Crawford Too Expensive? “No” says Reagins

Ever since the signing of Jayson Werth to the National for more money than 90% of the world will ever see in a lifetime, the focus has now turned over to Carl Crawford and Cliff Lee.

We all know, as we’ve heard ad naseum, that Crawford’s asking price has soared higher than gross national debt (or at least it feels that way), and now Angels fans have now all but given up on the hope of Crawford donning the halo uniform.

Don’t abandon ship just yet…

Even though Crawford’s asking price has gone upwards, Angels GM Tony Reagins has not given up hope of signing Crawford.

In this LA Times article on the possibility of the Angels officially courting Cliff Lee (a post you can read by CLICKING HERE ), Reagins was asked if the price for Crawford was out of the Angels price range.

“Asked if the price tag on Crawford or any other free agent had risen beyond the Angels’ comfort level, Reagins said, ‘No.’”

Now, we have to take into consideration that Reagins wouldn’t answer, “yes”, if he were still in the middle of trying to pursue Crawford. How would that look to you if you were an agent? I’m not sure that would spurn further conversation between Crawford and the Angels for his services in the Halos outfield.

If Reagins would be willing to spend over $20 million a year on a player for a position that isn’t exactly the wormhole of the organizations sub-par 80-82 record this past season, why wouldn’t Reagins be willing to spend $18-$20 million on a player that could significantly upgrade the team’s offense? I know there is a disparity between the talent of Lee and Crawford, but I am saying that you should believe that Reagins may be willing to increase the team’s spending for the right player.

The Angels need offense. As the article states, the team scored 883 runs in 2009 versus the 661 runs in 2010. With the return of Kendry Morales from injury (and assuming that his production will be near what it was in 2009), in conjunction with a projected RBI total of 75-100 RBI, the run total will be very close to the team’s run production from 2009.

Of course signing Adrian Beltre and Rafael Soriano may be better for the Angels than signing Crawford, but you can never doubt the effect that a player of Crawford’s stature can add to a ball club.