LA Angels: Where to go now with Trevor Bauer reportedly out
The LA Angels once again entered an offseason with one major need, starting pitching.
But with most of the major free agents off the market, and the Angels now highly unlikely to sign Trevor Bauer, where do the LA Angels go from here?
With options limited and spring training less than three weeks away, there aren’t many routes available for general manager Perry Minasian to take if he wants to upgrade his starting rotation heading into 2021.
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LA Angels: Where to go with Trevor Bauer out of the mix?
The Angels have made one addition to their starting rotation, landing Jose Quintana on a one-year deal as the former Chicago Cub looks to rebound after tossing just 10 innings last season. It was a decent addition with the potential for some upside, but it isn’t enough.
The LA Angels are still without an ace to lead their staff and there’s only one (arguable) ace left on the market in Trevor Bauer. However, per a report earlier this week from Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times, finances are a major hurdle in signing Bauer with his record-high demands, along with a frayed relationship between Bauer and Angels pitching coach Mickey Calloway.
From Torres’ report:
The relationship between Bauer and Callaway is believed to be eroded beyond repair, according to a person with knowledge of Bauer’s current negotiations.
It seems safe to assume that this isn’t some weird strategy in an attempt to land Bauer, but rather an honest sign that despite the two parties being connected all offseason, the Angels will be forced to look elsewhere if they want to upgrade their starting rotation.
The next best pitcher on the market was former Yankee Masahiro Tanaka, but the seven-year MLB veteran recently elected to return to Japan.
So what’s left for the LA Angels? There are still three options available that could provide a much-needed boost to a rotation still in need of help.
LA Angels: Taijuan Walker finally healthy and a financial match
Taijuan Walker was finally healthy again in 2020, throwing 53 innings with the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays last season with a 2.70 ERA, a 1.16 WHIP and 50 strikeouts across 11 starts.
Walker wouldn’t slot in as the ace of the LA Angels rotation, but he is still just 28 years old and could be an option for a multi-year deal to keep him around for a few years with other young arms like Andrew Heaney, Dylan Bundy and Griffin Canning, who are all under 30 entering the 2021 season.
The Angels need more than just starting pitching to round out a potential World Series contending roster, but there’s very little wiggle room if they want to remain under the luxury tax threshold.
Taijuan Walker is projected to land a two-year deal at $16 million and if the Angels can bring him in on something close to this, it would keep their options open in adding more bullpen and outfield help while staying under the $210 million threshold.
Walker hasn’t pitched a full season since throwing 157 innings back in 2017, but he’s healthy now after seeing just 14 innings of work in 2018-19. The question is whether or not he can return to averaging nearly six innings per start again. If so, he would be a welcomed addition to the LA Angels roster and a major help to one of the league’s worst bullpens.
LA Angels need to get aggressive
If the LA Angels want to spend a bit more on the rotation (astronomical ask, I know), Jake Odorizzi is still available and has one of the highest upsides among the remaining options on the market.
Odorizzi logged just 13 innings last season, but he wasn’t sidelined by a shoulder or elbow injury. Odorizzi lost the majority of his 2020 season after taking a line drive off his chest, followed by blister issues. Injuries haven’t been an issue for him during his near-decade long tenure in the major leagues and aren’t a concern entering 2021.
Despite staying relatively healthy, Odorizzi has topped 170 innings just once. He won’t be an innings-eater type, but he is coming off an All-Star season as recently as 2019 while with the Minnesota Twins and you can expect him to be worth around 2.0 Wins Above Replacement across a full season.
He’s a very good option to put in the middle/back end of a starting rotation, which isn’t what the Angels need, but Odorizzi is one of the top available arms.
Teams looking to sign Odorizzi are certainly hoping he can return to his 2019 form where he struck out a career-high 27 percent of hitters and walked 8 percent, his lowest walk rate since 2016 with the Tampa Bay Rays.
With other needs on the roster and Odorizzi projected to land a deal in the range of three years and $40 million, he may be out of range for the LA Angels, but if he’s an option they want, the time to get aggressive is now or never.
LA Angels could wait until the trade deadline.
It wouldn’t be shocking to see the LA Angels stand pat with the rotation they have in place now, it’s what they have been inclined to do for many years now.
Perhaps, they take a flyer on a low-cost/high-risk option to pair with Shohei Ohtani as the team’s sixth starter this year. Chris Archer is still available and showed improvements over his final few starts with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but that was in 2019. He missed the 2020 season after undergoing surgery to relieve thoracic outlet syndrome.
Jake Arrieta and James Paxton are also options, but bring major risks as well.
Arrieta has significantly declined each year since winning Cy Young honors with the Chicago Cubs in 2015 and while Paxton is a high-strikeout pitcher when healthy, his health is a major concern right now and he’s coming off a disastrous season with the New York Yankees. Neither option will help the Angels in their pursuit of a World Series.
One option could be to just wait things out a bit. If this roster can keep the Angels in the thick of the AL West pennant chase leading up to the trade deadline, arms like German Marquez, Luis Castillo and Sonny Gray will likely be on the move after plenty of rumors this winter.
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While landing Trevor Bauer would have been a huge boost for the LA Angels, that ship seems to have sailed at this point. There are still different avenues the Angels can take to improve the rotation, but a lot will have to go right if the Halos want to make a serious run.