3 not-so-obvious Angels free agent targets who should be near the top of their wish list

The Los Angeles Angels have a huge offseason ahead of them where a ton of questions will be answered. Will the Angels let go of any staff members, mainly Perry Minasian or Phil Nevin? What will Shohei Ohtani do? Will Mike Trout demand a trade? Will Arte Moreno commit to a rebuild?

There are many questions that need answering but it's safe to assume that the Angels likely won't be in on many of the top free agents outside of Ohtani this offseason. This means they'll need to find under-the-radar players available to help fill out what they hope to be a somewhat-competitive roster in 2024.

These three players are solid not-so-obvious free agent targets that the Angels should look to proiritize.

1) Jordan Montgomery is a not-so-obvious LA Angels free agent target

If there's one thing this Angels rotation lacks, it's consistency. One day you'll see Reid Detmers allow seven runs and only record seven outs against the Astros, and the following start you'll see Detmers nearly no-hit the Texas Rangers. The same issue can be found with a guy like Patrick Sandoval who one start looks like he's in complete command and the next looks like a guy who can't find the zone.

Jordan Montgomery is a pitcher who is built on consistency. He doesn't have the best stuff in the world and won't overpower anybody, but is a pitcher who often goes six or seven innings and keeps his team in the game.

This season alone, Montgomery has gone at least six innings in 17 of his 28 starts. He's allowed three runs or fewer in all but one of those 17 starts, meaning he has 16 quality starts under his belt. More than half of his outings have been considered quality. He's had a couple of clunkers this season as well, but Montgomery has gone at least five innings 24 times in 28 tries. That's quite good for 2023.

The southpaw has had a couple of rough starts in a row to raise his ERA to 3.62. Yes, raise it to 3.62. Other than Shohei Ohtani, the Angels' best mark from a starter who has been in the rotation consistently is 4.31 from Patrick Sandoval. Montgomery's highest ERA in a full season is 3.88 and that was in his rookie year. Quite the difference.

Much of the talk around pitchers surrounds guys like Aaron Nola, Marcus Stroman, Blake Snell, and Clayton Kershaw, but Montgomery is rock solid and would make this rotation look much better.

2) Sonny Gray is a not-so-obvious LA Angels free agent target

I'm not sure whether it's because of his age or the fact that he pitches for Minnesota, but it certainly feels like Sonny Gray doesn't get the recognition he deserves. He's less under-the-radar than Montgomery, but is pretty clearly one of the better pitchers in the AL right now and doesn't get that recognition.

This season for the Twins, the right-hander has a 2.98 ERA in 28 starts and 163 innings pitched. He ranks second to Gerrit Cole in ERA and is in the top-15 in both innings pitched and strikeouts.

Gray doesn't walk many (7.9% walk rate) and doesn't allow many home runs at all (1.1 HR%). In fact, he leads the league with 0.4 HR/9 thanks to the fact that he's allowed just seven long balls in 163 innings pitched. Some of that has to do with playing in an incredibly weak AL Central, but it's still quite impressive.

Again, Gray isn't the headline grabber because his stuff isn't quite as sharp as some of the other available aces out there and he is 33 years old, but he has familiarity in the AL West from his days in Oakland and he does have a 1.76 ERA in six appearances (five starts) at Angel Stadium. I think he'd be a very nice fit.