Shohei Ohtani

Angels Notes: Trout, Lorenzen, Duffy, Bradley, Moniak, Iglesias

By Mark Polishuk | August 13, 2022 at 8:22am CDT

Mike Trout has been cleared to run and throw, and the former MVP is scheduled to take batting practice on the field today. Trout and Angels head trainer Mike Frostad spoke with reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register) yesterday, with Trout expressing confidence that he’ll be able to return to the lineup “sooner rather than later.” A more specific timeline isn’t yet known, as Trout may require a minor league rehab assignment.

Trout has now missed a full month of action due to left ribcage inflammation and back spasms, and Frostad’s past update about Trout’s larger-scale back problems (a costovertebral dysfunction) left concern over both Trout’s short-term and near-term future. Given that Trout ended up missing almost all of the 2021 season due to a calf problem that just kept lingering, fans probably won’t be fully relieved until they actually see Trout back on the field, no matter this latest positive news about his rib injury.

A.J. Preller, Mike Rizzo Discuss Juan Soto Trade

By Anthony Franco | August 9, 2022 at 9:08pm CDT

We’re a week removed from one of the biggest blockbusters in MLB history, the deal that sent Juan Soto and Josh Bell from the Nationals to the Padres for five young players and first baseman Luke Voit. Jeff Passan of ESPN takes a long look into the process that eventually led to the deal in a piece that’s well worth a read in full.

A Soto trade seemed unfathomable around a month before the deadline, with Washington general manager Mike Rizzo flatly stating the club wouldn’t deal him. That was before Soto passed on a 15-year, $440MM extension offer that apparently represented the Nationals final offer. At that point, Rizzo and his staff reversed course and turned their attention to the trade market. Passan writes the Nationals identified the Padres, Dodgers, Yankees, Cardinals, Mariners, Rays, Rangers and Blue Jays as a preliminary list of teams with the kind of young talent to pull off a deal.

According to Passan, the Nats had whittled that down to a trio of the Cardinals, Dodgers and Padres by the final week of July. With St. Louis reportedly reluctant to include Dylan Carlson in a package that also included a number of top prospects, Los Angeles and San Diego became the final two. Passan relays that San Diego and Washington higher-ups really gathered momentum late into the evening of August 1, the night before the trade deadline. A late entrant to discussions was the inclusion of Bell, one of the top rental bats available, to convince the Friars to part with high-upside 18-year-old pitcher Jarlin Susana. By the middle of the night on August 1-2, Passan reports, the parties agreed to the package of young talent that’d go back to Washington pending review of medical records the next morning. (Passan adds the humorous anecdote that San Diego president of baseball operations A.J. Preller then continued working deep into the night on additional trade possibilities before falling asleep in the middle of a conversation with a member of his scouting staff).

While the initial iteration of the deal included Eric Hosmer going to Washington, the first baseman exercised his limited no-trade protection to block the deal. San Diego pivoted and traded Hosmer to the Red Sox, and Passan writes that San Diego and Washington had each previously agreed that one of Voit or Wil Myers could take Hosmer’s place in the event he refused to waive his no-trade clause.

“We did as well as we could do,” Rizzo opined to Passan. “You lost a Hall of Famer at 23, but I think we expedited our reboot. When you’re looking at the alternative, the same narrative would’ve been out there this winter. If you don’t trade him now, what are you doing in the offseason? I give the Padres’ ownership credit. And I give A.J. credit because he’s not afraid to make a trade like this. And I give our ownership credit.”

Preller went into detail about his team’s involvement in the Soto discussions during an appearance this afternoon on The Show, a podcast from the New York Post with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman. The San Diego baseball operations leader confirmed the Nationals identified his system as one of a handful that could support a blockbuster of this magnitude early in the process.

“We could tell we were going to be one of the final teams if we wanted to participate,” Preller told the Post. “You never know if you’re going to be the team. It’s like anything else, there’s going to be two or three teams that all have really strong packages. … There was just a lot of debate and discussion for us over the next few weeks about the right thing to do, the right players to give up.”

Once the sides were nearing agreement on the prospect return, the onus fell on San Diego to push the deal across the finish line, Preller explains. “At the end, you have to decide. Do you want to do this or not? That’s kind of the gut-check at the end, when the Nats put it on you: ’this five or six-player package gets it done.’ That’s when you come back into the room with your small group of people and (owner) Peter Seidler. It’s on the table if we want to do this. And if we don’t do it, ultimately we have to live with the fact that he may go elsewhere. … At the end of the day, you have to make that decision.”

