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Astros rival's surprising offseason splurge has AL West teams scratching their heads
While it may seem as if the hot stove is barely simmering in Houston, things are boiling over (sort of) in Los Angeles. No, the Dodgers didn't sign Juan Soto (yet), but the Los Angeles Angels have been quite active during the early-going of the 2024-25 offseason.
Houston Astros fans can mock the Angels all they want, but let's not forget that while success on the field hasn't happened in Anaheim, the Halos do have deep pockets. It's easy to poke fun at a club that recently teamed up two of the best players in baseball without even a playoff appearance to show for it, but LA has been energetic thus far, and Arte Moreno has said that the Angels will raise their payroll in 2025.
LA Angels surprising offseason splurge has Astros, other AL West teams scratching their heads
While the Astros have been exchanging figures with third baseman Alex Bregman, the Angels have been signing free agents and making trades. Nothing earth-shattering, but LA is certainly taking advantage of a quiet market and is already outpacing their offseason from a year ago that saw them lose Shohei Ohtani to their intercity rival.
The Angels made the first splash of the offseason after trading Griffin Canning to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for slugger Jorge Soler. The former All-Star launched 21 homers last season, and while that's nowhere near the type of power fans have seen from Soler in the past, he did spend the first half of 2024 in San Francisco, which is not the most hitter-friendly ballpark. Over the last three seasons, Soler has a 113 OPS+, so this acquisition should not be quickly dismissed.
It’s mid-November, and the Angels have already added a middle-of-the-order bat (Jorge Soler), a backup infielder (Kevin Newman), a backup catcher (Travis d’Arnaud) and a back-end starter (Kyle Hendricks). (1/2)
— Alden González (@Alden_Gonzalez) November 14, 2024
The Angels also secured a backup catcher to play behind Logan O'Hoppe. Former Silver Slugger Award winner Travis d'Arnaud signed a two-year deal to join the Halos and will bring a veteran leadership behind the dish.
LA also made some small additions that could pay dividends next season. Angels' GM Perry Minasian signed shortstop Kevin Newman to backup Zach Neto, and also inked longtime Chicago Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks to a one-year deal.
So while it's mildly perplexing to see the Angels making moves, it's more than the Astros or any other AL West club has done during the offseason. While none of these moves make LA the favorite in the division, what if this is just a precursor of things to come? Then again, it's the Angels, so maybe they're just getting all their offseason moves out of the way early. Who knows what Moreno is going to do?
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