Brandon Woodruff, 3 other recently non-tendered players the LA Angels should sign

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On Friday, November 16, teams had to decide whether they wanted to tender contracts to their players for the 2024 season. Players who were not tendered a contract for the 2024 season officially hit free agency and have the ability to sign with any of the 30 teams.

The Los Angeles Angels made the decision to non-tender Jose Marte, a reliever who simply hasn't shown enough in his MLB opportunities to earn the right to remain on the 40-man roster. There's a chance the Angels bring him back on a minor league deal, and there's also a chance they let him go.

The biggest non-tender around the league was Brandon Woodruff who is going to miss most, if not the entire 2024 season. Despite that, the Angels should sign him to a two-year deal to see if he can play a big role on the 2025 team. Woodruff isn't the only intriguing new free agent out there. These three recently non-tendered players would all find a role on this Angels team.

1) Penn Murfee

Penn Murfee has already had himself an eventful offseason. The Mariners put him on waivers where he was claimed by the New York Mets. Just two weeks later, the Braves claimed him off waivers from the Mets. As of Friday, Murfee was non-tendered by Atlanta and is a free agent. All of that in a three week stretch.

The reason Murfee has been bouncing around is quite clear. When healthy, he's been quite good. He had a 2.99 ERA in 64 appearances for the Mariners last season, and was even better with a 1.29 ERA in 16 appearances this season before an elbow injury ended his season prematurely. Not only did Murfee miss most of the 2023 season, he'll be out for most if not the entire 2024 season.

The Angels would not be signing him to help the team win now, but he can provide excellent bullpen depth for the 2025 season and beyond. He'd come with a ton of team control, and give the Angels a rare cheap arm they can actually rely on to get big outs.

2) Nick Senzel

There was a point in time where Nick Senzel was an exciting prospect. He was selected with the second overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft by the Reds, but never quite got going as a big leaguer in Cincinnati. He had just a .671 OPS and never appeared in more than 110 games in a season. Despite that, he can play a specific role for this Angels team.

While Senzel hasn't hit much at the major league level throughout his career, he has proven he can do one thing. Hit lefties. In his career, he has a very solid .794 OPS against southpaws. In 2023 he took that to a whole new level as that OPS sat at 1.008 in 126 plate appearances against lefties. Among hitters with at least 120 plate appearances against lefties, Senzel was tied for seventh in the majors with that OPS figure. He was tied with two players including Freddie Freeman.

With that in mind, there is one Angel in particular who really struggles against lefties in Mickey Moniak. Having Moniak play in right field against right-handed pitching with Senzel slotting in against lefties would be quite good for the Angels. It gives them the opportunity to trade Jo Adell while also upgrading Moniak's platoon partner.

Additionally, Senzel can provide depth all over the diamond. The Angels would prefer he doesn't have to move around much, but he's appeared at five different positions in his MLB career including all three outfield positions.

3) Trevor Gott

If this name sounds familiar to Angels fans, that's because it should be. Trevor Gott was once an Angel back in 2015 and really impressed in the 48 appearances he made with the team before being traded to the Nationals in the deal that brought back Yunel Escobar. The Angels got decent production out of Escobar, but it also would've been nice to have a solid controllable reliever in Gott.

The right-hander has pitched for five other teams since leaving the Angels and hasn't quite found the same success, but he's still been a decent middle reliever. This past season he split time with the Mariners and Mets and posted a 4.19 ERA in 64 appearances and 58 innings of work. While that ERA isn't anything to get too excited about, he did have a 3.20 FIP and a 3.40 xERA which suggests he got a bit unlucky.

Gott isn't a hard thrower, but he'd bring a new look to this Angels bullpen with his funky delivery. He'd also bring soft contact, as he ranked in the 92nd percentile in barrel rate according to baseball savant. Additionally, he held right-handed hitters to a .586 OPS. He might struggle against lefties, but when used properly he can be extremely effective.

The Angels need a lot of bullpen help. They could use another arm in the back end especially. While Gott isn't that in an ideal world, he can be more than fine in the middle innings and give Ron Washington a dependable arm to turn to.

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