Now that LA Angels have missed out on Gerrit Cole, what is their next move.

The LA Angels made a trade early on Tuesday unloading 13 million dollars in salary by trading Zack Cozart to the San Francisco Giants as well as prospect Will Wilson.  This was in hopes of signing Gerrit Cole.

Now that Gerrit Cole is off the board signing with the Damn Yankees, the LA Angels and general manager Billy Eppler have to quickly regroup and go with what is now probably Plan C.  The hope was to sign either Gerrit Cole or Stephen Strasburg that would have given the Angels a proven ace to anchor/fortify the pitching staff that was brutally awful in 2019.  The Angels have already acquired Dylan Bundy in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles.  Bundy alone will not solve the Angels pitching woes. So what’s next?

The Angels will acquire/sign at least one if not two more pitchers. The best available now is Madison Bumgarner and Hyun-Jin Ryu with Dallas Keuchel being a step below, but still a decent option if paired with one of the first two pitchers. Moving Cozart has made many think the Angels are now all in on signing third baseman Anthony Rendon, with a fall back plan of Josh Donaldson.  Both would be a major upgrade from the 2019 season or the 2018, 2017, all the way back to Troy Glaus who left the team after the 2004 season. The Angels have not had a constant at third base for more than two to three seasons since Glaus patrolled the hot corner from 1999 to 2004.

Not that David Fletcher did a bad job the last 100 games of the 2019 season and he could do a great job in 2020 if the Angels do not sign a new third baseman.  Taylor Ward and Luis Rengifo are other options that the Angels could use along with Fletcher.   However getting rid of Cozart means that Fletcher could play third and Tommy La Stella could play second with Rengifo backing them up.

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Make no mistake about it the Angels first priority is getting pitching so you will definitely see that happen one way or another even if it is through a trade.  The Angels also will be looking to get an every day starting catcher again either through a trade or free agency.  So the next two days could get very exciting in San Diego for the Angels and their fans.  It is not going to be an off-season where the Angels will strike out.  They are committed to doing something to improve the team and making it a contender.

My prediction is by the end of the week the Angels will have at the very least a starting catcher and one to two more starting pitchers.

As for third base it is a 50-50 proposition I believe.  It would really boost their line-up to add either Anthony Rendon or Josh Donaldson or maybe a trade for Kris Bryant could also be in the works.  Just believe in the power of the rally monkey or the magic of Billy Eppler or something like that.  The Angels will be making some noise very soon.