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Angels Reach Stadium Agreement With City Of Anaheim

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DEC. 21: The Anaheim City Council has approved the deal, making it official, Shaikin tweets.

DEC. 4, 1:10pm: The Angels are still weighing whether to renovate the existing stadium or build a new stadium on the current site, Alicia Robinson of the Orange County Register reports. To that end, they’ve hired the same architectural firm that recently designed Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium — home of the NFL’s Vikings — and the Rangers’ new ballpark in Texas to aid in their decision-making process.

Robinson’s colleague, Jeff Fletcher, tweets that despite remaining in Anaheim, there are no plans to revert to the “Anaheim Angels” moniker; the team will continue to be referred to as the Los Angeles Angels.

11:52am: The Halos will stay at home for at least thirty more years after reaching a deal with the city of Anaheim, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter). As part of the arrangement, which runs through the 2050 campaign, the club has purchased Angel Stadium and its surrounding lots for a sum of $325MM.

This news seems to bring an end to a long-simmering stadium dispute. While other organizations are dealing with more complicated ballpark matters, Angels owner Arte Moreno has at times hinted at the possibility of a move. That never seemed a high-likelihood outcome; now, it’s off the table.

Some important details remain unknown at present. The club will obviously continue to play in the existing ballpark for the time being, but it’s not known whether the facility — at over fifty years of age, one of the oldest in baseball — will ultimately be slated for replacement. At minimum, the Halos are sure to set to work at developing the real estate surrounding the existing stadium.

Angels To Sign Neil Ramirez

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The Angels have inked righty Neil Ramirez to a minor-league deal, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). It seems safe to assume he’ll receive an invitation to MLB Spring Training.

Ramirez, 30, has continued to get opportunities even as the results continue to disappoint. He’s a 4.46 ERA pitcher through 179 2/3 innings in the majors, with most of the good frames coming in his first two seasons in the league.

It’s not hard to see why teams keep thinking Ramirez might turn the corner. He throws 95 and gets a good number of swinging strikes (13.9% last year). But his command will likely always be in question, as evidenced by his career 4.8 BB/9 walk rate and worrying propensity to surrender the long ball (30 in his last 122 innings).

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/20/19

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Twins signed infielders Drew Maggi, Cody Asche and Jack Reinheimer to minor league contracts, per an announcement from Triple-A Rochester director of communications Nate Rowan. Maggi, 30, returns to the organization for a second season after posting a .258/.380/.407 slash in 516 plate appearances last year. He’s yet to crack the Majors to this point in his pro career. Asche was once one of the Phillies’ better prospects but never managed to cement himself as a big leaguer despite numerous chances. The corner infielder/outfielder is a .234/.293/.376 hitter in 1349 MLB plate appearances but a .275/.352/.467 batter in parts of six Triple-A seasons. Reinheimer, meanwhile, can play all over the infield and is considered a solid defender. The 27-year-old has a career .271/.338/.363 batting line in 1767 Triple-A plate appearances. Rowan also confirmed the Twins’ previously reported signings of lefty Danny Coulombe and Caleb Thielbar.

Earlier Moves

  • The Angels have signed shortstop Elliot Soto to a minors pact with an invitation to major league camp, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. A 15th-round pick of the Cubs in 2010, the diminutive Soto (5 foot 9, 160 pounds) hasn’t gotten past Triple-A ball among his three professional organizations – Chicago, Miami and Colorado. The 30-year-old Soto did, however, show well at the minors’ highest level last season in the Rockies organization, as he batted .305/.380/,480 (111 wRC+) with 10 home runs and eight stolen bases over 463 plate appearances.