Obviously, Preller and his group decided to pull the trigger, although he indicated the club wasn’t narrowly focused on a Soto deal. Preller confirmed to the Post that San Diego was involved in discussions with the Angels about Shohei Ohtani. He said there was some but not entire overlap in the young players of interest to both Washington and Anaheim but indicated the Angels were ultimately unwilling to part with Ohtani. Heyman reported last week that Angels owner Arte Moreno wouldn’t sign off on an Ohtani trade while Mike Trout is on the injured list.

Padres fans and/or anyone interested in additional details about San Diego’s trade talks will want to check out Preller’s interview with Heyman and Sherman in full. Preller also discussed the necessity of balancing a roster with star talent and depth, the acquisition of All-Star reliever Josh Hader from the Brewers, plans for rehabbing star Fernando Tatis Jr., and his team’s struggles against the Dodgers among other topics.

Angels Planning To Keep Shohei Ohtani, No Longer Listening To Offers

By Steve Adams and Darragh McDonald | August 1, 2022 at 1:25pm CDT

The Angels have listened to offers on reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani for the past several days, but Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that they’re no longer doing so. The Yankees, Padres and White Sox were among the teams to submit trade offers for Ohtani, per the report, but Heyman writes that owner Arte Moreno ultimately proved “unwilling” to part with Ohtani.

The fact that Ohtani is staying put is hardly shocking. Even when reports emerged of that the Angels were listening to trade offers, it still seemed unlikely that a deal would come together. Given Ohtani’s unprecedented contributions to the team in recent years, it was always expected that a massive package would have to be put on the table in order for the Angels to pull the trigger on a deal. With the Angels mired in another miserable season that’s seen them fall well out of contention, it made sense to listen to offers on the superstar given that he’s now just over a year away from free agency. Despite those three clubs apparently putting together serious offers, it seems none of them were close to the understandably high asking price of the Angels.

The reigning AL MVP, Ohtani is putting together another historic season to add to his already impressive list of accolades. His power has fallen off slightly, as his 22 home runs on the year puts him on pace to fall short of last year’s 46. But apart from that, his .255/.352/.495 slash line this year isn’t too far from last year’s .257/.372/.592. His 135 wRC+ this year is seventeen points behind last year, but still 35% better than the league average hitter. On the pitching side of things, he’s actually improved relative to the previous season. He’s dropped his ERA from 3.18 to 2.81, increased his strikeout rate from 29.3% to 36.4% and lowered his walk rate from 8.3% to 5.8%.

Given that he’s producing excellent results on both sides of the ball and making a modest $5.5MM salary, it’s hard to fathom a team that wouldn’t be interested in making use of his services. The Yankees are known to be looking for rotation help, having checked in on some of the top available names like Frankie Montas and Luis Castillo, before the latter was traded to the Mariners. They’ve also checked in on offensive upgrades, recently acquiring Andrew Benintendi. Acquiring Ohtani would have crowded the DH mix a little, though the Yanks were surely willing to find a way to work with that situation for such a historic player.

The Padres already have a rotation surplus but have been considering trading away from it as a way to reduce their payroll commitments. It’s possible that they could have combined an Ohtani trade with a trade of Blake Snell or Mike Clevinger, in order to get Ohtani into the rotation and then also upgrade the lineup.

The White Sox have a solid five-man rotation right now but have been exploring the market for upgrades anyway, with Michael Kopech perhaps working his way towards some load management as the season goes on. He’s already thrown 88 1/3 innings this year after only throwing 69 1/3 frames over the three previous seasons combined.

Regardless of how much sense Ohtani would have made for those teams, it doesn’t appear as though the Angels came close to a deal that they gave serious consideration to. It’s perfectly logical for them to want to hang onto such an unprecedented talent, though this decision won’t provide any long-term clarity. The Angels are still 43-59 and destined to finish another season watching the postseason from home. That will leave 2023 as the club’s last chance to build a winning roster around Ohtani, unless they are able to work out an extension.

That latter course will surely be appealing to Angels’ fans but will come with complications for the front office. The latest reporting indicated that Ohtani and his camp were looking to surpass Max Scherzer’s record for annual average value of a contract, $43.3MM. That number would be added to a payroll that already includes Mike Trout getting over $37MM per year through 2028 while Anthony Rendon getting paid similarly through 2026. That could leave the Halos paying around $120MM per season to just three players. That wouldn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for a team that’s never run an Opening Day payroll above $190MM. If an extension can’t be worked out, then perhaps Ohtani’s name will show up in trade rumors in more serious fashion one year from now.

