LA Angels rumors: Halos were reportedly in on rival All-Star infielder, missed once again

I admittedly did not see it coming, but the LA Angels were rumored to be in on Chris Taylor according to Jon Morosi of MLB Network.

The 2021 All-Star Dodger is a guy who can play many different positions for any team. He has plenty of experience playing all three outfield spots and has plenty of experience playing in both middle infield positions as well as third base. It's a big part of why his defense is so valuable.

He would have slotted in right at shortstop for us, as we have a need there. We did sign Andrew Velazquez and Tyler Wade this offseason, but Taylor is of course an upgrade over both of them. Unfortunately, however, Taylor was reportedly locked back up to the Dodgers.

Chris Taylor would've made the LA Angels crop of position players one of the best in MLB.

The LA Angels already have one of the best groups of position players in the American League when healthy. If they added Chris Taylor, they'd have one of the best in all of the game.

I'm not the biggest fan of Taylor's offense, but he's still a legit upgrade over what we have offensively and there aren't a ton of great offensive shortstops in the bigs these days.

He still scored 92 runs and 73 RBI last year, and I'll take that from my shortstop. He's had an OPS over .840 twice in the last five years, and neither were even his All-Star season. Five years ago was when he became a full-time player in this league, and he's had a 114 OPS+ since then.

He's never had an OPS+ as a full-time player under 107, and he's been at both 123 and 127 before. There's a reason the Dodgers wanted to keep him. The Halos had the money to get this done.

However, as we've seen many times this offseason, the Angels just haven't been able to close the door on a big-name talent they're looking into. They've whiffed on some elite starting pitching options this offseason, and pivoting to this shortstop upgrade didn't work out so well either.

Their payroll is just over $151 million right now, and they should certainly be able to drop $200 million on next year with how rich Arte Moreno is. If the Angels aren't going to spend on pitching, they at least better spend to improve elsewhere. Taylor would have been a nice addition, and the Angels will now need to find other ways to make shortstop/pitching upgrades once the lockout ends.