3 free agents not named Justin Verlander the Angels can sign from their division rivals

The Los Angeles Angels made a big move by signing Tyler Anderson away from their crosstown rivals to a pretty cheap three-year deal. Anderson gives them an arm to place at the top of their rotation behind Shohei Ohtani.

Now that they got a player from their crosstown rivals, what about the division? The Angels finished third in the AL West this past season with a 73-89 record. There are players they can target from within the division to maybe make the jump in what's become a very top-heavy AL West.

Justin Verlander is the obvious big name in this division to hit free agency, but he's an unrealistic target as of now. Here are three more realistic names the Angels can consider.

1) The Angels can sign Matt Moore away from the Texas Rangers

Matt Moore's career looked like it was finished. The southpaw was at one time one of the young stars in the game, seen as the future ace in the Rays rotation.

Since making his lone all-star appearance and finishing ninth in the AL Cy Young balloting in 2013, Moore has struggled to produce and has struggled to stay healthy.

He went to Japan for the 2020 season and was solid, earning another chance in the MLB for 2021 with the Phillies.

Moore was dreadful in Philadelphia, posting a 6.29 ERA. He signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in March of this year and found his way onto the big league club in mid-April. Once he got the call, he was dominant in his new role.

Moore was a starter for most of his career. He found a home in the back-end of the Rangers bullpen in 2022.

The southpaw went 5-2 with a 1.95 ERA in 63 appearances. As a starter in the past, he was able to go more than one inning at times, which makes him a valuable asset as well. He posted a 10.1 K/9 which was the highest of his career since his rookie year when he made just three appearances. He also allowed just three home runs in 74 innings of work (0.4 HR/9).

Moore's big flaw in his career is his lack of command at times, and it showed this season as well as he walked 4.6 batters per nine. While that's annoying, he didn't let the home run ball beat him, so the walks didn't come back to haunt him more often than not.

The Angels do have a left hander in their bullpen in Aaron Loup and have another southpaw who will probably be on the team in Jose Quijada. What I really like about Moore is he isn't just a lefty specialist. In fact, he was even better against righties than lefties in 2022.

Right handed hitters slashed .165/.282/.255 against him in 220 plate appearances. This means the Angels could put him in just about any situation and feel comfortable with him recording outs.

Will Moore be as good as he was in 2022? Probably not, but he'd most definitely be an upgrade over much of what the Angels have right now in their bullpen.

3) The Angels can sign Adam Frazier away from the Seattle Mariners

Adam Frazier has had an up-and-down last couple of years. He was an all-star in 2021 and saw pretty much everything go his way. He really struggled this past season in Seattle and had almost no luck.

The Angels led the league in strikeouts this past season and have been towards the top consistently for the last number of years. Adam Frazier is a guy who does not strike out.

Frazier struck out just 12.5% of the time in 2022 which was in the 95th percentile according to baseball savant. He was also in the 95th percentile in whiff rate.

Frazier is a guy who can play just about anywhere. In fact, he's logged at least one inning everywhere in his career except first base and catcher.

In 2021, Frazier hit .305 and was an all-star. A big reason for that was due to his insane .339 BAbip, 39 points above league average.

In 2022, Frazier hit .238 and had an 80 OPS+. A big reason for that was his awful batted-ball luck. He had a .268 BAbip which is 32 points below league average.

With a normal .300 BAbip, Frazier is probably like a .260-.270 hitter. The Angels can sign Frazier to be a utility man. He can play everywhere and is a really good defender (placed in the 90th percentile in OAA in 2022.)

He's an upgrade over the Matt Duffy's and Andrew Velazquez's of the world offensively and is a really good defender as well so the Angels don't lose anything there.

At the very least, Frazier won't strike out and won't lose the Angels games in the field. They need to upgrade their bench and this would be a good start.