Angels Notes: Payroll, Ryu, Keuchel, Ohtani

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Let’s check in on the Halos, who made one of the biggest splashes of the offseason last week with the signing of superstar third baseman Anthony Rendon to a seven-year, $245MM contract…

  • The Angels made their send notable rotation pickup of the offseason Thursday, agreeing to sign right-hander Julio Teheran to a one-year, $9MM guarantee. Teheran and the previously acquired Dylan Bundy should help improve the Angels’ starting staff in 2020, but the team still hasn’t added a much-needed front-line hurler this offseason. But now that Teheran, Bundy and Rendon are in the fold, does the club have the financial flexibility to reel in yet another rotation upgrade? Perhaps. As Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group observes, the Angels currently have an actual payroll around $170MM and a luxury-tax outlay in the $181MM range – $27MM below the threshold. The former figure would be a franchise-record amount for the Angels, though owner Arte Moreno has indicated the team’s payroll would rise in 2020. It’s just unclear what his limit is.
  • Signing either lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu or fellow southpaw Dallas Keuchel would put yet another significant dent in the Angels’ payroll. No matter, the team appears to be in on both hurlers. The Angels and agent Scott Boras (who also represents Rendon) have had “multiple conversations” about Ryu and Keuchel, Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times writes. However, Torres notes that a deal with the Angels isn’t imminent for either pitcher. Ryu (three years, $54MM) and Keuchel (three/39) are MLBTR’s highest-rated remaining pitchers in terms of potential earning power.
  • Regardless of how many moves the Angels make this winter, there may not be a more important development in 2020 than getting two-way star Shohei Ohtani back to full health. The right-hander/designated hitter was unable to pitch at all last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in October 2018. Fortunately, though, the 25-year-old Ohtani has fully recovered from that serious procedure, Fletcher relays (Twitter links). Looking ahead to 2020, Ohtani only figures to pitch once a week, which aligns with the schedule he grew accustomed to in Japan before immigrating to the United States.

The Corey Kluber Trade: Reaction & Analysis

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Over a year of trade rumors surrounding Corey Kluber came to an end this afternoon, as the Indians dealt their longtime ace to the Rangers in exchange for outfielder Delino DeShields and right-hander Emmanuel Clase (plus $500K, in a split of the $1MM assignment bonus Kluber received in the event of a trade).  Here are some of the early takes on the trade, plus some of the potential aftershocks that might yet be forthcoming…

  • Kluber’s struggles and drop in velocity at the start of the 2019 season are a concern, ESPN’s Keith Law writes in a subscriber-only piece, while Clase is a very intriguing young reliever.  That said, Cleveland’s overall trade return is “so light compared to what Kluber was as recently as 2018 that it feels like this was a move to dump salary rather than a way to rebuild with younger players.”  Kluber is owed $17.5MM in 2020 and is controlled via an $18MM club option for 2021 (with a $1MM buyout).
  • What the Tribe will do with this newfound payroll space is on the minds of Marc Carig and Jason Lloyd as part of The Athletic’s writers roundtable of opinions on the trade (subscription required).  The club could be content to just pocket the savings as part of a more thorough rebuild that could include a Francisco Lindor trade this winter.  But, with the Indians still in position to contend within a weak AL Central, dealing Kluber could create enough payroll relief to make the team even less likely to move Lindor in the short term, and spend the money saved on Kluber to address other needs.  “Given the number of teams that were involved in the Kluber rumors, it’s hard to dispute that this was the best return they [the Indians] could fetch,” Lloyd writes, with Ken Rosenthal also noting that Cleveland might have been concerned that Kluber’s value could further decline prior to the 2020 trade deadline.
  • Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti discussed the deal with reporters (including The Athletic’s Zack Meisel and MLB.com’s Mandy Bell) and addressed the “variety of different packages” offered by “a lot of teams that had interest in Corey.”  One of the factors that helped sway the talks in the Rangers’ direction was that Clase and DeShields are “two players that could come back and help us in 2020 and help us try to sustain the level of competitiveness we’ve had over the last seven years.”  Even in the short amount of time since the trade was announced, Antonetti revealed that some teams had already called to ask if Clase was available in a follow-up deal.
  • The Angels were one of the teams known to have interest in Kluber, though Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group (Twitter link) reports that the Indians wanted highly-touted outfield prospect Brandon Marsh and another top-10 prospect from the Halos’ farm system.  It was a significant ask, given how Marsh is widely considered to be the Angels’ second-best prospect (after Jo Adell) and is ranked by Fangraphs as the 74th-best prospect in all of baseball.  If Cleveland was seeking for such a return for Kluber from the various teams in the hunt, Fletcher notes that it could be a sign that “they have a much higher opinion of Clase than most of baseball.”
  • While DeShields’ lack of hitting kept him from being an everyday player in Arlington, his departure creates more questions within an already uncertain Rangers outfield mix.  Texas GM Jon Daniels told MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan and other reporters that the Rangers will look for an experienced center field through either a trade or a signing, though for now, utilityman Danny Santana is penciled in as the club’s center fielder.  Over his career, Santana has posted subpar fielding numbers (-7.2 UZR/150, -10 Defensive Runs Saved) over 1108 innings as a center fielder, and he has more overall value to Texas a player who can be shifted around the diamond rather than locked into an ill-fitting position.
  • Daniels said his front office first discussed Kluber with the Indians earlier in the offseason, and only circled back after the Winter Meetings, and after the Rangers came up short in their attempts to sign Anthony Rendon.  Negotiations became more serious once Texas agreed to move Clase as part of the deal, speaking again to how highly Cleveland values Clase’s ability.

