1 extension the Angels should make soon and 1 they should avoid

The Winter Meetings are here, and the Angels are spending the majority of their time and effort looking at players from other teams to bolster their own. However, there is still some business at home that could get accomplished.

The Angels gave many of their intriguing young players extended playing time last season, and several of them are worthy of raises. They still have some established players that are nearing free agency, but are maybe not worth another go-round.

An extension to make: José Soriano

There are some obvious names here: Zach Neto, Logan O'Hoppe, Ben Joyce, Nolan Schanuel. However, the most feasible extension candidate of this group is Soriano, as he has shown enough to warrant a pay raise but is not so established that he would hold out for a massive pay day -- like Neto presumably will. The 26-year-old Soriano led Angels' pitchers in fWAR in 2024, and his 3.79 xFIP in 2023 ranked second... to Shohei Ohtani.

The Angels just gave Yusei Kikuchi the largest contract they have given a pitcher since C.J. Wilson in 2011. The rotation after Kikuchi will undoubtedly feature two pitchers: Kyle Hendricks and Soriano. What the team does with Tyler Anderson and Reid Detmers remains to be seen, and it feels like Jack Kochanowicz will begin the season in AAA. They have other young pitchers like Chase Silseth and Sam Bachman, but they look destined for full-time bullpen roles sooner rather than later. Caden Dana and George Klassen are waiting in the wings, but obviously still need to establish themselves.

All that is meant to say that Soriano is being leaned on like a front-end starter, but is only due to make $800,000. He will be arbitration-eligible next season, but the Angels should highly consider foregoing arbitration to give him a financial bump. Soriano would receive several millions of dollars for 155 career innings, while the Angels could lock-down a theoretical front-line starter who could easily out-perform the value of his contract extension. The motivation is there for both sides.

It cannot be emphasized enough: José Soriano is an incredible talent. He throws, on average, 98mph, bowling ball sinkers. His 60.1% groundball rate was in the 97th percentile, and the Angels are bolstering their infield defense this offseason. His offspeed is tantalizing, although the value is not all the way there yet. He throws a splitter 93mph, and a curveball 86mph. Yes, he went down with arm fatigue in his first season as a full-time starter. Let's chock that up to growing pains, and trust the development process with Soriano.

An extension to avoid: Luis Rengifo

Rengifo is in line to make around $8,975,000 in his last year of arbitration -- he will be a free agent after the 2025 season. While Rengifo is effective when he is on the field, he only played 78 games last year and never more than 127 in a full season. There are more trustworthy players who are cheaper than him too. The Angels gave another utility man, Kevin Newman, $2.5 million and he just had a more valuable season than Rengifo. There are free agents every year in the range of Ha-Seong Kim, to Hye-seong Kim, to Josh Rojas, to Newman, who can contribute to contending teams. The immediate and long-term need for Rengifo is not there.

The issue with Rengifo is his availability and a guy named Christian Moore in the pipeline. Moore should supplant Rengifo on the depth chart, perhaps at some point next season. He will for sure take his spot by 2026 at the latest. When Rengifo hits free agency, they can easily slot Moore in as the full-time second baseman. So, the Angels have both internal and external options who can replace Rengifo if the Angels do decide to move on.

Now, if the Angels want to move on from Rengifo they will do so at the trade deadline. They need his skill-set this season to make the playoffs, so they will not trade him at the Winter Meetings. If the season goes south, hopefully Rengifo will boost his value to where it was last season before he went down with his wrist injury.