Angels emerge as surprise frontrunner in top free agent slugger's sweepstakes

The Angels are getting linked to seemingly every free agent these days, including the biggest free agent slugger left on the board. The Angels are reportedly neck-and-neck with the Blue Jays as the favorites to land Anthony Santander, who has amassed 105 home runs the past three seasons while with the Orioles.

According to the Detroit Free Press' Evan Petzold: "the Tigers have interest in right fielder Anthony Santander, but the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels are the frontrunners for his services." FanSided's Robert Murray confirmed that the Angels have interest in Santander, but did not reiterate that they were favorites as Petzold did. The Angels are confirmed to be interested in adding Santander as a free agent.

ESPN's Jeff Passan described Santander in a lot of ways, but most notably as: "a welcome clubhouse presence." He sounds like an Angels player already! Perry Minasian views a player's makeup as the single most important quality when he evaluates talent, so an insider like Passan vouching for Santander's character like that means a whole lot.

Both Passan and Kiley McDaniel agreed that Santander will get less than $100 million on the open market. McDaniel absolutely nailed Teoscar Hernández's contract projection, said Santander and Hernández will get incredibly similar deals, and forecasted Santander's next deal to be in the range of 3 years, $69 million ($23M AAV). A sub-$100 million deal for a player of his caliber would be a massive bargain for a team like the Angels that loves its bargain shopping. However, out-bidding a team like the Blue Jays seems incredibly implausible. One of these franchises were legitimate suitors for Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, and Corbin Burnes, and the other is owned by Arte Moreno.

The fit makes perfect sense. Santander ranked 35th overall in offensive fWAR last season, which was one of the best marks amongst outfielders. His offensive fWAR was the 6th best mark amongst switch hitters. His 44 home runs were third most in MLB in '24, his 102 RBIs 14th, his 91 runs scored 21st, his .271 ISO 8th. He's played at least 152 games in each of the last three seasons. He has some experience playing first base and, given the redundancy of the Angels potentially rostering both Santander and Jorge Soler, any positional versatility Santander provides will need to get exercised. The Angels desperately need more power hitting/SLG, especially from a switch-hitter like Santander, and his .506 SLG easily would have led the team last season (outside of Trout in his 29 games played).

Before you pooh-pooh a Santander signing, consider this lineup against right-handed pitchers when Zach Neto recovers fully from his shoulder surgery:

1. Soler—DH
2. Trout—8
3. Neto—6
4. Santander—9
5. Ward—7
6. Schanuel—3
7. O'Hoppe—2
8. Newman—4
9. Rengifo—5

The push backs on going all-in for the new Tony Two Bags: his attached qualifying offer, the low OBP, the poor defense, poor athleticism, and aspects of his approach. The Angels are saying they are going all-in on 2025, so if they believe in their team's chances then they should have no issue signing a player of Santander's caliber despite the qualifying offer. Whether losing a 2nd rounder and international pool money is the right move for the organization or not is a separate discussion, but they should put their money where their mouth is if they are truly looking to break the playoff drought Royals-style. Santander's OBP is tough, but the Angels might view his gigantic SLG as out-weighing that issue. He does draw walks at a solid clip, despite the low OBP.

The defense, athleticism, and baserunning are bad, no doubt. However, that is all factored into the contract being below $100 million. You're not breaking the bank for this guy, and he (in theory) adds more with his strengths than he subtracts with his weaknesses. Lastly, Santander does chase outside the zone a lot, but he does not whiff much. Again, you take the good with the bad with a slugger of his caliber.

The lineup could become infinitely more formidable if you insert Tony into it. The pros certainly outweigh the cons. The time for being risk-averse is over. If the report is to be believed, and the Angels are front-runners for Santander, not landing him would be devastating. He would make much less money than a Pete Alonso, and was far better last season. He's a perfect fit in Anaheim.

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