Where will Angels fan favorite Kole Calhoun land for the 2020 season

I know this site is about the Angels and what is happening with them, but one of the biggest fan favorites Kole Calhoun is now testing the waters of free agency and is attracting interest.

With this being said the Angels did not want to touch Kole Calhoun’s one-year club option for $14 million dollars. Calhoun has been a solid right fielder, but not $14 million dollars solid. So the Angels made the smart move and bought out Calhoun’s last year for $1 million dollars. I am sad to see a classy, hard-nosed guy like Calhoun playing in another uniform, but i understand why it was necessary.

The move gave the Angels some payroll flexibility they needed to pursue free agents and it also paves the way for top-prospect Jo Adell to make his way to the majors some time this season. So the question is now, where will Kole Calhoun land in this crazy free agent feeding frenzy.

The right field market is very thin in free agency with only Nicholas Castellanos having a higher WAR than Calhoun according to the MLB.com free agent tracker. Other options at right field include former Angel Cameron Maybin and Yasiel Puig.

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Calhoun’s greatest attribute is his glove and left arm. Calhoun won a Gold Glove in 2015 and has been a finalist two other seasons and his arm has been a major deterrent for base runners thinking about taking that extra base.

Offensively Calhoun definitely has some pop in his bat putting up a career-high 33 home runs this season. His 74 RBIs were his second highest total in his career and he also scored a career-high 92 runs this season. The negative was his 162 strikeouts, which was the second-most in his career. Calhoun is also 32 years old which will make any team leery of giving Calhoun a long-term deal.

The question then becomes where will Kole Calhoun land? According to MLBtraderumors.com https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/12/kole-calhoun-market-taking-shape.html,

Kole Calhoun has interest from four teams the Miami Marlins, Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers and also the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds and Brewers are playoff contenders which could be very attractive to Calhoun since he has only experienced the post-season once (2014) and it was over with quickly.

The Reds have a young superstar who burst on the scene in 2019 in Aristides Aquino so this may not be a good fit for Calhoun if he wants to play every day. The Miami Marlins is another option for Calhoun The Marlins have rookie Harold Ramirez who had a solid 2019 season once he was called up from the minors, so Calhoun might face a platoon role here as well like he would probably do for the Reds.

The Milwaukee Brewers would be an interesting fit for Calhoun as he would give them some veteran leadership, but he would have to move positions as there is no way Calhoun would get much playing time with Christian Yelich in right field. The Brew Crew also re-signed Avasail Garcia this winter to man left field so this again would probably be a reserve role for Calhoun.

Finally the Toronto Blue Jays are interested in Calhoun as well. The Blue Jays already have a Calhoun-like player in right field in Randall Grichuk (former Angel prospect). Grichuk had 32 HRs and 80 RBIs while batting .232 which was Calhoun’s batting average in 2019 as well. The good thing about the Blue Jays is that they could fiancé Calhoun DH which would be good.

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If I was a betting man I would bet Calhoun winds up either in Miami playing for the Marlins, or North of the Border playing for the Blue Jays. We will see how it pans out. Wherever Calhoun ends up we at Halo Hangout wish him all the best in the future. You will always be one of our favorite Angels.

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