Sam Blum of The Athletic joins Eno and DVR to discuss all things Angels, including the impact of manager Ron Washington during a challenging year, the overall direction of the club with Arte Moreno's decision to continue forward as owner, and the future of Mike Trout.
Rundown
0:43 The Impact of Ron Washington on the 2024 Angels
7:23 Missed Opportunities to Add Depth
11:52 Should the Angels Have Perry Minasian Lead the Rebuild?
17:00 Fast Promotions for Zach Neto & Nolan Schanuel
21:00 Angels Prospects Nearing an Opportunity
26:11 Arte Moreno's Decision to Take the Team Off the Market
31:09 Mike Trout's Future in Anaheim
41:10 José Soriano as a Key Piece of the Core?
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Thanks for making some time Sam covers the Angels for the Athletic, writes about the League as a whole sometimes as well, does a great job on that, we're gonna talk a lot about the Angels today because we have a pretty good sense they're going to be sellers at the trade deadline, so that creates a lot of opportunities, creates a lot of fun topics to sort of pick through, and as a team it's got a new manager for new for them, not new to baseball in Ron Washington and we're gonna start today just by asking you as someone who's on this beat, what do you think the impact of Ron Washington has been on this club? I mean they're 15 below 500 so it hasn't been winning a lot of games, but on a day-to-day basis from a player development perspective, what kinds of differences are you seeing in the Ron Washington era? Well you know I heard somebody say the other day that they like lead the league in like team meetings and you know extra work, and that's something you know, the second day of the season, they played one game this year in Baltimore, and then the second day of the season like 40 degree weather they had a full team workout at the ballpark on that you know on that off day, that's just kind of the tenor of the season, they're just doing a lot of extra work, I think that it's still up in the air just how much that is helping, I mean they're a pretty overall sloppy team, make a lot of outs on the bases, that's something that they completely overhauled, I mean the angels last year were one of the teams that just didn't really choose to run very much given who they had kind of on their roster at the time, and the roster make up has changed a little bit, but not that much, and they're still running like, they've changed everything, so they're basically just trying to be one of the fastest teams in the league with not a ton of success thus far, so I think what you're seeing is you know a team that's maybe trying to change their identity, but overall like my biggest question with Ron Washington is what's the end game, because he's on a two-year contract, the GM Perry Manazian's on a one-year contract right now, a lot of these players are like you mentioned at the top are probably going to be available at the trade deadline, so you know whatever you know kind of position that they're in right now or whatever things he may or may not be doing to help the you know the organization moving forward, I just don't really know where it's all leading, I think that you know part of the narrative that's tried that the Angels have you know to some extent successfully sold for this year is that they are this like young up-and-coming team that's like akin to what we saw we've seen from the Guardians or the Orioles or the Reds even you know kind of before this year, and it's just not the case, like they're you know they just decided to not really spend it for agency and not really assist in their roster construction whatsoever heading into this year, and so you know they're kind of left with some young players, many of whom have already kind of had a chance and not really succeeded, I mean I'm and you know I think that there are three great players to build around in terms of Zack Nhetto, Logan Ohapi and Jose Soriano right now, and I think everybody else right now it's very much up in the air exactly what where this whole thing is headed, so he's he's done a good job but to the extent that it matters, Wash has done a I think a pretty good job but to the extent that it matters you know I don't really know, and you know there's also been certain things he's done that's rubbed people the wrong way, obviously the Luis Yorma Bunt situation just kind of become an infamous part of the season you know where they tried to do a squeeze play and it was just it was you know I think the thought process behind calling for the squeeze really didn't make any sense but then also after the game saying that wasn't my fault that was the Yorma's fault, he threw him right under the bus so really just a poorly handled situation and I think you know that's a concern probably for everybody who's kind of watching this is like you know what's the line between accountability and just blaming players and and you know the the overall feel in that clubhouse when those types of things happen I think you know could could possibly jeopardize where this is all headed so it's been good and there's been bad but I think to the extent that it matters it's just very much a I don't think it matters that much I just think that they're gonna recycle through managers and GM's to you know to the end of time it's always a new honor. One thing that intrigues me though about Ron Washington though is I just saw him up close with Marcus Emian you know and he like really the two of them and I think that's the key is like the two of them did it you know it wasn't just Ron's work it was that Marcus Emian was worth was like willing to put in the work and together they made Marcus Emian into a shortstop when Simian probably never was a great shortstop but they made him you know for like you know six seven eight years he was he was a passable above average shortstop and that was like a lot of Ron Washington's doing and I think I saw some of the same with Aussie albies in Atlanta where he just you know would link up with a player the player would be willing to do the work it's funny to think that that might not scale because not every player wants to do the same amount of work I mean I just figured in my head at some point oh maybe he's a good rebuilding you know coach like manager but but the manager can't do that with every player and the way that he's