The Angels have found out that 2025 is not the year to need infield help via free agency. The team has needed to add a starting caliber infielder at either second or third base, depending on where you think the best place to play Luis Rengifo is.
Top-tier options like Alex Bregman seem far away from the Angels' budget and the middle tier wasn't that deep to begin with. Gleyber Torres was perhaps the best name and the Tigers giving him one-year $15 million deal was reasonable, yet the Angels never seemed interested despite their need.
That's left the Angels to pick through a variety of bargain bin options, but even that tier is starting to thin out. In the past few days, two of the best three remaining second basemen have found homes -- Ha-Seong Kim with the Rays and Jorge Polanco returned to the Mariners. That leaves the least inspiring of the group, Brendan Rodgers, as the last remaining option before digging into the remaining crop that is nearly unrosterable.
At this point, the Angels are looking at severely flawed options. They'll have to accept a player with all his warts and still hope that he can bring something of value to the team.
Paul DeJong isn't a good answer for the Angels, but he is the best remaining one
If the Angels are going to add a major league free agent to compete with minor league free agent signings, Tim Anderson and J.D. Davis, then Paul DeJong is the best option.
DeJong has a 30 homer season on his resume back in 2019 which was the apex of the juiced-ball era. Given that everyone put up power numbers well beyond their norms that year, it doesn't hold a ton of weight, but it would be wrong to dismiss DeJong as a power threat. Excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 season, DeJong has clobbered 19 or more homers in four out of his seven big-league seasons. Power is a true skill for DeJong, which makes him a better option than a player like Rodgers who is below-average at... everything. The Angels need power, and DeJong could provide his .190 ISO. However, the trade-off is that DeJong's power comes at a high price.
DeJong sells out for hard hits and it's reflected in his strikeout rates. For his career, his average K% is 27.5%. However, that number has climbed to 30+% over the last three years. Last year, his 32.4% strikeout rate was in bottom-third percentile of big league hitters. On top of that, he doesn't possess the requisite walk rate to be considered a three-true-outcomes guy. For his career, he's generated base on balls at a relatively acceptable 7.2%, however, last season's 4.8% was in the eighth percentile.
There is another upside to DeJong as well. For most of his career, he's been a shortstop and a decent one at that. He won't wow you with the glove, but he posted -1 outs above average at short last season and 9 outs above average at the position in 2023. With Zach Neto set to miss the beginning of the season, they could use some more optionality outside of Kevin Newman and an upgrade over Anderson or Scott Kingery. DeJong also has some limited experience at second base earlier in his career and logged 328.1 innings at the hot corner last season.
DeJong has a ton of flaws and brings some inconsistency with his recent track record. In 2022, he was a replacement level player posting exactly 0.0 fWAR to go along with a .157/.245/.286 53 wRC+ line. 2023 wasn't much better with a .207/.258/.355 65 wRC+ performance that was worth 0.5 fWAR.
However, 2024 was somewhat of a return to form with a .227/.276/.427 1.7 fWAR performance. If he can replicate last year's numbers he could be a worthwhile addition, especially considering he can competently fill in a shortstop.
His power and versatility along with his cheap price tag make him worth a flier, especially for a team desperate for infield help and completely devoid of other options.