LA Angels face strange roadblock with surprise coaching candidate

The LA Angels haven't finished finalizing their 2022 coaching staff, and one of the reasons is about as unlucky as it gets.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic has reported that the Angels are in on hiring former Halo Adam Eaton as a coach, and potentially our first base coach. Eaton really struggled in his 25 game tenure for the Angels this season, but Joe Maddon likes him. Due to the talks between the two sides, it of course looks like Eaton is at least thinking about retiring.

The issue with hiring Eaton, as Rosenthal pointed out in this article, is that Eaton is part of the players' union, and the players' union is of course locked out right now. Despite the Angels talking to Eaton about coaching prior to December 1st, sources have told Rosenthal that the Halos cannot sign him as a coach during the stoppage.

Here's how Rosenthal summarized why this has come to be:

The league placed Eaton on a list of free agents covered by the lockout even though he was released before the end of his major-league contract. The union does not necessarily agree that Eaton should be covered, or that a locked-out player should be prevented from discussing employment as a coach. But the league regards Eaton as covered because he became a free agent under the since-expired collective-bargaining agreement.

The LA Angels are being screwed over by MLB once again.

Remember when the LA Angels, or any other team wasn't allowed to sign Justin Verlander during the lockout, but then the Astros were magically granted permission to sign him?

Well, now the Angels aren't even allowed to sign a COACH during the lockout because he was a "free agent covered by the lockout," despite him being released by the team long before his contract was up and long before the season ended. Besides, how can this even be a problem when the Halos aren't even signing him to play? They're looking to bring him in as a coach.

Rob Manfred has been very frustrating to deal with during this lockout process, and the lockout has been affecting our team more than anyone.