The Angels and free agent infielder Hunter Dozier have agreed to a minor league contract, reports Jon Morosi of MLB.com. The Warner Sports Management client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring. Dozier was released by the Royals back in May during the third season of a four-year contract. Kansas City still owes him $9MM for the upcoming season plus a $1MM buyout on a 2025 option. As such, the Angels would only owe Dozier the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the Royals still owe to him.
Now 32 years old, Dozier was the eighth overall pick in the 2013 draft, though that lofty selection by the Royals was made in part to cut an under-slot deal that allowed them to draft left-hander Sean Manaea 26 picks later. (Manaea was traded to the A’s for Ben Zobrist before ever appearing in Kansas City.) Dozier was still a well-regarded prospect himself, to be clear, but he struggled in the early stages of his pro career before a 2016 breakout between Double-A and Triple-A.
As was the case in the upper minors, Dozier struggled in his first few big league looks. He broke out in 2019 with a career-high 26 home runs and a hearty .279/.348/.522 batting line. We know now that the 2019 season was riddled with anomalous performances due to that season’s juiced ball; a ridiculous 58 players hit 30 or more home runs that season — and Dozier might’ve made for a 59th had he not spent more than three weeks on the injured list.
That 2019 breakout was followed by a diminished but respectable .228/.344/.392 batting line in 2020 that was right around league average, by measure of wRC+ and OPS+. Add that output to his 2019 success, and Dozier touted a .267/.347/.492 batting line and 32 homers through a sample of 772 plate appearances. That was enough for Kansas City to commit to a four-year, $25MM extension with a fifth-year option, guaranteeing one free agent season (2024) and giving the Royals an option over a second (2025).
The contract looked regrettable almost immediately, however. Dozier turned in a dreary .216/.285/.394 slash in 2021 and carries an overall .222/.286/.384 batting line in 1134 trips to the plate over the past three seasons. He did not sign with another club in 2023 after getting cut loose by Kansas City in late May.
The Angels will hope that Dozier can recapture some of his 2019-20 form, providing depth at all four corner spots. Dozier’s most frequent position in the Majors has been third base (1941 innings), but he has more than 1000 innings at first base and in right field as well (plus another 176 frames in left field). He’s a right-handed bat who hit lefties well in 2022-23 even as he struggled on the whole.
Since that 2019 breakout, Dozier has a .244/.338/.429 batting line when facing left-handed opponents. He gives the Angels some depth at first base behind 2023 first-round pick Nolan Schanuel, who skyrocketed to the majors in less than two months last summer. It seems unlikely that the Halos would push Schanuel, a polished college bat, into a platoon role, but Dozier’s righty bat is a complement to the lefty-swinging Schanuel. Dozier and fellow first corner infielder/outfielder Trey Cabbage could vie for a bench job this spring. Cabbage posted a massive .306/.379/.596 line in a hitter-friendly Triple-A setting last year and is on the 40-man roster, both of which surely would give him an edge. He does, however, have minor league options remaining.
Anaheim is a Chump team. You can ask anybody. Verducci, Slusser, Rome, Rosenthal, Jaffe, etc.
Jealous yet, Shoehi??!!! Take that!!!
Since the Angels are a minor league team now why not move them to Fresno?
TheyLive, As long as Trout goes to the Dodgers, I don’t care at this point. Fine by me.
Fresno doesn’t seem to be asking for them.
Fresno doesn’t have a say in the matter. They will comply if directed.
Since the Angels have gone back to being a minor league team…
fixed it.
Fresno?
Angry territorial Giants on line 1….
All the more reason to move the Angels to Fresno.
What did Fresno ever do to you?
They live, I understand it’s just sarcasm.
If you know California there are far worse and dangerous places in the great central valley.
But no need to insult them.
What good is Fresno?
Provide the nations food?
Gateway to spectacular mountains, Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National parks?
Aaron Judge’s Alma Mater?
Maybe Arte Moreno will move the team to Fresno should have sold last year took the money and run now he will get $.50 on the dollar for the sale of the Angels
Your Mike Moustakas replacement (only RH)
Exactly– why not just get Moustakas who was good?
Moustakas was not good.
OPS+ of 68. Negative .5 WAR.
Dude, I’m joking.
Cool. Who knows with people?
I would take Moustakas over Randon
I would take any owner over Moreno
I guess this the angels new starting third baseman would’ve preferred moose
Kansas City still owes him 1 penny up front, $9,999,999.99 Deferred.
I feel like the Angels never talk offense WAR anymore not because they’re on to the next frontier of analytics but because their numbers are so bad. A few negative numbers in there. Take away Ohtani’s 6.6 from lat year and its a team WAR of 9.6 this year. Ranking them 26th.
Skip, The next “frontier” of analytics will be time travel. I don’t think there is anything left in between.
