Way too early to tell if LA Angels’ interest in 2 major free agents will pay off

According to Jon Becker of Fangraphs, the LA Angels are ‘interested with unknown likelihood’ in two of the biggest free agents out there this offseason.

Those two guys are free agents that few Angels fans would object to having over here, in Max Scherzer and Raisel Iglesias. This isn’t the most surprising news, but it’s good to see the Angels still interested in re-signing one of our best players in Iglesias, and signing one of the very best starting pitchers in baseball.

We were interested in trading for Scherzer at the trade deadline, but didn’t get it done. It showed that we were serious about bringing in a soon-to-be free agent, though, which is good news. Doubling down on that, Mike Trout has been actively recruiting Scherzer for a while now.

The LA Angels need to sign Max Scherzer, and re-sign Raisel Iglesias.

The issue with signing Max Scherzer is money, but that’s not an issue for the LA Angels. Arte Moreno is worth $3.6 billion, and finally has that Albert Pujols contract off the books.

The Halos are currently just $7 million over league average payroll for 2022. They look good as far as the money situation goes, even with Trout and Anthony Rendon’s contracts being huge. Now it’s just a matter of how much money Moreno is willing to spend for this team.

Scherzer reportedly really likes Los Angeles, so the Angels are immediately a candidate. Of course, his current team is a Los Angeles franchise, but the Angels have the resources to outbid them. He’s pitched the best he ever has ever since being traded to the Dodgers, recording a 1.98 ERA, an 0.820 WHIP, and a 1.1 BB/9 rate.

He’s older, but he’s clearly not slowing down. The Angels need to go all out here.

They also do need to make sure Iglesias comes back. Recording 34 saves this season, Iglesias was one of the best closers in baseball. Wielding one of the best fastballs in the game, Iglesias struck out 13.2 batters per nine innings.

Posting a very impressive 0.929 WHIP and a 1.5 BB/9 rate, Iglesias is a sure thing.

We don’t know how likely it is to have these two back next year, but we at least know the Angels are taking them seriously.