LA Angels: 3 free agent mistakes Perry Minasian cannot afford

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Oct 2, 2021; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado (28) fields a ground ball during the fifth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /

The LA Angels are about to embark on one of their most important offseasons in recent memory.

With an owner in Arte Moreno worth $3.6 billion, Angels General Manager Perry Minasian has quite a bit of money at his disposal.

Hopefully, he’ll be making a lot of moves to better this team in these next several months. That being said, he better make the right moves. Quality is so much more important than quantity when acquiring new players, and the Halos need to stay away from a few potential mistakes.

No. 3 free agent mistake Perry Minasian and the LA Angels cannot afford: Signing Nolan Arenado

Nolan Arenado is one of the best players in this great game, but the LA Angels can’t bother with him if he turns down his option.

Arenado made $35 million this past year, so if he turns down his option, he’s going to look for even more. The Angels are already paying their current third baseman in Anthony Rendon over $35 million next year ($36 million). Regardless of whether one believes Rendon has been worth the contract we gave him or not, we already made the commitment to him regardless.

We can’t spend this kind of money on two third basemen.

And there’s no shot Arenado’s price goes down after he smoked 34 homers, and drove in 105 RBI this year.

Oct 1, 2021; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) leaves the game with trainer Neil Rampe during the second inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 2 free agent mistake Perry Minasian and the LA Angels cannot afford: Signing Clayton Kershaw

Clayton Kershaw is a free agent this offseason, and the LA Angels need starting pitching badly. I wouldn’t bother with Kershaw if I were Perry Minasian, however.

There’s so much that’s unknown about his injury. We don’t really know what we’d be getting into if we went after him, and he’s not young at 33 years old.

He’s also coming off of the worst year of his career since his rookie season. It was still a solid year for Kershaw, as he recorded a 3.55 ERA, walked just 1.6 batters per nine innings, struck out 10.7 batters per nine innings, and posted a 1.019 WHIP.

That being said, free agency needs to be about momentum. Kershaw doesn’t have any of that right now.

There are so many better pitchers available this offseason. Some of them are older, yes. However, some of these older guys still have more going for them now.

There’s too much uncertainly with Kershaw right now to go out and spend big money on him.

Jun 23, 2021; San Diego, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer (27) looks on after giving up a home run to San Diego Padres catcher Victor Caratini (not pictured) during the seventh inning at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 1 free agent mistake Perry Minasian and the LA Angels cannot afford: Signing Trevor Bauer

Trevor Bauer is a great pitcher, but it looks like he’s a pretty bad human being. He’s currently being investigated for sexually assaulting someone multiple times. The LA Angels don’t need this problem on their hands.

How would the locker room react to signing Bauer? There’s no telling that they’d be okay with it.

It would also mean that Minasian and Moreno don’t take these types of offenses we’re seeing from Bauer seriously, which is not how it should be.

We already had to deal with Mickey Callaway’s sexual misconduct hurting the team, and it’s not worth it to now have Bauer on this team. He can’t be trusted.

Former Angels we should bring back. Next

If the investigation finds that Bauer 100% did not do these crimes, then we can talk. As of right now, the Angels need to let Bauer be someone else’s problem if he turns down his option.

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