Angels News: Halos Among Highest Graded Teams For Offseason Moves
The Los Angeles Angels have had a pretty good offseason, especially when you look at how little they spent. They added key additions across the board in Tyler Anderson, Gio Urshela, Hunter Renfroe, Carlos Estevez and Brandon Drury, and didn't even spent over $100 million to do it.
They didn't sign any big name players, and still have a hole in the starting rotation that could have been filled with RHP Michael Wacha, but overall, it was a pretty solid offseason — and the MLB experts took notice. ESPN's David Schoenfield released his offseason grades for every team, and has the Angels among the highest-graded teams:
"The Angels needed depth, so I like GM Perry Minasian’s moves," Schoenfield wrote. "The Angels had too many bad performers, which is how you can finish 73-89 with Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. Renfroe, Urshela and Drury, meanwhile, were worth 8.4 WAR. Anderson and Estevez combined for 5.4 WAR. The improved depth -- and a healthy Anthony Rendon should lift the Angels into the playoff race.
Grade: B+"
A grade of a B+ is very respectable, especially considering the Halos didn't make any major splashes — and Schoenfield isn't alone in that grade. Over at Bleacher Report, Zachary D. Rymer did a similar offseason grades article, and also had the Angels towards the top of his list.
"There should nonetheless be some hope in the air in Anaheim, and not just because Moreno is saying the right things about wanting to keep Shohei Ohtani in town beyond 2023. Albeit under the radar, the Angels made some good moves this winter.
"A rotation that was sneaky-excellent in the back half of 2022 now has Anderson, who pitched to a 2.57 ERA over 178.2 innings last year. Drury, Urshela and Renfroe are much-needed pieces of offensive depth, while Estévez has closer-caliber stuff.
Grade: B+"
A similar sentiment from Rymer. The Angels didn't go crazy big, but they raised the floor of the team, and did so at pretty impressive value.
All offseason I've called the signing of Anderson the steal of the offseason, and the value on the other deals wasn't bad, either. The only question is, did the Angels do enough to compete and win this season?
With Shohei Ohtani's impending free agency, it's now or never for the Angels to be successful. Hopefully for Angels fans, this was enough to get them back to the postseason for the first time since 2014.