kind of trying to scale that I think it sounds like like meetings tile which I think most players like oh God not another meeting you know I think that's I think you're probably on I mean he's really linked up well with Zach Natto I mean I think that that's that is a pairing that really could pay some dividends for the angels long term because I don't think Zach Natto is going to go anywhere yeah and I think he might have another level like he's one of the few young players that may be you could develop into another level I think yeah and he's one of the best defensive shortstop I think in baseball this year so far so he's you know he's someone that is I think benefited from having Ron Washington there he really seems to be coming into his you know oh not just as a player but kind of you know with the team and his personality so that I agree with you with that that he's kind of fine he finds guys that I think really want to be coached and and want that but you're but then you're right like in terms of the rebuilding because you need more than Zach Natto and you need more than just like turning one player you know yeah close to 26 players yeah as possible and I just don't you know the culture may be better but it's the roster also so many of the players on this team and someone performed well but a lot of them have come in and I wrote the story about this there is like nine ten eleven guys who have been in the big league so far this year who you know have contemplated retirement last year I mean and they're on the angels yeah they keep getting angels keep finding them and bringing them up like and it's and it's just like kind of the makeup of the team and yeah I mean Kevin Palar has done that and he's done it to some really exciting you know success but then you know then you also have an eco good rhythm comes in for a week it doesn't get ahead and then gets DFA again it's been like DFA three times this year or and what does like you know adding PR to like the Dodgers or something make some sense but adding PR to this team is like okay like well then do you need a body yeah that's what that's what this whole season's been yeah you know just needing bodies and and it's like it's pretty obvious and they didn't address the depth enough they didn't address the big league roster at all at all really I mean they added some in the bullpen but even the guys that were added in the bullpen have really not been very good you know Adam Simber was had a great first month and is now you know not doing well it always on the IL you know at least Garcia have been up and down that more up and down you know Jose Cisnero injured and they're not developing I mean I think that so much this comes down to player development right like player development should turn you out some relievers every year and yeah they don't have any of their own guys then Joyce would be the one yeah Ben Joyce and then I guess Jose Suarez no they just DFA him to the with his 90 IRA got to become untenable so if they were developing him it wasn't wasn't going great Luis Garcia was a free agent Hunter Strickland free agent Matt Moore free agent out of Simber free agent Carlos Estevas free agent Ronese Contreras waiver claim yeah yeah I mean Griffin canning early ish draft pick if you go to the rotation side but to you know it's point it is surprising to me well it's a clear missing link in the organization they cheap out in so many unusual ways this is where it costs them it's the lack of depth it's having to go get veterans who pondered retirement or to overpay for relievers and free agency because they don't spend some money to do a better job scouting and developing those players along the way right and you'd think by now already Moreno would have picked up on that as an owner like oh I could actually save money if I do it or some GM would have given him the like this is what we need to do we need to do the stuff under the hood like somebody somebody should have done maybe he hears that he's like I don't like that sounds like money yeah I mean it's and you know I think it's hard to assess the job that that Perry Menazian has done but I also look at you know he's now in his fourth year so there's not you know there's not the developments not there I mean the drafts I mean you look at that remember that 2021 infamous all-picture draft they had I mean two of those guys have debuted in the big leagues they're both in the minor leagues now who were the guys that were from that draft still Seth and Bachman who have debuted and everybody else is not a single other player from that draft that's even in their own very poor top 30 prospects so it's that's like a reflection of just like this these drafts haven't really paid out for them at all and they're not developing guys they're not really drafting well and you know I think there have been some hits in that draft like you know Neto is a great example of a hit I mean I think Shana well the you know Jerry's still out on that you know how that will play out but there's some you know overall concerning trend lines in terms of his just ability to hit for power and to you know develop other tools than his bat to ball so yeah I mean I I don't I think that there are like a lot of reasons why you would say about Perry man it's he's impossible for him to do the job and I think there's a lot of valid things that you would be able to kind of point to yeah he's not been able to spend the way he probably would he's not been able to make decisions at the trade deadline in the way that he might do them but then you know at the end of the day the the farm system isn't is probably worse than it was or you know on power with where it was when he took over and the major league roster itself is probably worse so I just you know and then I also think why are you putting your GM in a position where you know he's on his last year of his contract you know it's in nobody ever that's not a good position to be in as a GM if you don't believe in him fire him after the last season or extend him but don't don't let him leave Matt here to drive with a bad team we're watching a little bit of that in San Francisco play out where they like yeah they like gave Farhan a two-year extension when he had one year left just to so you didn't have to answer any questions about it and so that people didn't feel like he was a lame duck guy