Angels are having a Quiet Winter and a Wishful Offseason

The 2025 winter meetings have come to a close, and for the Angels, they passed by pretty quietly. That’s not unusual; in recent years the Angels main offseason moves have tended to happen either before (Jorge Soler, Yusei Kikuchi and Kyle Hendricks in 2024) or after (Kenley Jansen in February 2025) the official get-together.

Even the few happenings which did involve the Angels were low-key, and predictable. They will officially pick 12th in the 2026 draft, and they both took and lost nobody in the Major League Rule 5 Draft, (although they parted ways with 4 pitchers in the minor league portion, adding only Eybersson Polanco from the Red Sox). They did notably finalise the coaching staff, adding Darryl Scott from the Rockies as assistant pitching coach, and bringing Dom Chiti and Derek Florco up from their own minor league system as bullpen coach and third hitting coach respectively. It rounds out a group that feels like a solid mix of new faces and experience to support and complement new manager Kurt Suzuki.

Suzuki will have one new player to think about, after the Angels traded their No. 25 prospect Isaiah Jackson to Boston for Vaughan Grissom. That move was perfectly in line with everything the Angels have done thus far; adding a young, controllable player with considerable upside, but who is coming off a couple of underwhelming seasons. Unlike Grayson Rodriguez and Alek Manoah, it’s not a bounce-back from surgery that they’ll be hoping for from Grissom, but rather that he can rediscover the potential that once made him a top 100 MLB prospect.

On the positive side of things, Perry Minasian says the team is still focused on adding pieces, primarily a starting pitcher, second or third baseman, and centre fielder. Neither Manoah or Grissom appear to be guaranteed starters, which is a relief for fans still recovering from the days of seeing the likes of Jose Suarez or Kevin Newman break spring camp with the team for no other reason than lack of better options. Realistically, none of the biggest moves to date have affected the Angels market much. Cedric Mullins signing with Tampa Bay whittles down one centre field option that made sense, and those hoping for a reunion with Rasiel Iglesias saw him return to the Braves instead, but it seems extremely unlikely that Dylan Cease, Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso or Edwin Diaz were even being discussed in Anaheim.

Mentioning Diaz brings up one area of increasing concern; who will be closing games for the Angels in 2026? Many have assumed that Kenley Jansen will be back, but not only has there been a robust market for closers, with Diaz, Iglesias, Devin Williams, Ryan Helsley, Emilio Pagan and Kyle Finnegan already off the board, but Minasian has suggested that the team may have enough faith in Robert Stephenson and Ben Joyce to be willing to pass on adding another arm. Given their injury histories, that’s a huge gamble, and adds to the already ridiculous expectations that new pitching coach Mike Maddux can work miracles with recently banged-up hurlers.  

As always, money is key. The rumoured re-working of Anthony Rendon’s final contract year is still very much up in the air, and unless he officially retires, it won’t make much impact from a CBT standpoint anyway, but the team did save money by trading Taylor Ward.

"Minasian said he plans to reinvest the $13-14 million he saved by making the trade to help the team in other areas. "

Rhett Bollinger, MLB.com

But what will that actually buy? It could be enough for another year of Jansen, if he’s even open to a one-year deal, or it could just be spread over more young players hoping for a return to form.

The Angels have been linked to several free agents who remain on the market and fit their needs, including (with varying degrees of believability) Cody Bellinger, Zac Gallen and Eugenio Suarez. There’s also plenty of possibility for trades, although what the Angels might have to give up will certainly give pause for thought.

There are just so many “ifs” so far. If Rodriguez, Manoah, Stephenson and Joyce are all back to 100%, then the pitching staff looks better than it has in years. If Grissom embraces a change of scenery, Christian Moore successfully moves to third base and Kyren Paris locks in the swing he had early in 2025, then the infield might not need much tweaking, and the list of Ifs in the outfield covers everything from Mike Trout’s legs to Bryce Teodosio’s bat. While it's encouraging to see that the offseason moves thus far appear to have been made with one eye on a future beyond 2026, the Angels fingers are firmly crossed while they’re making them.