Latest On Angels’ Pitching Pursuits

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Saturday brought a celebratory mood to Anaheim, as the Angels conducted a press conference welcoming their newest second-best player, Anthony Rendon. While the presser included several interesting quotes on the part of Rendon–including his preference for Anaheim over LA due to its family-oriented atmosphere–the most interesting takeaway from the day may have been GM Billy Eppler’s statements indicating that the club remains “actively engaged” in the market for pitching. Jeff Fletcher of the OC Register passes along Eppler’s quotes, which indicate that Rendon’s signing will not preclude the club from going after impact pitching.

“We will continue to look at pitching,” Eppler is quoted as saying in Fletcher’s article. “I’m still actively engaged in that marketplace.” Eppler allowed that the club could have payroll space for two possible pitching acquisitions. Hyun-Jin Ryu, Madison Bumgarner, and Dallas Keuchel represent the high-end remaining options on the open market, and we’ve already heard the club connected to Indians hurler Corey Kluber today–even if a later report characterized the Halos as “out” in the Kluber trade race.

Regarding the trade market on pitching in general, Eppler said that asking prices are a bit too aggressive for LA’s liking at the moment. “The prices are a little rich right now,” Eppler said of the market. “I’m not sure I’m going to engage at the level clubs are asking right now, but I know I can play if I want to.” As for whether the free agent options available will prove too rich as well, we’ve already heard that Bumgarner is seeking to surpass the nine-figure mark with his next contract, although price estimates have been murkier in regard to Ryu and Keuchel. But Ryu’s old team, the Dodgers, don’t seem to be chomping at the bit at this stage to retain the Korean lefty–perhaps the chance to draw away both Rendon and Ryu from their rivals to the north would be an added delight for Eppler and Co.

As for the added appeal Rendon represents for Anaheim as a free agent destination, agent Scott Boras opined that the third baseman “absolutely” makes the Angels a more desirable club for pitchers–a statement noteworthy in that Boras represents both Keuchel and Ryu. “I think the Angels, in the pitching community, are viewed as a team that is very different than the team that entered the offseason,” Boras said. “No question.” As it stands now, the club projects to enter 2020 with Andrew Heaney, Griffin Canning, Patrick Sandoval, Jaime Barria, Shohei Ohtani, and the recently acquired Dylan Bundy as starting pitching options.

Latest On Corey Kluber

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6:51 pm: The Angels can be counted out on Kluber at this point, per Rosenthal (link).

6:31 pm: The Dodgers are still “more focused” on Lindor in talks with the Indians, per Heyman (link).

6:11 pm: Dallas Morning News writer Evan Grant cites sources in confirming that the Rangers are actively engaged on Kluber, noting the shift in direction a Kluber acquisition would represent after recent indications from GM Jon Daniels that the team would not consider one-year “rentals” (link).

