LA Angels: 3 players who survived trade deadline but won’t be on 2022 roster

The LA Angels had a somewhat quiet trade deadline last week.

It’s understandable, as they can’t necessarily host a fire sale when they have Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani on their roster. They have the best duo in baseball, so starting over wouldn’t be a good idea.

They still could have sold a bit more, and didn’t. There are a few 2022 free agents that the Angels probably won’t be re-signing that they could have traded, and didn’t. I’m fairly sure that three of them in particular won’t be Angels next year.

No. 3 LA Angel who survived the trade deadline but won’t be on 2022 roster: Kurt Suzuki

LA Angels’ backup catcher Kurt Suzuki is washed. He’s having perhaps the worst year of his career up to this point, and is far inferior to Max Stassi.

Suzuki is hitting .207/.281/.293 compared to Stassi’s .307/.383/.536. Stassi has become one of the better catchers in the American League, and is really impressive when healthy.

He has 10 home runs in 52 games this season, and 25 RBI. Suzuki has three home runs and nine RBI in 49 games this year.

Suzuki typically catches Ohtani, but Stassi has also shown the ability to catch Ohtani just fine. Therefore, there’s not a ton of value that Suzuki provides to this team.

I guess it’s not terrible to have a 15-yr vet and former All-Star as a backup catcher, but not when he’s been as awful as he has been at the plate.