Jayson Werth and Adrian Gonzalez Moves Should Effect The Angels

The business of Baseball free agency is often a reactionary  tale. One move triggers the next, a big free agent signing creates the foundation for the rest and so on and so on.

So with the Nationals breaking the bank for Jayson Werth and his beard and the Red Sox dealing to acquire Adrian Gonzalez  from Sand Diego. Where does that leave the Angels in the current Hot Stove  climate and their pursuit of Carl Crawford and Adrian Beltre? The Gonzalez trade  helps the Angels  immensely in  the pursuit of Beltre,  but the Werth signing makes Crawford becoming an Angel not only less likely but also less desirable.

Here’s why:

On the Beltre front the Angels are looking to now be the clear favorites. Not only does the Sox picking up Gonzalez and subsequently moving Kevin Youkilis to third base pretty much eliminate them from re-signing Beltre but the A’s also have dropped out of the running. So right now the Angels appear to be the “team to beat” for Beltre. Lets hope Reagins and crew strike swiftly now that the market has created an ideal scenario for them to nab Beltre. Third base is the biggest offensive weakness on this team.

The Carl Crawford picture is not nearly as pretty. The Nationals over paid for Jayson Werth. 7 years 126 million dollars!  This guarantees that in order to sign Crawford the Angels or other clubs that are interested will need to do the same to obtain the speedy outfielder. Crawford could be looking at something in the 8 -10 year 190 million dollar range. As much as I want Crawford to be an Angel he just isn’t worth that much. Only Arte Moreno  him self  knows if he is willing to shell out that kind of dough to a guy who will be 36 – 38  years old when that deal is up and still making around $20 million dollars a year.

The winter meetings get started today so its a big week for everyone associated with the Angels. However I’ll be shocked if this week has anything to do with the Angels signing Carl Crawford.