We’re now in the home stretch of the offseason. In only a few weeks pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, and we’re all quite excited to find out who’s in The Best Shape of His Life ™. The remaining free agent selection is a veritable who’s-who of scrapheap has-beens and injury-rebounding hopefuls looking for one more shot. Oh, and a couple interesting relievers.
In essence, we’ve reached the point where if you’ve got holes to plug, it’s time to pick the lesser of many evils or pony up and make a trade. What makes all of this fun is that every team has holes on its roster, even the seemingly godly Washington Nationals (now with more Max Scherzer!). What are the holes on each team, and how would they go about fixing them? And if you’re a team that’s still looking to sell, what part of your roster can you sell from? I’m glad you asked!
We’ve already covered the NL East, AL East, NL Central, AL Central and NL West. Today, we’ll cover the AL West in the final entry in the series.
Author’s note: this will be my final piece here at LWOS. I would like to thank LWOS for giving me an opportunity and place to launch my career. I’ve spent nearly a year here, and I’ve developed enormously as a writer. For all of this, I’ll forever be thankful. My writings will now be primarily found at SB Nation’s Beyond the Box Score, and my Twitter handle is available at the bottom of this page. Thank you to all my readers, editors, and fellow writers here at LWOS. I wish all of you the best of luck in all your endeavors.
Los Angeles Angels – Rolling the Dice on Starting Pitching
The injuries to Garrett Richards and Tyler Skaggs nearly hamstrung the Angels’ pitching efforts last year. Had it not been for the magical emergence of Matt Shoemaker and Mike Scioscia’s invention of Cory Rasmus-led “bullpen days,” things could have turned south very quickly. Instead, the Angels finished with the best record in baseball. That task is a lot easier when Mike Trout is on your team. The best player in the game had the worst year of his career, and was still the easy choice for Al MVP. Combine that with players like Kole Calhoun, Albert Pujols, Erick Aybar and Josh Hamilton, and the Angels have a solid core.
However, the Halos offense will almost certainly be worse this year. Howie Kendrick was dealt away in the Andrew Heaney trade, Pujols will be a year older, Hamilton is starting the year on the DL after going under the knife for shoulder surgery, and Chris Ianetta is a likely candidate to regress from his surprising 126 wRC+ season. Kendrick is currently slated to be replaced by Josh Rutledge, while a mixture of Matt Joyce, Grant Green and Colin Cowgill could fill Hamilton’s spot in the lineup. Even when Hamilton returns, it’s likely to be quite a while until his shoulder is operating at 100%.
If you want to really start getting worried about offensive output of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California of the USA of North America of planet Earth, let’s talk about Mike Trout again. Trout’s K% skyrocketed to 26.1% in 2014, while his walk rate fell to 11.8%. Pitchers found a way to make Trout chase, while at the same time Trout began to sell out for a bit more power. I covered the issue extensively here, for those of you who haven’t gotten their number-crunching fix for the day. It will be fascinating to see if Trout adjusts his approach at the plate in 2015, or if the issue persists.
So if run scoring will be a weaker factor this season, it falls to the rotation to pick up the slack. That’s another issue, however. The starting five at this point consists of Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson, Hector Santiago, Shoemaker, and Heaney. All five of those men are pretty big gambles. Wilson and Santiago were both pretty awful last year, for instance. Weaver hasn’t had big velocity in a while, and now relies on hitting spots and crafty pitch sequencing. Can he squeeze out another year of productivity? Is Matt Shoemaker really this good, or was it all pixie dust and luck? Is Andrew Heaney ready for the big time just yet? The Angels’ season will largely rest on their ability to gel out of the gate and hit the ground running in what figures to be a very tightly contested division.
Oakland Athletics – The Most Billy Beane Roster of All Time Might Just be Finished
We’ve all been surprised by what Billy Beane pulled this winter, which in itself isn’t all that surprising. Should we even be surprised in the first place? Probably not. The famously beguiling GM of the A’s blew up his roster and promptly rebuilt it with the same misfits and utilitymen we’ve come to love and expect to see wearing the green and gold, depleting and refilling the farm system in the process. Oh that crazy Billy!
Beane, who is secretly not Brad Pitt, was understandably frustrated after his win-now acquisitions of Jeff Samardzija, Jason Hammel and Jon Lester failed to overcome a slumping offense and the craziest game of the year. He began by signing longtime Royals mainstay Billy Butler to a three-year deal, which pointed towards an offseason spent building upon the pieces already in place. Naturally, Beane followed that up by trading MVP candidate Josh Donaldson, and the baseball world promptly soiled its collective pants. Samardzija was also shipped out the door to the White Sox, and Brandon Moss was dealt to Cleveland.
It’s important to view these deals in context. The offense as it stood at the end of 2014 was potent, but not without its weaknesses. It was also rather old, and had the A’s stood pat their contention window would have been poised to close within the next few years. The trades of Donaldson, Samardzija and Moss brought in young talent with tangible upside, and more years of team control. Brett Lawrie, for instance, is a textbook Beane addition. Lawrie has all the potential in the world, but has had trouble staying healthy. If he can put in a full season and make progress, he could be a legitimate presence in the lineup, and still has his best years ahead of him. Donaldson, on the other hand, is already 29, and will be hitting his decline years soon. Players such as Marcus Seimien, Chris Bassitt, Jesse Hahn, Kendall Graveman, Sean Nolin and Ike Davis are all young upside plays as well.