Good thing the Angels aren’t in a war, and they just play a kids game on a baseball field. 😉
What are Rendon, Rengifo, Moniak, Adell, O’Hoppe, Schanuel, Neto and Ward going to do this year?
What about Canning, Detmers, Sandoval and Silseth?
Fans want the Angels to play whack-a-mole, yet no one knows what mole to whack.
The bullpen has no hope. It’s the only area the Angels don’t have to play whack-a-mole.
They can also add a top of the rotation starter. But other than that, they need this to play out.
In 2025 they’ll have a much clearer picture which mole to whack.
Play what out? They needed to add at least two front line starters and I could argue three. We’ve been playing this out with Sandoval and Canning for FIVE seasons — this is their sixth. Anderson is no option whatsoever. Detmers and Silseth should be our #4 and #5. Sign Snell or Montgomery. Then they could even sign Clevinger and Ryu on one year deals. That’s a pretty formidable 1-3 to go with Detmers and Silseth. Canning is the long man and spot starter. Trade Sandoval. Or keep Sandoval and start Silseth at triple-A for depth. But that is an affordable rotation. Add two bullpen pieces. One bat– either Justin Turner or Rhys Hoskins to DH and play first. All of these moves or similar moves is very doable and affordable. This team would suddenly be relevant without destroying the future. I know exactly what we are going to get from Adell– a 40% strike-out rate. It’s what he did in high-school, the minors and majors. Why would it be different now? He doesn’t hit lefties well, so what good is a platoon with Moniak?
You said Adell had a 33 rate at AAA and it was 26%.
I’m glad you know who all these players are. I don’t.
You must make tons of money in Vegas.
I say continue the course and let the youth mature. And if it happens this year or next year then great. The 2023 Rangers should’ve reminded fans that it can happen in any year if a front office just allows their youth to develop, and then jumps on any chance to supplement to lock those players in now so the team is ready, they’re ready. But of course it proved to speed up their timeline faster than anyone expected. You could say that’s how the 2002 Angels happened. Because that’s the way teams often did it 20 years ago.
This idea that we need tons of rotation help is baffling. Detmers, Canning, Sandoval, and Silseth ALL had ERA’s better than league average. They are young, cheap, and healthy. They have upside. A smart organization would ride those four as long as they could.
The 5th starter is Anderson, who has a career ERA+ of 103. Yes he struggled last year. He is what he is – a veteran back of the rotation guy. Even the beloved Dodgers are searching for a 5th starter – right now theirs is Evan Sheehan.
The area of need, and many have pointed this out, is the bullpen. It projects to be..awful. That being said, bullpens are highly volatile, and maybe a guy like Washington can figure out how to push the right buttons.
They are volatile due to small sample sizes. That’s why tools are so important.
Our pitchers don’t have the tools.
Yes you are probably correct
That’s due to a massive amount of injuries. And if you look at playoff teams, they tend to have the most players with WAR in the 2’s and 3’s. Not 5’s, 6’s, 7’s or higher, because those players are hard to come by any way. And that just shows what Bill James said a long time ago during an interview on MLB Network, without having to into analytics: “You need to have league average or better at as many positions as possible to be a winning team.” A fancier way of saying teams need depth.
,All those minor league signing by other teams and we get this one?
Inspiring
Thought they were going to bring back john McDonald, so I guess it was inspiring
Oh good. I think I’ll get in line for playoff tickets now.
What line? I don’t think there’s a line for regular season games. Angel tickets have the same value as Confederacy currency.
Peary WTF? The Embarrassing offseason continues… what a miserable time to be an Angels fan.
It appears they are going with the young guys, and hopefully they don’t need the depth. I still would’ve gotten a third baseman that could hit over .220.
It appears they’ve given up. The silent rebuild is frustrating. Stop saying you’re not rebuilding, and just announce it. They look Pathetically inept.
They had the most injuries in our history and led MLB. Their entire proposed four outfielders were injured and closed the season on the IL except for Moniak. Their shortstop and 3rd baseman finished on the IL. Their catcher missed 3/4 of the season while their other catcher missed the entire season. Drury missed six weeks. Their first baseman mist a huge portion and then hit. .1.25T before they released him. The Angels should stack depth three deep at every position because this group is fragile.
Insert Emoji of hand hitting forehead here.
Oh goodie, the Angels just added another minor league player.
An old shiiiity one at that!
Maybe (and I’m really reaching here) Perry thinks Dozier can be a platoon guy, as both Moniak and Schanuel struggled vs lefties.
Beyond that, I don’t understand this even as AAAA depth piece.
Evan White, Willie Calhoun, Hunter Dozier….the Salt Lake City Bees will have former prospects who went bust all over the diamond.
They seem to be hoarding failed 1st round draftees
If Ohtani made no difference, who else in the world could they add to do so?
This is a systemic issue that a few added players cannot fix.
I think the Angels should try ISO 9001 or something. Need discipline and finally develop a PLAN
Haters,
They will be a .500 team or close to it, not even close to a AAA. That is still not good enough for the 2-3 million fans who USED to show year after year..
