Reviewing the LA Angels non-tender candidates

The Los Angeles Angels have seven players who are eligible for arbitration after they avoided arbitration with Shohei Ohtani, signing him to a $30 million dollar deal for the 2023 campaign.

Among the arbitration-eligible players, there are four key names and other players who will be on the roster bubble if they're even tendered a contract.

The Angels will sign players like Patrick Sandoval, Jared Walsh, Taylor Ward, and Luis Rengifo for the 2023 season at least, but I'm not positive about the three others.

The Los Angeles Angels have three players who might not be tendered a contract for the 2023 season.

Sandoval, Walsh, Ward, and Rengifo are all entering their first years of arbitration. They are all projected to make between $2.4 and 2.9 million dollars according to mlbtraderumors.com. Those four players being tendered at least one-year contracts are obviously no-brainers.

In terms of the lesser-known candidates, those players are Griffin Canning, Jaime Barria, and Chad Wallach.

Canning I believe will get a contract for the 2023 campaign. He showed some promise as a back-end starter, posting a 101 ERA+ in 17 starts in the 2019 season. He then had a 114 ERA plus in 11 starts during the shortened 2020 season.

Canning did not appear in a game in the 2022 season due to injury. Injuries have been a very common theme for the former top prospect in the Angels system. I'd bring him back because he wouldn't make much above the minimum and would be good depth on the 40-man roster, but I wouldn't guarantee him a spot on the MLB roster.

Jamie Barria I also think will get a contract, but I don't know if I personally would give him one. The right-hander had a 2.61 ERA but a lot of that was due to remarkable batted-ball luck.

Opponents had a .230 BAbip against Barria (league average is .300), and he is due to regress in that area. He had a low 17.1% K-rate and just doesn't have great stuff. He had a 4.11 expected ERA which is a far cry from 2.61.

Barria has value as a multi-inning reliever and at a projected $1.2 million dollars it isn't a huge investment by any means, but I just am not a fan of Barria's profile.

The real non-tender candidate here is Chad Wallach who I do believe will not be tendered a contract for the 2023 season.

Wallach played in 12 games as an Angel this season and slashed .143/.231/.257 with one home run and four RBI.

Wallach has been a backup catcher or third stringer pretty much his entire career and just isn't worth keeping. The Angels have catchers already at the MLB level in Logan O'Hoppe, Matt Thaiss, and Max Stassi who I'd rank above Wallach.

Out of the seven arbitration-eligible players there are four sure things (Sandoval, Walsh, Ward, Rengifo), two that I expect to get a contract (Canning, Barria), and one that I do not (Wallach).