Among AL West GMs, Houston Astros Jeff Luhnow rules

Billy Eppler, Los Angeles Angels

The pre-2018 signing of Japanese free agent Shohei Ohtani made Eppler a bit of a celebrity in the general manager community, but his performance hasn’t yet justified that celebrity.

Through his first four seasons running the Angels’ front office, he has produced negative impact three times, including this year. Easily his most important action was the long-term extension he gave Mike Trout, effectively making him an Angel for life, albeit at a cost of $35 million per year. It’s almost certainly money well spent.

Aside from that, it’s hard to know what to give Eppler credit for. He acquired 13 major league players in deals with other teams, the net impact of those 13 being -3.5 games. Setting Trout aside, he signed or re-signed a dozen players on the open market, and they cost the Angels another 5.8 games.

In his four seasons, Eppler’s farm system hasn’t produced a contributor of note yet. That includes the 10 players who came up this season for a cumulative value of -0.9 games.  The total first-year contribution of farm system products under Eppler is -1.0 games. That’s not unusual, but the -2.6 WAA those same players have generated in subsequent seasons is unusual…and harmful.

Short-term acquisitions: -3.5

Short-term trade losses: -0.6

Short-term free agent signings: +0.5

Short-term free agent losses: +0.2

Short-term rookie production: -0.9

Short-term total: -4.3