but also they don't want to extend him longer than that because they don't know if they trust him that's yeah I mean man we don't we can talk with the Giants but they shouldn't but what I think it's even it's even worse with Benazin at least with Farhan like he had 107 win season and like he's done some innovative things and you know they're you he could maybe make the case to ownership I think it'd be really hard preparing Benazian to make the case to ownership right now that he's done a great job but when do you pull the plug and how far do you pull the plug is one of the questions I had for you it's like you know do you let him do the selling off and do you let him do the selling off to the point where he's trading away Mike Trout who people have put into a Giants uniform or Taylor Ward who's cheap for a couple years like how far do you think they'll go with it or will it just be Kevin PR and Brandon Drury and Carlos Estebas and and a new GM at the winner meetings I mean listen if you're gonna have a GM you have to just let him you this is the angels problem if you're gonna have a GM the GM should be the one that makes these decisions you know obviously you're working with the owner to you know pinpoint a strategy overall but it's the you know the GM should be the one who's you know overall making these you know these calls at the end of the day to some extent but yeah I think that they need a full overall I mean if they don't if they don't I think the big question is how many of these guys who are in their arbitration stage are they going to be willing to trade and now they lost one yesterday in Patrick Sandoval is gonna miss you know possibly up until 2026 after you know tearing his UCL so that's that's a concern me Brandon Drury you mentioned him I don't know if he has any trade value yeah I mean there's there's this question of who has trade value does Luis Garcia have trade value does Miguel said no I've traded all you have no I mean so now I was like won't even bring him up to the they have him they're kind of like manipulating his overall situation right now um because they're uh you know he's he's healthy but he's in still on a rehab I mean while washing actually said that like he's healthy we're just we don't have a spot for him right now so he's like still on his rehab so I mean I I don't even really um I don't know I look at this as as they need to make a full full full scale change um and they need to trade Taylor Ward probably you know you got to look at Libby's friend Heath oh yes right Heath oh has value you know I think Joe Adele is one of those that is interesting in the sense that he has had a pretty bad season but there's enough in there that I think teams would be intrigued by having him on their team um maybe not like for a super high value or you trade the guys around him and just play Adele all year and just you know that's what they're doing now I mean he's playing every day and it's and it's just you know he started out real hot first month of the season and then um man the last six weeks have just been like he's he's got like 10 hits I mean Adele and Moniac if you have them out in the same outfield that's like the get the worst play discipline in baseball oh yeah yeah I think that's a fair assessment um you know and and they're um you know they show flashes I mean there's in there it's in there Moniac had a good year last year would you trade Detmer's? Detmer's is values at an all-time low right now so I think that he's someone that has that potential to be uh you know a one or a two in any rotation and if you're trading him at the that kind of the lowest point when he's really struggled that being said I mean I don't know really where this is all going for him because he's now in his fourth major league season and not you know the ups and downs have been so significant that it's hard to uh hard to uh you know feel like it it's maybe gonna pay off at some point with him so uh it's just a lot like they're kind of entering this this trade deadline stage where not a lot of these guys have incredibly high value too which is a concern I think Tyler Anderson's a name that needs to go Ward probably has value I mean that's a that's a four million dollar player that's under arbitration for two more years he's he's a solid regular yeah and yeah he could plug him in I mean he could plug him in anywhere really I'm sure like he'd be playing on almost every team in the big leagues so uh I think that's you know and that's that's how you restart I mean that's like you're gonna if you want to restart which I think is necessary if they keep these guys and just say hey you know we're gonna see what we can do next year then it's no different than what happened this season and and I'm certain I would be concerned if I was an angels fan that they keep these players and as much as you know angels fans maybe like Taylor Ward or like Luis Renifo and those are good players or they like Tyler Anderson guys who have performed for you this year it's just not you know what you need is to restart with with with guys that you have full control over for long periods of time that can that can develop into you know major league players you know maybe next year maybe the year after but it is it would be conceding that next season probably will not go your way that seems pretty obvious from now like I mean what would they not going to go your way anyway that's when they don't realize they're always they don't it would be a first for already in the sense that he goes into a season not trying to sell people on this is a competitive roster and and um I don't know how that will play out and I don't necessarily think it will happen because of that reason because he just won't ever do that but I've now also never seen a fan base like the angels that it was as willing to accept a rebuild they'd probably be excited about that at this point something different yeah because you know all angels fans are excited about the you know this I think this fake story that the angels are trying to selling people which is that they're like this up-and-coming rebuilding club right now which is not the case they're just this is what they do every September they're starting in early summer drinking season is long which is why non-alcoholic beer is a great addition to your cooler but what makes you reach for one and a beer