Angels News: former starter signs with Detroit; Minasian adds 2 AGMs via title change

No reunion here, at least not for 2025. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reports that Alex Cobb is joining the Detroit Tigers on a one-year deal. Cobb appeared in three regular season games and two playoff games for the Guardians in 2024, after being dealt there by the San Francisco Giants. He will start fresh with the Guardians' division rival, and this time from Opening Day on. His first appearance last season was on August 9th.

The Angels traded for Cobb back in February 2021, sending Jahmai Jones to the Orioles in exchange for the starter. Cobb, who could surpass $100 million in career earnings with his new Tigers deal, fits the archetype of pitcher the Angels been gravitating towards in recent years.

The Angels recently signed Dakota Hudson to a minor league deal. Hudson, like Cobb, generates a large amount of ground balls via his sinker/curveball-dominant approach. Cobb's arsenal consists of a hard, depthy splitter, a gigantic, low-mid 90s sinker, and he will drop in a low-80s curveball. In theory, he is an older version of a José Soriano and Jack Kochanowicz-type pitcher.

An Angels reunion with Cobb in 2025 would have meant moving Tyler Anderson or Reid Detmers out of the rotation correspondingly. The Angels' starting rotation is currently under-the-microscope, as the baseball world is currently wrapped up in their Winter Meetings roster-building. Many are expecting another shake-up in the rotation, even after the additions of Yusei Kikuchi and Kyle Hendricks.

2 Angels' front office members are officially promoted

The two inner-circle front office members will remain in similar roles to the ones they already held. Prebynski is representing the Angels' Player Development department (particularly on the minor league side), and Haynes the Scouting department as Perry Minasian's new AGMs. The title-changes are simply making it official to the outside world that these two are in the deepest-sanctum of Minasian's braintrust. As the Angels' Director of Player Development, Prebynski was already "overseeing the farm system." As the Angels' Director of Player Procurement, Haynes was already working "primarily with the major league roster."

It was rumored that the front office could continue to grow, so it will be interesting to see if the Angels will fill Haynes and Prebynski's former roles. The Angels' minor league operations could use another analytically-inclined staffer in charge if Prebynski gets more involved on the major league ops side.

Haynes worked with Minasian while the two were in Toronto. Minasian is prioritizing coaching and front office staff continuity heading into 2025 in order to quell the constant job-turnover that has taken place under Arte Moreno's reign. He also loves working with, promoting, and reuniting with familiar faces from other places.

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