF?