Angels hold top spot on a rankings no team wants any part of

The MLB offseason has been moving at a snail's pace as we are in mid-January and there are still some great players available to sign. With that in mind, a list like the one Zachary Rymer put together for Bleacher Report can always change, but for now, the Los Angeles Angels hold the top spot for something no team wants any part of. They are, according to Rymer, the team that has improved the least this offseason.

For now, there is absolutely no arguing with Rymer. The Angels lost the best player on the planet, Shohei Ohtani, and have done virtually nothing the rest of the way. Yes, there's time for them to make impactful moves, but the longer they sit on their hands the less likely it is that big moves will actually be made.

LA Angels hold top spot on rankings no team wants any part of

Most times teams that win just 73 games have lots of room to improve. If they're aggressive in the offseason in attempts to upgrade the roster, they'll likely improve dramatically. They at the very least won't have much talent to lose. The Angels are a special circumstance in which they had the best talent to lose and have done nothing.

The Angels signed three relievers to cheap one-year deals and Zach Plesac to another cheap one-year deal. There are some minor league deals sprinkled in there, but that's about it. The Ron Washington hire was good, but the player moves have been non-existent.

"With Ohtani out of the picture, 19 percent of the home runs the Angels hit last year are suddenly missing. So, too, is about 12 percent of their pitching staff's strikeouts. It would be hard enough for a 100-win team to sustain those losses, much less an 89-loss team.

Yet even with the Angels shrinking into a corncob in front of everyone's eyes, not rebuilding remains the plan. And the capacity for one or more major splashes is there, as there's a whopping $61 million gap between what they spent in 2023 and project to spend in 2024.

At least until splashes materialize, though, the burden of making sure the Angels make any noise mostly falls on Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon. If further injuries find them this season, things could get really bad in Anaheim."

Zachary Rymer - Bleacher Report

Rymer sums up pretty well just how big Ohtani's impact was this past season, and that the Angels have done virtually nothing despite boatloads of money to spend. There's time, but things look bleak.

The Angels could be better than the 73-win team they were if they have injury luck, but relying on a pair of their best players who have missed substantial time in each of the last three seasons in Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon feels foolish before they can prove that they'll stay healthy. Even if they do win a couple of extra games the ceiling is nowhere near as high without Ohtani.

The Angels being ahead of a team like the Padres who chose to slash an absurd amount of their payroll by trading Juan Soto is just downright embarrassing. It's time for them to get going on improving the ball club or they should strongly consider entering a rebuild of some sort.