Breaking down the LA Angels 40-man roster: Who should stay and who should go?

The LA Angels need to make some improvements to their roster before the start of the 2020 season in order to compete.  Other than Kole Calhoun who has a club option for 14 million dollars most of the rest of the roster is under contract for next season or the club has control of them as they haven’t reached free agency due to lack of service time.

With this being said, in addition to the LA Angels needing to add a few pieces to their roster during free agency, they also must decide which players are worth keeping from their current roster.

The way things work with players who have less than five years of service time is that the team can choose to offer a player a contract or not with a given dollar amount.  If the two sides agree to the financial compensation the player signs a one-year deal.  If the player does not agree and the player is eligible for arbitration there is a hearing set and an independent arbiter hears the case and decides what salary the player deserves based on his stats from that season as compared to salaries of other players  with comparable numbers.

Many times teams will negotiate themselves with the players and come to a compromise and make a deal rather than go through with the arbitration process as it usually seems to favor the players.  The list of Angel players in this boat is very long this off-season for players on the 40-man roster.  The include David Fletcher, Kevan Smith, Max Stassi, Luis Rengifo, Brian Goodwin, Noe Ramirez, Griffin Canning, Jose Suarez, Patrick Sandoval, Cam Bedrosian, Hansel Robles, Andrew Heaney, Felix Pena, Ty Buttrey, Jake Jewell, Keynan Middleton, Luis Garcia, Taylor Cole, Justin Bour, Luke Bard, Justin Anderson, Jaime Barria, Anthony Bemboom, Miguel Del Pozo, Nick Tropeano, Jose Rodriguez, Taylor Ward, Matt Thaiss, Jared Walsh, Tommy La Stella, Michael Hermosillo, Adalberto Mejia, Taylor Ward, and Shohei Ohtani.

It is within the players’ rights to decline a contract offer and become a free agent and the team may also do the same by not offering the player a contract thus making them a free agent. The only player the Angels could lose to free agency is Trevor Cahill, and Kole Calhoun if they decline his club option. However, the Angels will not choose to keep every player from that list above.  Let’s look and see who the Angels will keep.