3 players LA Angels should've signed last offseason who are now in the World Series

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The 2023 season has wound up as just another year that Los Angeles Angels fans will watch the World Series and see a recognizable foe on their TV screens. This is another year where an AL West division rival will play for a chance to win the World Series. At least this time it's not the Houston Astros.

The Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks will meet in one of the more unlikely World Series matchups in recent memory. The Rangers and Diamondbacks both finished fourth in their respective divisions last season and failed to reach the 75-win mark. This season they completely flipped the script by making the postseason to begin with, let alone win the entire thing.

These two teams are in the World Series mainly because of the star power that was already in their organization, but players they signed in free agency that the Angels passed on helped them get there as well.

1) Nathan Eovaldi

The most obvious player the Angels passed up on is Nathan Eovaldi, a player they showed interest in but couldn't quite close the door for. Eovaldi wound up signing a deal with the Texas Rangers in large part because Texas is where he's from and still resided.

I personally had little issue with the Angels passing on Eovaldi. Yes, the team did need to add another starter, but Eovaldi signed a deal that was going to pay him $17 million annually for two years and had all kinds of trouble simply staying on the field. Considering the fact that he did miss almost two months due to injury I wasn't way off, but with how good he's been all year for Texas it's abundantly clear the Angels made a mistake watching him walk to their division rivals.

Eovaldi made 25 starts for the Rangers this season and posted a 3.63 ERA in 144 innings pitched. He was among the league leaders in ERA in the first half which helped him make the All-Star team, but he did struggle in September after returning from injury. Regardless, Texas probably doesn't make the playoffs without him and he's been worth every penny and then some in the postseason.

Eovaldi has made four starts this postseason, going at least six innings in all four. He has a 2.42 ERA in 26 innings pitched in those starts and has more importantly led Texas to wins in all four games. Eovaldi has a history of being absolute money in the postseason, and this season has been no different. The Angels saw major regression from their rotation this season. Signing Eovaldi would've helped with that at least a little bit.

2) Tommy Pham

As it turns out, the Arizona Diamondbacks were not the team to sign Tommy Pham. The New York Mets did, and they wound up trading him to Arizona at the trade deadline. The Pham signing worked out wonderfully for New York as they were able to flip him for an interesting prospect, and it's worked well for Arizona as well as he's hit in the middle of their order for much of the postseason and has come up big when needed.

This season he slashed .256/.328/.446 with 16 home runs and 68 RBI. He tacked on 27 doubles and 22 stolen bases in 25 tries. He began the season as a reserve for the Mets but forced his way into the lineup regularly thanks to a hot bat, and wound up being a big trade target for many teams at the deadline.

Pham's production dropped off a bit after Arizona got him, but he's had some big postseason moments. Pham had a four-hit game against the Dodgers in the NLDS helping Arizona win the opener of that series, and then he hit a solo shot in Game 6 of the NLCS to give Arizona an early lead. This was a crucial blow to quiet the loud Citizens Bank Park crowd in an eventual Diamondbacks win.

More importantly with Pham, he wasn't a player who crumbled with runners in scoring position. In fact, his .784 OPS with runners in scoring position was nine points higher than his regular season mark.

Had the Angels inked Pham to the one-year deal the Mets got him for instead of trading for Hunter Renfroe who wound up being a below-average hitter and abysmal with runners in scoring position, maybe the Angels would've been a bit better. Obviously hindsight is 20/20 and Pham wasn't nearly as exciting of an acquisition as Renfroe was entering the year, but it's interesting to look back and wonder.

3) Travis Jankowski

Travis Jankowski signed a minor league deal to join the Texas Rangers this past offseason. He won an Opening Day roster spot despite being on a minor league deal and wound up staying on the roster all year.

Jankowski played a key role for Texas this season especially early, as in the 107 games he appeared in he'd slash .263/.357/.332 with one home run and 30 RBI. He tacked on 19 stolen bases in 20 tries as well as 12 doubles.

If the Angels signed Jankowski, it wouldn't have been to start regularly. They could've easily signed him to the same minor league deal Texas did and given him the chance to win the team's fourth outfielder job instead of guaranteeing it to Brett Phillips who signed a MLB deal.

Phillips was a fine signing for the role he'd be asked to play for the team this season as he was rarely asked to hit, but it would've been nice to have someone who was at least capable to stand in the box and put up a good fight. He got on base at a very nice clip this season and despite his lack of power, still had an OPS+ of 90. Phillips had a 63 OPS+ when given the chance to hit.

Jankowski is a guy known for his speed and defense just like Phillips who can add a whole lot more offensively. The Angels could've gotten him on a cheaper deal and had him make the team instead of Phillips. Expecting Jankowski to be as good as he was probably isn't fair, but expecting him to be better than Brett Phillips certainly is.

The Phillips signing didn't make or break the Angels, but it certainly could've been improved upon.

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3 players the Angels should have signed last offseason who are now in the World Series

1) Nathan Eovaldi

2) Tommy Pham

3) Travis Jankowski

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