Buyer Beware: LA Angels Should Avoid These 5 Free Agents

While Black Friday weekend often brings great deals, it’s important to remain cautious of what you’re buying, and the LA Angels need to do the same thing in free agency and avoid these five free agents.

As we all know, last offseason was one of epic failure for the LA Angels. While this offseason already seems more promising, there are still a number of higher profile free agents who the Angels would be better off avoiding. We already touched on three value deals the Angels should make, so let’s take a look at five players who might be good (or even great), but have factors that make them an iffy addition going into 2020.

Will Harris, RP

This one is pretty simple. Harris has been a very good reliever for the Houston Astros and it’d feel great to poach him away. However, his price tag is going to be lofty as he’s arguably the best reliever on the market now. He’s also 35-years old and while that doesn’t matter as much for reliever, it’s worth mentioning when he’ll likely be in the eight-figure salary range.

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Anthony Rendon, 3B

It would be really, really, really amazing to be able to slot Anthony Rendon in front of Mike Trout at the top of the Angels lineup everyday. However, his $200 million (or higher) price tag will be much better spent on starting pitching. It really boils down to, would you rather sign Rendon or a Gerrit Cole/Stephen Strasburg? I think every Halo fan would agree one of the aces is a better fit in Anaheim.

Zack Wheeler, SP

For Zack Wheeler, he’s been a pretty good pitcher his entire career. However, the idea of him making the same kind of money as the second tier of starters (Hyun-Jin Ryu, Madison Bumgarner), seems wild. I’d much rather have either of those two starters for 2-4 years than Wheeler. There’s also Julio Teheran, who has been arguably as good as Wheeler and would cost significantly less.

Mike Moustakas, IF

The past two offseasons, there have been reports that Mike Moustakas wanted to play for the Angels. However, there really isn’t a need for him given the Angels surplus of infield talent. Unless he takes an extremely team-friendly deal, the Angels are much better off without paying Moustakas and trusting the combination of Tommy La Stella, David Fletcher, and Luis Rengifo.

Wade Miley, SP

While Miley had respectable numbers in Houston last season, I’d recommend the Angels stay clear of signing the 33-year old. Even though he won’t sign any deal that would kill a deal, he reminds me too much of the Trevor Cahill/Matt Harvey type of signings the team made last year. He fell off of a cliff in the final months of the season, and was disastrous in his lone postseason appearance as well.