You The Are The Worse Coach I Ever Met’ Star Player Disparaging The Los Angeles Angels Head Coach Ron Washington….

The Los Angeles Angels had so much promise, but ultimately injuries kept them out of playoff contention and well below the .500 mark. That is a summation of each of Shohei Ohtani’s six seasons with the Angels. Last season the Angels finished at 73-89, the same record they held in 2022. While they were 23 games ahead of the A’s, the Halos still finished 15 back of the third-place Seattle Mariners. One of those totals will be going down in 2024.

Obviously, the big news surrounding this club was that they didn’t trade Ohtani at the deadline, instead choosing to bring in more talent via trade, sacrificing some of their farm system to do so. The thought process was that if they made the playoffs, they may have been able to keep Ohtani when he hit free agency this winter. As you’ve probably heard, they didn’t. Instead, he’ll be suiting up a little to the north with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Angels look to have a tough road ahead. They didn’t retool by trading one of the game’s best players when they had the chance. Now they’re left with two star players that haven’t been on the field very much in Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon, while attempting to cobble together a winning ballclub. At the very least GM Perry Minasian has been concentrating on improving the pitching staff since he arrived.

Let’s take a look at the moves that the Angels have made this winter, their outlook for 2024, and one player to keep an eye on for the upcoming season.

Losing Ohtani is a big hit, and led to one of the few off-seasons around baseball thus far that actually saw the team get worse from the WAR that the departing players put up last season to what the new players are expected to provide in ’24. Since Ohtani was a 6.6-win player, that difference in WAR ends up at -3.8 wins. That said, outside of Ohtani, the Los Angeles Angels are losing a number of players that were below replacement level last season, like Eduardo Escobar (-0.9), C.J. Cron (-0.5), Mike Moustakas (-0.4), and Trey Cabbage (-0.3).

Removing Ohtani from the situation actually gives the Angels a positive winter, but it’s irresponsible to just take away baseball’s unicorn and deem everything “fine.”

Two players that had good seasons for the Angels and are still on the market are Gio Urshela (0.4) and Randal Grichuk (0.6). The club appears to have replaced Grichuk with a combination of right-hander Jo Adell and switch-hitter Aaron Hicks. There also doesn’t appear to be an open spot in the lineup for Urshela with Rendon at third, Zach Neto at short, and Nolan Schanuel at first.

Speaking of first base, the Angels made a low-risk trade for former first rounder Evan White in a deal that sent David Fletcher and Max Stassi to Atlanta. White is owed $15 million over the next two years and has three team options baked into his contract. He hasn’t played in the big leagues since 2021, and when he’s been up his production hasn’t been great with a .165 career average. He has two option years remaining, but could be a player to keep an eye on.

The Angels’ two biggest additions in terms of projected value were Zach Plesac, who signed with the club in January, and Robert Stephenson, who signed a three-year, $33 million deal this winter. Plesac is projected as a depth option, while Stephenson could be the Angels setup man behind closer Carlos Estévez. In fact, five relievers that the Angels brought in–Adam Cimber, José Cisnero, Luis Garcia, and Matt Moore–in addition to Stephenson, are projected to be members of the bullpen.

Plesac is projected for 0.7 WAR, while Stephenson is projected for 0.9. The rest of that group is projected for -0.1 wins collectively with Moore standing out with 0.2. In short, the additions that the Angels have made this winter aren’t terribly inspiring.