over another is a great flavor 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at Dick's Sporting Goods it's really strange too I mean given the way they've handled netto and channual and just pushing those guys through the minors as quickly as they have I think netto has three times as many played appearances or three times many games played with the angels that he had in the minor leagues that's how fast he moved through the system that's the thing what they did with especially with channewell i mean you know they got played like 40 minor league games if i'm not gaming on your reporting i think it was less than that i was even less than like 14 and i'm like that seemed like a very irresponsible thing to me and it seemed to me it's still feel i still wonder if him being in the major leagues right now is the right thing because you know it's not he's not performed that well and i don't know if the ups and downs of dealing with you know it was right now he's in the middle of i think i know for 14 or for 15 slump like you know he's had some hot streaks but then goes on these long slumps and and you i don't know if that's there's a benefit to having a 22 year old who's played who's had almost no experience even just using a wooden bat you know we're like playing in the big leagues uh i'm sure he'll get there at some point but it's you know he gets a lot of criticism and i wish it's fair because he's in the big leagues because the angels are subjecting him to that if he's in the minor leagues and doing whatever he does no one notices it he's allowed to develop at his own pace and get to the big leagues when he's ready and you know you could you could say yeah i mean he can he can step on a big league field and not embarrass himself and have a 640 ops and you know play mediocre to somewhat decent defense but it doesn't really matter that i mean it doesn't really seem like the smart thing to me his whole career seems to me that's kind of swing on whether or not he can hit for power and i'm not sure that's something that he's going to develop at the major league level that is the one thing where i could see sending him back down because hitting for power probably requires some mechanical changes some approach changes maybe even some training changes maybe sometimes when like you you can't play in the game because you're in the midst of some sort of training process you know what i mean yeah and i mean i just yeah he needed time like he needed to not be called up but you know he hits the ball his the hardest he's ever hit the balls on one of three nine is like lisa rise you know it's yeah and he's only hit one ball farther than 400 feet in his career that was last weekend in san francisco i don't know if the wind ate it or whatever but and i i don't remember exactly but it's um he's not you know it playing an Anaheim is probably probably the best place for him to play in terms of the dimensions of the ballpark because the power alley and right field is this is the short that's just like that's fake that's not yeah so that but that's why he's eight homers right like i think in most other ballparks you probably have fewer less uh so he's almost accused of power numbers a little bit uh since he's just doesn't he doesn't have it right now and and you know his one experience with a wood bat league in college was not good so i yeah he did not get we did not get the requisite you know time to prepare and now he's in the big leagues and kind of being left out to dry in certain certain areas i mean he's probably performed better than i would have expected given the overall you know just ridiculousness of calling up a player that quickly but um you know they also and the angels have drafted in for a need how often do teams do that i've heard people talking about that you know in the clubhouse among other writers and stuff and i'm always like yo do teams don't do that like they're like oh why would they draft this guy they have this guy and i'm like they don't care like they just want the guy to be good or not you know they could trade him they could trade the older guy you know you know there's no tunes don't normally do that the angels yes the all pitching draft was just like we need pitchers and like Shawna was like we need a first baseman they didn't even work right yeah it's why teams don't do that because they'd rather focus on just getting the best possible player without any sort of plan here there's no plan it never was a plan and uh i'm skeptical that any gm could come in here and establish some sort of concrete like this is how we're going to do it but it certainly hasn't been parries just far so at least one we've got an articulated one if all these guys get traded out is there anything to look forward to i mean uh you know there's if they do open up an outfield spot or with dreary maybe an infield spot you know you know what is it just going to be like sino coming up after a trade or are there some young players that that some that you can kind of circle i mean they have some other players that could rush uh really they i mean they have i think two prospects that are at somewhat high level i mean a cadon dana is probably the the best prospect right now and even he i think is almost an unfair situation because because he's the best prospect i think people expect him to be like the next no one ryan or you know whatever coming up and it's just he's he's probably a pretty decent big league starter in a rotation at some point in his career but is he an ace i don't know the answer to that and i think that everyone kind of expects him to be that guy that is he ready at 20 and over 20 years old and and i think that the angels have left the door open for you know what we saw from redepmers in 2021 when they you know they made some trade to the deadline and called him up i wouldn't be shocked if that's the way that this plays out i don't know for sure that i will but i think that's something you could see especially since he's had a pretty good year in double-a very very good year in double-a um the other guy and i don't think he'll get called up like nelson rata is only 18 or 19 maybe at this point um so he's he's another high level prospect for them that i think would be a pretty good prospect in any organization but um you know beyond that uh he's not really hitting for power and he's he's got