Latest moves all but cement Angels not signing full-time outfielder this offseason

Since whiffing on Anthony Santander in free agency, the Angels have sat out while seemingly every viable outfielder has been signed in free agency. The Angels vowed to upgrade every facet of the roster, yet have not added a single full-time outfielder either as a starter or in a platoon role. Both Perry Minasian and national reporters said the Angels were going to try and enhance the roster, and Jeff Passan specifically reported that the corner outfield market was an area of interest for the Angels:

"This is the most confusing group considering that the list of teams that have inquired about corner outfielders includes nearly half the teams in baseball: the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Mets, Padres, Yankees, Braves, Phillies, Giants, Angels, Astros, Reds, Pirates and Royals."

Jeff Passan

With that in mind -- let's dive into the free agent outfielders, and review who they signed with and how much they signed for. For sanity's sake, let's exclude Juan Soto and Teoscar Hernández from the list. The Angels had 0 shot at signing either of those players. A guy like Joc Pederson will be excluded as well. We're focusing on full-time outfielders rather than DHs.

OK, so who has added an outfielder of the teams that Passan mentioned?

Dodgers --yes
Blue Jays --yes
Red Sox --no
Mets --yes
Padres --no
Yankees -- yes (Cody Bellinger trade)
Braves --yes
Phillies --yes
Giants --no
Angels --nope!
Astros --yes
Reds --yes
Pirates --yes
Royals --yes (Joey Wiemer trade)

So the Angels are grouped with the Red Sox, Padres, and Giants as three teams (all big market) who have not followed through on adding to their outfield in any way, shape, or form. The Padres actually lost a high-caliber outfielder in Jurickson Profar, have not replaced him yet, and their offseason is subsequently getting eviscerated. The Giants can sort of make an excuse? Zack Minasian at least signed Willy Adames and has a top prospect outfielder in Bryce Eldridge waiting in the wings. The Red Sox 100% can make the excuse that they have Roman Anthony, the best prospect in baseball who plays outfield. The Angels have no prospect waiting in the wings, plenty of money left to spend, and should be getting eviscerated like the Padres.

Still remaining: Jason Heyward, Mark Canha, Michael A. Taylor, Alex Verdugo, Travis Jankowski, Adam Duvall, David Peralta, Robbie Grossman.

Yikes.

Mark Canha would be a solid addition, he is an OBP machine and is a great veteran clubhouse presence. However, he played more first base last season than left field. Canha is not an everyday player in the field anymore, he needs to be filtered in at DH. Unless Taylor Ward plays more right field next season and Nolan Schanuel will be spelled more at first, the Angels' need for Canha is not that high. His market should be pretty strong now too (prediction: he goes back to the Giants).

The Angels have been tied to Verdugo in free agency, which is truly baffling and a complete nightmare scenario. Perry Minasian values a player's makeup over everything, and Verdugo's had issues in clubhouses in the past. It does not make sense that they inquired about him at all. Mickey Moniak is out of MiLB options so signing Verdugo would mean the end of the Moniak era in Anaheim (Jo Adell is too for what it's worth). Retaining Moniak is undoubtedly a better option than signing Verdugo. While Verdugo is marginally better, the clubhouse risk and regression in performance cannot be ignored. Moniak is younger, has more home runs the past two seasons, and a higher SLG, OPS, and OPS+.

The Angels' farm system is thin in general, but especially when it comes to their outfield group. The Angels have a solid 5-man outfield rotation now, but what happens when there's an injury? Mike Trout, Jo Adell, and Mickey Moniak are not the most durable players. Jorge Soler was added as a part-time outfielder, since he is a sieve on defense.

Where was the foresight here? They are banking heavily on Scott Kingery and Matthew Lugo as depth pieces. Kingery has not played in a major league game since 2022. Lugo has not played in the major leagues at all, and just recently became an outfielder. Niko Kavadas could filter into the outfield, he took reps during the Arizona Fall League! That is a disaster waiting to happen. This is not great.

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