This is a .500 team based on what? They finished with 73 wins two years ina. row with Ohtani. Losing him is losing two players– our best pitcher and best hitter. You might be right if this team can stay healthy, but what makes you think rendon entering his 5th season with us will? Trout? Moniak? Ward? How can this group of pitchers that if you look at them statistically finished at the bottom of baseball compete? Canning and Sandoval are entering their 6th seasons. Detmers his 4th. Silseth is a rookie. Bachman is coming off shoulder surgery. Anderson was horrible. The bullpen is worse than last year and last year it was bad. Who is replacing Moore and Lopez? Estevez couldn’t save anything the last two months.
Carlafong, “They will be a .500 team or CLOSE to it”
+/- within 10 games of .500 is something close to me. 81-73 = 9.
This is certainly not a 100 loss team like some people are making them out to be here.
I don’t know the exact number of blown saves in the last 2 years. But as Halo11 brought me back to reality, having a good bullpen would have probably put them better than 73 wins the last 2 years+.
I agree 100%
The Angels are the only team in baseball to never lose 100 games and in fact, they have never lost more than 95.
I’ve been a fan since the 60s and there is some talent on this team. But the bullpen is more like than arson squad of the 70s than an actual bullpen.
Halo, wow interesting. Never have lost 100.
Now there’s one I’ve never read about.
Thanks for the trivia.
Yeah, I can’t watch after the 7th anymore.
Too frustrating
Never losing 100 games is also a byproduct of a long history voting to win now. They’ve never actually done a full rebuild in their history. The closest was the early 90’s, but even then, Mark Langston and Chuck Finley kept them at least a 90 loss team at their worst while waiting for Tim Salmon and company to arrive.
*trying to win now
Gotta have that starting pitching.
Even the bullpens the Angels had after 2005 were not very good behind Shields and K-Rod. They had trouble finding a seventh inning arm and by 2009 it was obvious since they lost K-Rod to free agency and Shield to what I believe was a knee injury.
If you go down the list of free agent relievers they signed from 2005 onward, you’ll see similar results as free agent relievers they’ve signed over the past few years. Esteban Yan, JC Romero, Hector Carrasco, Justin Speier. Darren Oliver was really the only one who was good for them.
Having that Shields/K-Rod combo went a long way, closing out a lot of games that most teams would’ve lost. But at the same time, their rotation was always at or near the top of the AL in innings pitched. So that also covered up weaknesses in their bullpen later during that run.
Notice how the Angels were in it more when Matt Moore and Carlos Estevez had microscopic ERA’s. So at that point, still battling for a WC spot was due to a rotation that was wasting 100 pitches by the fifth inning.
What the Angels really need is another pipeline of Lackey, Weaver, Santana, and Saunders. Preferably with a Bartolo Colon and Kelvim Escobar coming in off the open market.
A guy can dream. But that’s what it will take. That’s what they’ve needed for the past 5-6 years.
I think it’s to their credit they don’t throw in the towel before the year has started.
To me, this is a year of “lets see what we have.”
I do hate our pen. The only guy down there that does a few things well is Soriano. What he doesn’t do well is throw strikes. Their current closer, doesn’t throw strikes, allows hard contact, is a fly ball pitcher and can’t get called strikes.
You have to be a moron to think he’s the answer. Not with those peripherals.
I don’t think Adell/Moniak will be successful, but you have to let them play. As well as Ward, Neto, Schanuel, O’Hoppe, Rendon and even Rengifo as the primary DH.
As well as the starting pitchers. If 2025 is not a disaster, then work on what needs to be replaced in 2026.
Sign Bower and Uriais. (SP)
Trevor Bauer cleared his name and MLB still blacklisted him. Guess the MLB doesn’t want you to realize that they made a mistake, bye convicting Bauer before his time in court
Bauer was a imbecilic prima donna. He has a lot of company.
It should not preclude him from pitching.
I don’t know if you’re serious or not, but I would certainly sign Bauer– he deserves the opportunity. He was investigated and found to not have commited a crime. They could probably get him for a million. The Dodger players asked management not to release him– so he wasn’t a cancer there.
Arte would have to be gone for Bauer to come.
They are still shopping at the Good Will. Vintage bargains
WHAT AN OFF-SEASON FOR THE HALOS. INE OF THE BEST OF ALL TIME
THIS SIGNING WOW.
BOOK RHE PARADE AND CANCEL MY SEASON TICKETS OR INVEST IN BROWN PAPER BAGS FOR MY GAMES. FIRE EVERYBODY!!!
After 46 yrs of season tickets I’m gone until Arte the Clown is gone. The Angels should be folded into the A’s and stop embarrassing their former fans. Dumpster diving isn’t worth any continued investment in the Angels with Shohei just up the 5 a bit.
Tigers could’ve gave him a minor league deal considering their IF situation.