like one homer i think yeah he's got no power yet i mean i'm sure i'll hit grow into that to some extent uh but at double-a it's tough to you know at that age to be really hitting home runs i just um i don't think that there's many other guys that that we're gonna that are gonna get people excited i mean kyron paris has been up a few times uh and not performed necessarily yet um he was really i mean they this is to give you an idea of where the angels were like you know they called up kyron paris who was hitting 091 and double-a to be on the big wood team so that's where they were at it's interesting that paris's line uh at triple-a is all right is that where he went back to after after so a triple-a might have worse pitching than double-a probably especially in that altitude oh yeah and then the altitude is helping him to then be he kind of went back to triple-a after seeing majorly pitching and probably was like this is a little bit easier yeah yeah i mean and i i'm not i don't rule anything out with current paris i mean i again i just think it's kind of almost like the kyron dana situation where it's like you have a cut you have some guys that like in in other organizations i think some of these guys would you know be able to develop a little bit more obscurity but with the angels they don't have anybody else so this is this is who get people get excited about um i'm sure we'll see those guys you know i'm sure we'll see kyron paris back up big with level this year at some point but there's still a lot of questions about him like in terms of power in terms of strikeouts yeah yeah there's a lot of questions uh you know he sees the ball well he takes walks and stuff like that um but you're at the swing and miss the power i mean there's a lot of questions there's a lot of questions with everything here um i don't really think that there's me i mean you know i imagine if they're calling guys up later in the year it's probably more of the oh there's jake marisnick and triple-a still so they can you know fill a hole that's what i think more likely right like the sonothing right like we just got a guy we're gonna give a shot yeah just we need to play this thing out there's a chance they're gonna draft someone at eight that's going to play in the big leagues again at the end of this season regardless of the fate of this team i think keep laws latest mock draft head hagan smith the lefty from arkansas going there i don't think you should put more innings on his arm necessarily especially in a starting role they got to be careful if they do something like that i mean they always say like we don't care about that stuff like um you know like sam bachman i think pitch i think i crawl correctly when he first registry got drafted and people were like why you know because a lot of teams don't do that yeah you they sometimes they draft them and then that's the end of them for the year they insert they can like hang out they can they can work out but they don't they don't play although minimal innings in like arizona or whatever but yeah i mean there's guys are like sam bachman was like called up in double-a you know and it's and look what's happened i mean he cannot stay health you know they pushed him last year and he's now not healthy i don't know if that's a correlated thing if he's just injury prone but regardless a lot of a lot of bad decisions were made um so yeah i just i don't i i think it's possible as derrick said that they're going to draft someone at number eight and then they're going to look to call him up and they maybe will go below slot or something like that to try to you know have a have you know more options later on on the draft they've done that i think the last couple years it's not really exciting to me i mean you just feel like you'd want to get the highest upside guy in eight and then you know what's also weird is like if it is perry doing it like you know he's going to be like oh let's get somebody who can help right away my job's on the line gotta get somebody in here make me look better i mean maybe probably the best decision for this team you know another thing that's just weird for me just you we've mentioned a couple times that arty marina factor and that's obviously you know behind a lot of this but he put the team up for sale like run me through that like he just didn't get the offer he wanted or he thought it would be was it just a was it a temper tantrum like some part of it read like a temper tantrum uh these are some theories that i don't know how responsible they'd be to share i can give you like the outline of those theories i think the timing is important all i'm going to do is lay out the timeline and maybe people can make their own inferences based on it but you know this came in august of 2022 you know we had kind of been told that there was like a you know a couple months of discussions went into it and if you kind of rewind a couple months you know that was when the land deal fell through with the stadium um and a lot of legal things you know the story hasn't what did never really go too national but it was a very fascinating story with the Anaheim mayor getting indicted and you know and that was arty's boy or something well i mean there's this this idea that i you know i don't want to i don't know i don't want to misquote exactly how everything went down but uh just that was who he was working hard he had done a deal with or the angels had done a deal with with the Anaheim mayor basically that you know the city council eventually decided was not done properly and so the way the deal fell through and as a result you know part of the end there was an FBI investigation and the Anaheim mayor was indicted and all this stuff happened so i don't know if there's any correlate see i missed i missed some of these details dude like yeah i missed some of this i remember the land deal i don't remember that's how it went down that's amazing yeah so he was just trying to get a sweetheart deal and buying the land from the city around it like the parking lots and stuff or it seems that way so um i don't know if there's any correlation there i don't want i would not i'm not saying that there is um but you know but has he started making noise about needing a new stadium no uh but he also there's not but any commitment they're going to like re-up this lease which goes till when