NL West Notes: Estrada, Blackmon, Dodgers, Peralta, Ohtani

By Mark Polishuk | July 31, 2022 at 11:56am CDT

Giants infielder Thairo Estrada is likely going to be placed on the seven-day concussion injured list after he was hit in the head by a Mark Leiter Jr. pitch in last night’s game. Estrada was able to leave the field under his own power, after initially spending time on the ground being evaluated by team medical staff. Estrada has hit .262/.316/.406 over 342 plate appearances this season, a step behind his solid numbers from 2021 but still good for an above-average 106 wRC+.

Between this respectable bat and his defensive versatility, Estrada has been a valuable member of San Francisco’s roster, but his likely absence will leave the Giants quite thin at shortstop. With Brandon Crawford on the 10-day IL and yet to begin a rehab assignment, Jason Vosler is the only player on the active roster with any time at shortstop this season. It seems likely that one of Isan Diaz or Donovan Walton will need to be called up from Triple-A to fill that void, unless the Giants make another move in advance of the trade deadline. Since the Giants could be sellers at the deadline, Estrada’s injury probably ensures that he’ll remain in San Francisco beyond August 2, though his team control through the 2026 season already made him one of the Giants players less likely to be moved.

Angels Have Listened To Offers On Shohei Ohtani; Trade Seen As Unlikely

By Steve Adams | July 29, 2022 at 12:19pm CDT

A deadline season that already has one of the highest-profile trade candidates ever in Juan Soto could add another to the list. Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post report that while a deal is ultimately unlikely, the Angels have not turned away interested teams as they’ve made inquiries and submitted trade proposals for two-way star and reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani. The Post duo spoke with three executives whose teams have reached out to the Angels, all of whom characterized the chances of a trade as extremely low due to an unsurprisingly enormous asking price.

The mere notion of an Ohtani trade will ignite a frenzy of speculation and wishful thinking — and with good reason. The 28-year-old is in the midst of yet another incredible season, having pitched to a 2.81 ERA with a 36.4% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate through 99 1/3 innings. He’s also hitting .254/.349/.486 with 21 home runs and 11 stolen bases. Dating back to last season, Ohtani has hit .256/.363/.550 with 67 home runs in 1052 plate appearances while also pitching 229 2/3 innings of 3.02 ERA ball with a 32.3% strikeout rate. It’s a legitimately historic performance, the likes of which current fans have not seen in their lifetimes.

That the Angels will at least listen is certainly of note and is only understandable in light of yet another disastrous season. Despite Ohtani and three-time MVP Mike Trout anchoring the roster, the Halos are sitting on a 42-57 record and find themselves already all but eliminated from postseason contention. Incredibly, that’s a common refrain in Anaheim, where the Angels haven’t reached the playoffs since way back in 2014 — three seasons prior to Ohtani’s MLB debut. Repeated injuries up and down the pitching staff have regularly coupled with immediate declines from high-priced stars like Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols and Anthony Rendon to leave the Angels with a top-heavy roster that has rarely even sniffed playoff contention.

Ohtani, meanwhile, has arguably been the game’s greatest bargain since arriving on the scene. Rather than wait until he was old enough to qualify as a professional player on the international market (25 years old), he instead opted to make the jump to Major League Baseball at just 23 years old. In doing so, Ohtani knowingly subjected himself to the international bonus pool restrictions that govern MLB teams’ signing of amateur players, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars on the table in order to accelerate his path to the world’s top league.

Shocking as that was at the time, Ohtani could yet find himself positioned for a historic contract before long. He’s currently playing on just a $5MM salary in his second year of arbitration eligibility, but he’ll receive a presumably massive raise this winter and is eligible to become a free agent following the 2023 season. Any team submitting offers for Ohtani will do so knowing they can only control him for one and a half seasons, and that the right to do so will cost them an enormous segment of the farm system. One executive who spoke to Heyman and Sherman indicated that the Angels “want something like your top four prospects” in exchange for Ohtani’s final season-plus of club control.

With that remaining control dwindling, however, the Angels have a dilemma. On the one hand, it’s easy to say they should be willing to do whatever is necessary to ink Ohtani to the historic contract extension he’d surely command. At the same time, the Angels already have both Trout and Rendon on the books at more than $35MM annually for the foreseeable future — Rendon through 2026, Trout through 2030. Ohtani would undoubtedly add another annual salary of more than $35MM to the ledger (perhaps well north of that sum).