5:48pm: Corey Kluber has made for one of the hardest-to-pin trade candidates of the offseason, with the 33-year-old Indians hurler coming off an injury-wrecked 2019 that saw him perform in just seven games, and poorly. However, it seems like a fair number of teams are confident in an immediate return to form, with baseball journalist Robert Murray relaying that the Kluber market is “heating up”. Murray names the Angels and Padres as two parties that have recently checked in. Jon Heyman of the MLB Network corroborates this report by saying that Kluber’s market is “very active” with multiple teams in play, including the Dodgers. Heyman characterizes Kluber as “much more likely” to get dealt than shortstop Francisco Lindor. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic notes that the Rangers are “in the mix“.

With free-agent pitching valuations rising like Silicon Valley IPOs, it’s easy to understand why more than one team might start looking to the trade front to find a frontline starter–even if that pitcher comes with some age or injury concerns. The Padres, for one, have been connected to virtually every top-flight starter made available in trades in recent years, from Marcus Stroman to Noah Syndergaard to David Price. GM AJ Preller and his group are yet to pull the trigger on anything substantive in the pitching department, and the signal has long been that the club would refrain from any major splash spending this offseason. It’s easy to see how Klubot might fit well atop their rotation. The pitcher’s return to his drafting organization would position him with Garrett Richards, Chris Paddack and Dinelson Lamet in a physically imposing top four.

For the Angels, a Kluber courtship may similarly be about their choice to allocate resources toward Anthony Rendon, rather than Stephen Strasburg or Gerrit Cole. We heard this week that the team was in active discussions on Kluber. Hard to see a fit here? Not exactly. The Angels have struggled mightily in the pitching department in recent years, with 2019 mid-priced free agent gambles like Matt Harvey and Trevor Cahill rolling snake eyes in the season’s early months. The passing of Tyler Skaggs, injuries to Shohei Ohtani, and a lack of impact talent at the top of the system has limited the effectiveness of the Anaheim staff in the last calendar year. Of course, Kluber himself couldn’t be positioned as a long-term answer: he’ll earn $17.5MM in 2020, after which he has an $18MM club option with a $1MM buyout for 2021. At the least, though, he would partner with Dylan Bundy in a pairing of perfectly reasonable 2020 pitching additions.

It’s also no secret that the Dodgers have courted pitching this offseason, as the last few months have seen them connected–substantively and otherwise–to Madison Bumgarner, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Rich Hill, Kwang-hyun Kim, Cole, and Strasburg. Their needs are less glaring, of course. The club already features Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Julio Urias, and Ross Stripling. Add on one more top-flight arm? Sure, why not. It’s always been the m.o. of Andrew Friedman to stockpile as many effective arms as humanly possible, and a Kluber acquisition would give the club another frontline arm–even if he, like Kershaw, has been more good-than-great in his postseason career (career 3.97 postseason ERA in 45.1 innings).

That brings us to Texas. Their offer to Rendon was said to fall considerably short, with a reported 6-year, $192MM contract proposal sitting some $53MM shy of the Angels’ winning bid. Maybe the club wasn’t feeling as bullish as expected about the projected developmental windfalls expected to accompany their new ballpark (which was apparently set on actual fire on Saturday afternoon). Maybe the club simply has an organizational philosophy precluding it from entertaining $200M-plus deals–there would certainly be some merit to being wary of such a commitment. Either way, a Kluber addition would give GM Jon Daniels a wholeheartedly professional group of starting horses entering 2020. They’ve already added Kyle Gibson to a staff led by Lance Lynn and Mike Minor. Kluber’s addition would bring them to four veterans who, if not the youngest or the most alluring, would certainly make for perhaps the steadiest staff in the bigs.

Angels Sign Anthony Rendon

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FRIDAY: The signing is now official, per an announcement from the Angels.

WEDNESDAY: Yet another superstar free agent has come off the board in what has turned into the fastest-moving offseason in recent memory. The Angels reached a seven-year, $245MM agreement with free-agent third baseman Anthony Rendon on Wednesday, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. The deal includes a full no-trade clause, but there are no opt-outs, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The contract doesn’t include any deferrals, according to Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post, but Joel Sherman of the New York Post adds that it’s “slightly” backloaded. The value checks in just above the seven-year, $235MM prediction MLBTR made for Rendon entering the offseason.