like uh i think 20 38 if i was taken um oh okay so there's some time but also i mean when you're talking about stadiums and stuff like that that's not a lot that's not that much time especially if there's a possibility of leaving the stadium removing it and you know um whatever it might be so uh and especially when you're talking about an owner who's 77 years old and has no successor in place and no real plans without the team so so there's no marino juniors that are going to run the the team into the ground like they did at the angelos juniors there is no marino's juniors who are interested in there are marino's children but they did not want the team so can you imagine but can you imagine being the child of a a professional sports franchise owner and having this mindset of i don't want that i just don't want to deal with that it sounds like a lot of work yeah it's just not like this ball i guess yeah i agree i mean if i could just like have somebody be like you want my team i would yeah of course even if the disaster i'll take it i'll happily try to do something fun with it but our already story was that he just like loves baseball and just wants to you know got cold feet or whatever just wants to i i just by rolling my eyes with that i don't i think there's got to i think there's just got to be things in the dynamic that changed really caused him to want to you know keep the team off the market and you know i don't know why i mean i don't what i don't get is why do you want this team you don't seem to want to spend on it doesn't seem to want to like make it any good i don't know that's true i mean like the pooholes and rindone deals like had his kind of fingerprints on it and it yeah but they haven't done anything since then and and that's what i'm saying like since since since he pulled back on the selling the team like what is the purpose i mean i i definitely agree with you then in years past he's like at the very least dumb things that would suggest he wants to win but that has not been the case the last couple years since he decided to keep the team on you know off the market so what is it that you're keeping it for because you're not trying to win you know it's just all you're doing is getting public ridicule which is more than fair you know i mean they had he was in that you know they're pre-game montage and they got booed on opening night and then pulled himself from the video because that's just that's just like what are you doing you know the fans here want him gone you know i think if the a's weren't as much of a disaster as they have been if the white socks weren't even worse than the angels in terms of the way that they're running their franchise i think arty would be getting way more publicity for for how bad this is all going and how ridiculous all the decisions that he's made have kind of played out so um you know there's so much uh people there's so much like covering for arty and i just think that there's no you know there's no way to defend some of this stuff and uh i don't understand why he still wants to own this team uh and you know he won't come out and say really anything um at least not to me only to uh the oc register so uh you know whatever you know we 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this year it's awesome sign up now at youtube.com/bs device and content restrictions apply local national games on youtube tv and if l sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital only games we haven't talked about trout and he's hurt right now of course i think about the big picture because he signed the mega deal he signed through 2030 it doesn't seem like mike trout is the type of person who will publicly insist on leaving at the same time how long is mike trout going to be content to play out the back half of his career in a place where the chances of winning are amazingly close to zero i i mean they had trout and shohayotani and got nowhere which is just unbelievable in terms of the talent and the output just being so far out of alignment the success did not follow the quality of those two players so what's the end game for trout given the nature of that deal and who he is and and the uncertainty around who might even be running this franchise a year or two from now i think if trout wanted to leave or if he wanted this franchise to be better there were there are things that he should have done by now that he hasn't um you know if you wanted to make the angels more competitive i feel i mean he came out in spring training and said he wished they would sign some more for agents and they didn't but i mean i i think that he's waited so long to be to be critical of the and he's loyal and he cares and he wants to win here but you know yeah at some point he he needed i think to use his voice a little bit more to say and his credibility with with everybody to say hey like this isn't good enough and he just never did i mean they're big i mean i've been there for three years now literally three years today and and it's like i've never you know for so many times i've asked him what do you think about the direction and he just kind of cops out and says like oh we got some good young players this and that and it's like okay what if he was just like buying the like cuz like players duh aren't always the best gems i'm not i'm not trying to say he's dumb i'm just saying that like maybe he like was hey we got a tani we've got you know deadmers looked awesome i think he's one controversial i know he's like a very smart baseball mind in my opinion who sees the stuff in his understanding of it but i just think he does not want to deal with criticism and controversy at any point so it's like the it's more like a jeter thing like where jeter wouldn't really give you a quote about anything yeah i think that that's probably you wanted to be teflon he just wants to be teflon and affair compared yeah you know he just never he's not come out and said hey like and he doesn't need to be a gm it doesn't need to say we need to get this guy or this guy or this guy what he needed to do is be like we need more like we just need you we need the focus to be on winning right now and i don't feel like it is i feel like if he said that at any point in the last several years you know this might be a whole different conversation as it relates to being traded i think it's very similar