That’d be a justifiable expenditure, but it takes two to strike a deal. Ohtani has spoken multiple times in the past about his desire to play for a contending club and reach the MLB postseason, and the Angels have instead stumbled through a difficult-to-fathom stretch of futility during his time with the organization. Asked just last night about his desire to remain with the Angels long-term, Ohtani told The Athletic’s Sam Blum:

“Regardless of where I’m playing, I want to give it my all, try to win the ball game that’s right in front of me. I’m with the Angels right now, and I’m very thankful for what they’ve done. I really love the team. I love my teammates. Right now I’m an Angel, and that’s all I can really focus on at this point.”

While that’s far from a direct declaration that he hopes to be traded, it’s of course notable that, when presented with the opportunity, Ohtani did not express a hope to remain with the Angels for the long haul. Perhaps a record-setting offer would still lead to an agreement, but that can’t be known. It’s generally fair to assume that when discussing MLB contracts, money wins out at the end of the day. As previously noted, however, Ohtani has already once forgone what might have been a $200MM+ contract as an international free agent to instead sign for a $2.315MM signing bonus — which wasn’t even the top available bonus to him at the time of his original agreement with the Angels in 2017.

Even if a deal is highly unlikely to come together in such a short amount of time, it’s nevertheless a fascinating wrinkle added to what’s already shaping up to be one of the most interesting deadlines in MLB history. There’s been almost no movement of note to this point, which generally sets the stage for unbridled chaos in the final 48 to 72 hours leading up to Tuesday’s 6pm ET deadline.

NL West Notes: Ohtani, Padres, Walker, Rodon, Giants, Bard

By Mark Polishuk | July 28, 2022 at 3:18pm CDT

The Angels reportedly don’t have any interest in trading Shohei Ohtani, but that hasn’t stopped the team from at least listening to offers out of due diligence, Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post write. The Padres are one of those teams who have called about Ohtani, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, who adds that this is the type of aggressive move that has become typical of San Diego president of baseball operations A.J. Preller. There doesn’t seem to be any indication that the Padres have caught the Halos’ attention, except in the broader sense that the Padres have the depth of premium young talent that the Angels would undoubtedly want if they actually did considering sending Ohtani elsewhere.

Frankie Montas and Luis Castillo have also been linked to the Padres in trade rumors, and as Rosenthal notes, it is noteworthy in itself that San Diego is looking at pitchers despite having plenty of rotation depth on paper. However, MacKenzie Gore was recently placed on the injured list, Sean Manaea has struggled as of late, and the Padres could be trying to land a pitcher controlled through at least 2023 considering that Manaea, Joe Musgrove, Mike Clevinger, and Nick Martinez could all potentially enter the free agent market this winter. Furthermore, someone like Blake Snell could be dealt to try and stay under the luxury tax threshold, as avoiding another tax payment is another consideration for Preller to manage as the deadline approaches.

Angels Not Planning To Move Ohtani

By TC Zencka | July 23, 2022 at 12:48pm CDT

Although teams are calling the Angels about the availability of two-way standout Shohei Ohtani, the Angels have no plans to move their international superstar, per Jon Morosi of the MLB Network (via Twitter).

The Angels are again mired in a disappointing season, one that has already resulted in the firing of manager Joe Maddon. At 39-54, the Halos are 15 games under .500 and more than 20 games behind the Astros for the division lead. They’re more than 10 games behind the last wild card spot. It certainly would seem like another lost season for Los Angeles.

But holding onto Ohtani is a reasonable position to take, even considering the current state of the club. Ohtani is an All-Star for the second consecutive season, and he’s again producing on both sides of the ball. At the plate, Ohtani is slashing .256/.347/.482 over 386 plate appearances. He also owns a 2.80 ERA/2.41 FIP across 93 1/3 innings. All together, Ohtani could very well be looking at another MVP season.

MLB Announces 2022 All-Star Starters

By Darragh McDonald | July 8, 2022 at 10:30pm CDT

Major League Baseball announced the starting lineups for the 2022 All-Star Game this evening. The starting lineups are determined by fan vote. This year’s All-Star Game will take place at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, July 19. The starting pitchers and reserves will be announced at a later date.

