Why Trevor Story is a perfect fit for LA Angels

The LA Angels still haven't made it 100% clear that they're not going to go after a shortstop this offseason.

They have made moves to acquire players who can play short in Tyler Wade and Andrew Velazquez, but they haven't acquired a sure-fire, long-term answer for the position.

These things are expensive. They still need pitching, too, which complicates things. There is a very good shortstop available, however, who they could sign and still have some money leftover to spend on pitching.

Trevor Story is a perfect fit for the LA Angels.

If the LA Angels sign Trevor Story, they'd still have enough to try to continue upgrading the pitching staff. The Halos have spent just over $161 million on 2022 so far. Arte Moreno is worth $3.6 billion, and therefore absolutely has what it takes to get up to $200 million.

So, if the Angels spend big on a shortstop, they're not going to have any money left, correct?

Not exactly correct, actually. If they sign Carlos Correa, who has been shooting for a massive payday, then they probably won't. He's looking for such a giant number that he hasn't signed already despite many other superstar free agents already signing and a number of teams taking major interest in him.

Story, however, won't eat up too much of that remaining $39 million. If we sign Story, we'd still be able to bolster the bullpen. We could go ahead and re-sign Mike Mayers and Steve Cishek to go along with improving at shortstop.

Those two wouldn't cost much, so we'd still have the cash to go out and sign a Ryan Tepera, an Archie Bradley, or perhaps both. Besides, MLB Trade Rumors already predicted us to land Tepera and the prediction was only for $6 million of average annual value.

There are plenty of effective bullpen options we can even land for cheaper.

If we land Correa, this bullpen probably isn't getting much better than what it is right now. And it wouldn't be worth it. Check out this excerpt from one of my previous articles, and understand that the difference between Correa and Story's game isn't great enough to spend the extra money:

"Story is good on defense too, has the same amount of All-Star selections as Correa (would have more if there was a 2020 All-Star Game), has an OPS that's 26 points higher (.863), and averages seven more runs (101) and five more home runs (34) per 162 games than Correa. We can blame Coors Field, but can't we also blame Correa's next-level illegal sign-stealing?"

- Evan Desai, Halo Hangout Site Editor

Story is the guy we need to be going after. It would have great effects on the rest of our roster construction, and we need that.

We have more needs than just shortstop.