LA Angels ink underwhelming free agent infielder to cheap deal

Evan Desai

Oct 1, 2021; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Matt Duffy, LA Angels / Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

The LA Angels have signed infielder Matt Duffy to a one-year deal with the club.

OFFICIAL: The #Angels have agreed to terms on a one-year deal with INF Matt Duffy.

Welcome to the Halos, Matt! ? pic.twitter.com/PJ4s4IwdE1
— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) March 16, 2022

MLB Insider Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported that the deal was for $1.5 million.

Matt Duffy Angels deal is for $1.5M
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 17, 2022

That's about all Duffy was worth this offseason. Unfortunately, Duffy hasn't had the best career offensively. It's nice to have a utility guy that can play three positions (third base, second base, and shortstop), but he provides very little on offense. Duffy is a career .283/.341/.380 (.721 OPS) hitter with a 98 OPS+ and his season last year wasn't much better.

Matt Duffy has mostly been a third baseman in his career, but will likely be up the middle for the LA Angels.

Matt Duffy has played almost 400 more games at third base than any other position in his career, but the LA Angels will likely not play him there. They already have Anthony Rendon at the position. Joe Maddon recently spilled that he may have him play second and actually move David Fletcher to short.

Maddon said he could see Matt Duffy playing second base and David Fletcher moving to shortstop. But nothing has been decided just yet.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) March 17, 2022

Second base is Duffy's second-best position, and he recorded two defensive runs saved last year at second base. After all, it would not be in anyone's best interest to have Duffy at short at all, as he's recorded -4 defensive runs saved in his career at shortstop.

The Halos will go into the season with a middle infield of David Fletcher at whichever spot, and a platoon of Andrew Velazquez, Matt Duffy, and Tyler Wade at the other position as it stands right now. Fletcher's defense is great, so having him man either second base or shortstop isn't bad. There will certainly be a weakness at the other spot, however. It will be the only hole in the entire lineup.

Evan Desai

Evan Desai has covered MLB with FanSided for 3 years, first as a contributor for FanSided's New York sports publication--Empire Writes Back--and now as the expert at Halo Hangout, the Angels publication for the network. He also runs Reign Of Troy, the USC FanSided publication, and has covered college sports since 2019--most notably USC and UCLA for the Pac-12 Network, University of Arizona and Grand Canyon University for Arizona PBS, and Arizona State University for Sports Illustrated's ASU publication. He has also run the Clippers FanSided publication in the past, Clipperholics, and has made two stops at NBC Sports.