Trades for Ben Zobrist and Tyler Clippard, who are both impact players in the last years of their contracts, say that Beane still wants to contend. But in overhauling this roster, Billy Beane has pushed the closing of the contention window further down the road. Zobrist in particular is a huge get for the A’s, because he’s so freakishly good at baseball. Zobrist doesn’t knock the tar out of the ball anymore, but he’s still a pretty good hitter, and can play good defense pretty much anywhere on the field. The flexibility of Zobrist and Siemen gives Bob Melvin lots of moving parts to play with, and Butler’s presence finally puts an end to Oakland’s revolving door at DH. With pitchers Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin returning from Tommy John, this is a fun team that could make a run. Never count the A’s out. That’s precisely what Billy Beane wants you to do.
Seattle Mariners – Don’t Get Hurt
Dayan Vicideo is a defensively inept slugger who strikes out like it’s going out of style. In the past, this is the kind of player that Seattle GM Jack Zduriencik would have stumbled over himself to acquire. After all, at one point in time, this team was carrying Michael Morse, Justin Smoak, Jesus Montero, Raul Ibañez, Kelly Shoppach, Carlos Peguero, and Kendrys Morales. While Zduriencik did just sign Nelson Cruz, and Logan Morrison is returning to play first base, it’s important to note that those two fit their respective roles (DH and 1B, respectively) without there being a massive overflow like there has been in the past. Viciedo has been connected to the Mariners in trade rumors for nearly a year and a half now, and when Rick Hahn brought in Melky Cabrera to play left field for the White Sox, it was almost assumed that Zduriencik would put in a call for Viciedo. That call never came, which is a great sign for the philosophical future of this front office.
The players that M’s did acquire this winter (Cruz, Seth Smith, Justin Ruggiano, J.A. Happ) all fulfilled specific needs for the club. Cruz will act as the regular DH, Smith and Ruggiano project to be a useful platoon in right field, and Happ fills out the back of the rotation. While trading Michael Saunders for Happ was most likely a poor choice, the Mariners definitely needed some sort of depth for their starting corps. James Paxton and Taijuan Walker will need to step up in a big way for this club to contend. Paxton showed real promise last year, but Walker remains something of a question mark in terms of health and reliability. Even a serviceable season from the former top prospect will go a long way.
The main issue with Seattle, however, is a lack of depth. Injuries and ineffectiveness had their way with this club last year, and the fill-ins were not very appetizing. Yet players such as James Jones, Stefen Romero and Jesus Montero still look to be the ones who will be called upon to fill roster spots when injury trouble arises, and one has to hope Chris Taylor usurps Willie Bloomquist for the backup infielder’s job. Roenis Elias performed admirably when he was plucked from nowhere to step into the rotation, but can he repeat that level of production? Is Danny Hultzen finally ready to pitch in the majors if a second starter goes down? One would have to think that Seattle would be loath to let Erasmo Ramirez start every fifth day.
In short, if the injury bug shows up again, expect some in-season transactions. If it doesn’t, though, this looks like a very interesting team.
Houston Astros – I Hope You Like Strikeouts
The Astros offense lead the AL in strikeouts in 2014. For 2015, they’ve added Evan Gattis and Colby Rasmus to the lineup, and are looking for full seasons from George Springer and John Singleton. In addition, strikeout-happy outfield prospect Domingo Santana could figure into the picture at some point. For such a sabermetircally-inclined club (a whole division of the baseball ops department, “Ground Control,” is devoted to quantifying pretty much everything one could think of), it’s curious to see GM Jeff Lunhow invest in big-power-big-whiff players such as Gattis and Rasmus. While these players do come cheaper, the Astros aren’t exactly hurting for money, and Gattis was acquired in a trade that saw the departure of top pitching prospect Mark Foltynewicz.
What the Astros do have, besides the chance to pace the Major Leagues in K’s, is
1. Power in spades, and
2. Young, cost-controlled talent
Those two things are instrumental in building a club with long-term sustainability, and that’s exactly what Lunhow is trying to do. Their farm system is still brimming with talent, and in addition the Astros will be taking home the second and fifth overall picks in this year’s draft. With their coffers brimming from a brand-spankin’ new TV deal, the Astros have positioned themselves to start winning once again. Correa is nearly a lock to be a game-changing five-tool talent, so the Astros can truly achieve liftoff if this season goes well. For that to happen, though, they’ll need to cut down on the strikeouts.
Texas Rangers – A Fresh Coat of Paint
Sixty-four different players appeared in at least one game in a Texas Rangers uniform this past season. That’s just about two and a half 25-man rosters worth of players, for those of you keeping score at home. Marquee acquisitions Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo were ineffective and hurt, Elvis Andrus continued his downward trend, top prospect Jurickson Profar was injured the entire year, Alex Rios lost nearly all his power… there isn’t enough space at the end of this article to pinpoint everything that went wrong in Arlington. In short, the backups to the backups became the starters. When all was said and done the Rangers had lost 95 games and finished with the worst record in the American League.
Texas didn’t come into the season as a bad team. Anybody rolling out Choo, Fielder, Rios, Leonys Martin and Adrian Beltre, with Yu Darvish, Derek Holland and Martin Perez in the rotation has a fighting chance. Texas was simply wrecked by a perfect storm of regression and injury to every single player but Beltre. It’s for that reason that GM Jon Daniels has largely kept his team intact while adding some complimentary pieces. Trades for Yovani Gallardo and Ross Detwiler fill out the rotation while they wait for Perez and Matt Harrison to return from injury, and Kyle Blanks and Nate Schierholtz bring some respectable depth.
The AL West is a weird division this year, and all the Rangers have to do to make some noise may simply be to stay healthy. Anaheim and Oakland have both lost some talent, and though the Mariners and Astros have unquestionably gotten better, there’s definitely room for upward mobility. The Rangers need to capitalize if that’s the case. This could be one of the last years before the huge contracts that Choo and Fielder are tied to start to look very ugly. A run at one of the last remaining reliever, such as Francisco Rodriguez, could be another little push in the right direction.
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