Rendon’s the third Scott Boras client to land a $200MM-plus contract this week. He, Gerrit Cole ($324MM) and Stephen Strasburg ($245MM) will combine for a jaw-dropping $814MM in guarantees. Rendon’s now leaving Strasburg and the Nationals, with whom he won a World Series in 2019. Despite the Nationals’ deep pockets, though, owner Mark Lerner expressed doubt last week about the team’s chances of re-signing both of its marquee free agents. Once Strasburg re-signed, the likelihood was that Rendon would leave.

Other teams, including the Dodgers and Rangers, aggressively pursued Rendon over the past few days. However, he has chosen to team with the game’s foremost player, Angels center fielder Mike Trout, to make up one of the premier tandems in baseball. At $35MM per season, the soon-to-be 30-year-old Rendon is now second only to Trout in average annual value for position players.

Rendon earned his enormous payday – one that outdoes the seven-year, $234MM extension Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado signed last winter – with a superb tenure in Washington. The 2011 sixth overall pick debuted two years later and proceeded to post four seasons with upward of 6.0 fWAR as a member of the Nationals. Somehow, though, he didn’t earn an All-Star nod until 2019. That will go down as his best and most memorable Nats campaign, as he slashed a remarkable .319/.412/.598 with a personal-high 34 home runs and a career-best 7.0 fWAR during the regular season. Rendon carried his excellence into the postseason, where he was an integral part of the team’s improbable run to a championship. On the game’s biggest stage, Rendon logged a 1.003 OPS with three homers. His Game 7 World Series HR against the Astros woke up the Nationals in the seventh inning, helping lead to a title-winning comeback.

As was the case when outfielder Bryce Harper left D.C. to accept the Phillies’ mega-offer last winter, Rendon’s departure no doubt stings for the Nationals. If it’s any consolation to the club, though, it will receive some compensation for his exit because it issued him a qualifying offer after the season. The Nats will collect a 2020 draft pick between Competitive Balance Round B and Round 3. They now figure to turn their attention toward replacing Rendon at third base, where they’ve been connected to Josh Donaldson – now the No. 1 free agent left in an ever-shrinking marketplace. They’ll have plenty of competition in that regard, though, with various reports linking the Rangers, Dodgers, Phillies, Twins and Braves to Donaldson.

The Angels, meanwhile, will surrender their second-highest pick next year and lose $500K of their international bonus pool for adding Rendon. But that’s a small price to pay for the Halos, a team desperately seeking a return to the playoffs after five straight failed seasons. Owner Arte Moreno and general manager Billy Eppler entered the offseason looking to make an enormous splash, evidenced previously by their interest in Cole, Strasburg, Donaldson and now-Phillie Zack Wheeler, and they pulled it off by reeling in Rendon.

With Rendon, Trout, shortstop Andrelton Simmons, second baseman David Fletcher, left fielder Justin Upton and designated hitter/right-hander Shohei Ohtani making up the majority of their lineup, the Angels have a strong core of hitters in place. However, there remain obvious need areas on the club, including in its rotation (which should benefit from Ohtani’s return from Tommy John surgery and the acquisition of Dylan Bundy) and at catcher.

The Angels still seem poised to patch both of those holes, as Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports (Twitter links) that they remain focused on finding “significant” starting help and adding a new backstop. Even with Rendon’s salary factored in, the Angels appear to have the money to pick up at least one more high-end contributor and stay under the $208MM luxury-tax line in 2020, with Jason Martinez of Roster Resource estimating their current CBT payroll at $177MM-plus.

MLBTR Poll: Best $200MM-Plus Contract

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When it comes to the money handed out, this has been one of the most active weeks in the history of Major League Baseball. At the Winter Meetings, we saw two right-handers – Gerrit Cole (nine years, $324MM) and Stephen Strasburg (seven years, $245MM) – as well as third baseman Anthony Rendon (seven years, $245MM) secure contracts worth a combined $814MM. All three are clients of super-agent Scott Boras, which makes this a glorious week for him. But which of these deals will work out the best?