like if you wanted to get traded i think the ship has sailed on that i mean who's going to take on his contract uh i mean he's been out i mean you have to be like half pap paid down or something oh even that i mean you know he's he's now gone on eight weeks since tearing his miniscus and there's not even like a sign of him running it uh this is whatever injury yeah you were reporting on that what why what was that what did that come from like he's just he just he just thinks it's within the realm of normal it's just this is slow well it's just a every injury for him is like turning out to be like this i mean last year with his broken hand mate guys come back from that a lot quicker he came back for one game but otherwise he missed half the season um with the you know broken hand mate so that was you know anomalous to that injury the calf strain in 2021 i mean that was supposed to be six to eight weeks and you know middle of may didn't play the whole year so he's just i think that with mike there's a couple of things he does not like playing unless he's fully hundred percent he he has seen what his talent can be like and he doesn't want to play in anything that compromises that and i think it's also accepting maybe that the there are some limitations with his age and you know i just don't you know this is the guy who's been known as the kid this is a guy who's been known as like the youthful face of baseball and now i think he's maybe he's having a hard time accepting the reality that like that time is probably past him and that is prime maybe he's past him so um what what what can he be now how can you know can he uh i think that maybe we'll require him to d h more when he gets back play corner outfield more like that that keep him healthy preserve his health so that way he can be a productive hitter is the most important thing for the angels right now so you don't even think this will change like i i feel like with otani you can tell yourself my point was that was a little bit was like you can tell yourself we got the two best players in the game you know if you're especially if you're trapped you're still counting yourself as the best player in the game right like it so you say two best players in the game we got this guy we got this guy i feel like you can't tell yourself that about next year's team no i mean i don't think there's anybody on this roster right now that's gonna see if gonna be a top 20 player next year right so i just but you still don't think it's it's gonna change for him he's like i just i'm tired of someone out i mean he might i think my point is less that it's possible he might say that or he might feel that way but i don't really see the recourse for that to change even if he were if he were wanted i think the best the only route for him to have gotten traded this year is if he were really good and the team were really bad which actually the first month of the season seemed like that was kind of going back in my direction but um you know i just have a hard time believing that somebody's going to want to take on years of mike trout at 35 million dollars a year and with this risk of significant risk of him getting hurt and then being out a prolonged period of time while he is hurt and it's a tragic way to go to to kind of whittle down his career because he's probably at his peak the greatest hitter of all time or one of the greatest hitters of all time but um no greatest players overall but it's it's like it's a sad thought to think that he's gonna be just on this bad ball course i think you you might be right we we like to do things like this and and put players on teams and you know if you look at actually what's happened in terms of moving money um you could move eric hosmer in the last year of his deal you can't even move eric hosmer at like 18 million a year you know with three years left you know and that pales pretty much in comparison i'm like trout i mean we're talking like the name mike trout might be enough for a team just to be like we got mike trout on our team and you know maybe we can to really you know maybe he'll be really invigorated or want to be here and i mean it would be something like uh five six seven eight nine so it'd be six years in a hundred and ninety million dollars uh two hundred million dollars maybe if you could get half of that paid down and you're paying a hundred million dollars or six years but then you're still not giving up a lot of talent to do that no yeah relative to what you would need as a franchise what the angels need it's only going to be one small step in the direction you need to go to get better in the long run and then you're trading away your franchise icon too so that's it's going to be unpopular and unproductive potentially i don't see it happening i just don't and i honestly don't know if he wants to be traded i just he doesn't seem for want to go he's in semi retirement phase now i don't know what's happening with him i find it odd that he's just like these these recoveries consistently takes so long um he's been hanging out with rindone too much i mean rindone's also been out now for quite a while and he's making some progress was that a hamstring strain yeah he said he had a tortoise hamstring whatever and he's been out since like early april um or mid april oh well if he tore it i guess the strain is a tear so it's always just a question yeah i mean it sounded like it was a somewhat significant one but i mean again i i never know with him i just i almost like try to i just try to avoid it it's like you know there's all the chaos of it i mean the big thing with rindone is like is he really gonna keep doing this ever i mean is he gonna do this till he just till that money's done i mean i he really does not seem to want to be there so it doesn't seem like he needs the money anymore either and he's talked about having more important things in his life so at some point he could just walk away but it's a lot of money to walk away from we've seen with strawsberg that he gets a little awkward because the team's like sure if you let us not pay some of that you can retire or leave or whatever you know remember how strawsberg came and was like yeah i'm retiring and then then they were like yeah we're not gonna pay you and he's like oh hey i'm not retiring was yeah i mean that was that was someone who was it was the nats