American League

Catcher: Alejandro Kirk, Blue Jays (1st selection)
First base: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays (2nd selection)
Second base: Jose Altuve, Astros (8th selection)
Third base: Rafael Devers, Red Sox (2nd selection)
Shortstop: Tim Anderson, White Sox (2nd selection)
Outfield: Aaron Judge, Yankees (4th selection)
Outfield: Mike Trout, Angels (10th selection)
Outfield: Giancarlo Stanton, Yankees (5th selection)
Designated hitter: Shohei Ohtani, Angels (2nd selection)

National League

Catcher: Willson Contreras, Cubs (3rd selection)
First base: Paul Goldschmidt, Cardinals (8th selection)
Second base: Jazz Chisholm Jr., Marlins (1st selection)
Third base: Manny Machado, Padres (6th selection)
Shortstop: Trea Turner, Dodgers (2nd selection)
Outfield: Ronald Acuna Jr., Braves (3rd selection)
Outfield: Mookie Betts, Dodgers (6th selection)
Outfield: Joc Pederson, Giants (2nd selection)
Designated hitter: Bryce Harper, Phillies (7th selection)

Latest On Angels’ Extension Talks With Ohtani

By Sean Bavazzano | June 15, 2022 at 7:31pm CDT

Back in January it was reported that the Angels and two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani had yet to engage in long-term extension talks. In his latest piece, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Angels had “informal discussions” with Ohtani’s representatives late in spring training that may hint at what the hybrid player’s next contract looks like. Specifically, Ohtani’s camp indicated that any contract would have to award the reigning MVP a record average salary, currently held by Max Scherzer with an annual $43.3MM salary courtesy of the Mets.

Rosenthal notes that the Angels were, at the time, reluctant to offer a market value deal of length to Ohtani at the presumed apex of his value. The team may very well be running out of time to lock up another superstar, but he remains under control another year via arbitration and was always unlikely to accept a discounted extension on the heels of an 8.1fWAR season. It can certainly be reasoned then that the franchise is looking for Ohtani to come down from his great 2021 heights to make the hit of his next contract slightly less monumental.

Through 61 games this season the 27-year-old is off his MVP-pace from the year prior, but it would be disingenuous to suggest he’s hampered his value much with 13 home runs and a solid .260/.336/.481 (133 OPS+) batting line. Even his rotation work remains decidedly above average, with strong peripherals and an elite strikeout rate of 31.7% suggesting his 3.64 ERA is unluckily high.

In this regard, the Angels find themselves with a catch-22 on their hands. The more Ohtani performs, as he continues to do, the greater the team’s chances of reaching the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade. As Ohtani’s two-way excellence continues, however, the team is faced with a greater price tag that they may be hesitant to pay given their already top-heavy payroll.

For context, any contract that buys out Ohtani’s first free agent year will begin in 2024 when the Angels will have nearly $92MM devoted to just three players: Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon, and Raisel Iglesias. When factoring in guaranteed salaries to both catcher Max Stassi and infielder David Fletcher that 2024 figure jumps to nearly $105MM, more than half of this year’s $190MM team payroll (per RosterResource). That leaves room for an eventual Ohtani contract, of course, though at a projected rate of $44MM+ it wouldn’t leave a ton of room to round out the rest of the roster.

Plenty of time remains until Ohtani secures an unfathomable payday, be it with the Halos or a competing club. Until then, the Angels and Ohtani have an unprecedented arbitration case to look forward to next offseason. And before that point, both parties will look to upend this season’ 29-34 record that can only serve to jeopardize a longer-term union between player and club.

AL West Notes: Ohtani, Angels, Syndergaard, Altuve, Carpenter, Story, Giles

By Mark Polishuk | May 1, 2022 at 9:34pm CDT

Reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani was removed from today’s game due to right groin tightness, as he suffered the injury while trying to beat out a double play during the seventh inning. Jack Mayfield pinch-hit for Ohtani in the ninth inning, when the DH spot was next up at the plate. Ohtani told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger and other reporters that it was something of a precautionary removal and that he intended to play tomorrow, though Angels manager Joe Maddon took a more wait-and-see approach.

Naturally, any injury to Ohtani impacts the Angels on two fronts, as he is also scheduled to start Wednesday’s game against the Red Sox. With Los Angeles optioning Jose Suarez to Triple-A today, it could provide an opportunity for Jaime Barria or Kenny Rosenberg to pick up a spot in the Halos’ six-man rotation.

The Angels at least know who will be starting Tuesday’s series opener, as Maddon said that Noah Syndergaard will take the ball. Syndergaard was scratched from a planned start last Friday due to illness, but it appears as though the right-hander is back in good health, and he tossed a bullpen session today with no issues.

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