Let’s start at the top with Cole, now the highest-paid pitcher the game has ever seen. He’s emigrating from the Astros to the rival Yankees, who finally reeled in their so-called white whale. Led by general manager Brian Cashman, the Yankees had previously chased Cole on multiple occasions, only to come up short. Of course, the 29-year-old Cole would’ve been much cheaper in the past, but he’s now the most expensive player on the Yankees’ roster.

Before Cole signed with the Yankees, Strasburg briefly had the honor of owning the richest all-time payday among MLB pitchers. Strasburg earned that after several stellar seasons in Washington, where he collected World Series MVP honors in 2019 after the Nats took down Cole and the Astros. Washington couldn’t let Strasburg go in the wake of his fall heroics, instead retaining him to keep forming a dominant trio with Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin. Although Strasburg, 31, is much cheaper than Cole, it’s worth noting he’s a couple years older.

Rendon joined Strasburg as an indispensable part of the Nationals’ 2019 title-winning club, but the Nats weren’t ready to go all-out to keep both of them. As a result, Rendon exited after the Strasburg re-up to accept the Angels’ offer on Wednesday. The Angels hope the 29-year-old Rendon and the game’s best player, center fielder Mike Trout, will help spark a playoff run in 2020 after years of irrelevance.

There’s no going back for the teams that signed Cole, Strasburg or Rendon. All three are locked into their incredibly large guarantees for the foreseeable future. In your opinion, though, which deal will work out the best?

(Poll link for app users)

Giants Acquire Zack Cozart

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Dec. 12: The Angels announced that they’ve acquired left-hander Garrett Williams from the Giants as a player to be named later, thus completing the Cozart swap. Sending him out as a player to be named later seems likely have been a measure of ensuring that Williams wasn’t selected in today’s Rule 5 Draft.

Williams, 25, was the Giants’ seventh-round pick back in 2016 and just completed his second season at the Double-A level, where he posted a 3.60 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 5.0 BB/9, 0.49 HR/9 and a 55.7 percent ground-ball rate in 110 innings (20 starts, nine relief outings). Williams, who was the Giants’ No. 29 prospect at MLB.com and landed outside the top 29 at FanGraphs, draws praise for a plus curveball but is obviously lacking in the command department. He’s averaged 4.9 BB/9 in his pro career to date, including a 5.7 mark in two seasons of Double-A ball.

Dec. 10: The Giants have acquired infielder Zack Cozart and shortstop prospect Will Wilson from the Angels for cash considerations or a player to be named later, Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times reports. San Francisco will pay all of Cozart’s $12.167MM salary for 2020, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

Cozart joined the Angels as a high-priced free-agent signing two winters ago, when he inked a three-year, $38MM contract after a career campaign with the Reds. But Cozart was neither healthy nor effective as a member of the Angels, with whom he consistently struggled to perform and dealt with injuries. The 34-year-old took just 107 plate appearances in 2019, when he slashed a horrid .124/.178/.144 without a home run and missed the majority of the season with shoulder problems. Cozart’s year came to an end in mid-July when he underwent what the Angels called an “arthroscopic debridement of his left shoulder.”

Getting rid of Cozart looks like a major score for the Angels, who could use his money to further improve their chances of landing a major free agent (Gerrit Cole? Anthony Rendon?). In the Giants’ case, it’s unclear how much playing time Cozart will receive next season. They already have Evan Longoria at third base and Brandon Crawford at shortstop, after all, with youngster Mauricio Dubon possibly in line to garner the lion’s share of reps at second base.

Considering Wilson’s involvement, this may be a case of the Giants essentially buying a prospect. The 21-year-old Wilson, formerly with North Carolina State, is just months removed from joining the Angels as the 15th pick in the 2019 draft. The Angels paid $3.4MM to lock up Wilson at the time, but they’ve now deemed him expendable in an effort to get Cozart’s money off the books.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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