and strawsberg like this i don't even really i mean the angels and rindone are like just it's like they just are there together because it's like contractually obligated but they're not there's no like history there there's no success there there's not even like a basis of their you know of cordiality there it's just they're gonna DFA in i you know i don't know maybe i don't think they're gonna DFM because it's like you know i mean maybe the last year of his deal they would they could you know they did something similar with like Justin Upton and other fool holes and stuff like that but he's not even like a distraction almost like at this point like he's just you know he's just not around he just shows i don't think like his teammates just i think teammates like him to some extent you know i don't think he's like a bad guy to have around necessarily he's just it's just as an ad anything and it's like yeah you know i had anything you're banning paid 30 a million to he wakes up every day and there's another two hundred fifty thousand dollars in his bank account you know and that's not more he's earned that i mean i think anybody's making majorly money and they earn that so i don't want to like belittle it but at the same time like he's not he's not playing anymore and he's not earning it further and you know some of that's bad luck with injuries and some of it i feel like it's just you know or if it if there's anything i mean i think he's just lost benefit of the doubt for everyone believing that you know he's he's uh he's trying hard to get trying his best and he's trying his hardest um you know he may well be but i don't i don't think he's earned that uh you know default mindset from people from his comments yeah at that totally makes sense so at the beginning you're talking about the core for this angel's team you mentioned Jose Soriano's name and of course in fantasy circles he has been noticed over the course of this season i think the angels have a bit of a problem with Soriano that's not completely unique from what the white socks are dealing with Garrett crochet and if they have this guy who's a great pitcher who has an extensive injury history that i think other teams would be pretty interested in and you have to kind of decide in the front office say okay we like this guy but are we going to be good while he is still healthy and good or does he help us actually get somewhere i don't think the return be anywhere close to what the white socks could get in a Garrett crochet trade but i do think Jose Soriano is very interesting so what have you seen for him so far this year and what kind of ceiling do you think Soriano has i think he's got a really high ceiling i think he's a really really elite starting pitcher to be honest with you hmm and yeah i mean that's a tough one because you're right you know he's currently on the ILI don't anticipate just with it infections so i don't anticipate it being like a super long thing and that it could i mean if it does get longer then maybe that could play a role in terms of like how a team might um value him i think one of the other questions with value with him is that he's never pitched more than like 80 innings in any in any professional season and right now he's kind of like already bordering on that so how much can he give you down the stretch of the season is a big question um so and you know could he pitch in the playoffs like i think you'd want to have him if you were to trade from this year you'd want to have him available to pitch in the postseason and then yet at that point you might be really really pushing him and the angels are a franchise that doesn't seem to really care about pushing guys beyond maybe what they should be but i think other teams would be like that's a huge risk especially considering he's a two tommy john surgery is already um so to answer your question i mean i think that uh i'd be a little surprised if they traded him because i just don't think they would get that value back that they maybe see um him being worth but um yeah i mean they also need to just restart um i personally think if you're restarting he's someone you build around and i think oh happy and netto are the other two guys and i think everybody else at that point is uh is either fair game or you know just keep him you leave him it doesn't really matter that much but uh i like those three players and i think that they're kind of like that those those building blocks and maybe redemorous too but um you know it's just not it's not clicking for him so far you know i said it before i think three is a core three can be a core i don't know if those three can be a franchise core but i do think you're right those are the building blocks that you are anticipating being there for a while yeah yeah absolutely and they could be a core if like you're turning out decent guys and you're paying and you're buying good players in free agency and like like you know if you look at other teams in the past like if you look at like even the astros that won at all like and you try to be like who's the young core you you end up getting around for you know four guys or whatever and i look at like the rangers like what the rangers did is not that complicated i mean they were really bad 2020 and 2021 and they knew they had a bunch of kids coming up and they went and spent on super superstars and they did better spending i think than the a's did they bought better players yeah although they had a lot on the iL themselves yeah they they they knew they they had a plan in place and they knew the timeline of when that plan would kind of come to fruition and and you know obviously they're not having a great year this year but there is a championship team in there so and a key i think was just knowing like that they had the capability of developing at least bats you know and so they were like you know if somebody goes down we've got you know we've got young we've got the Ezekiel Duran it's not somebody you get super excited about say you Ezekiel Duran as part of our core but you're like oh we're happy we have Ezekiel Duran when core seeker goes down or whatever you know so it's they just the angels don't have any of that they're not like oh yeah when they when they pull somebody up it's somebody who's drafted last year that's why i'm just like i roll my eyes at this you know this whole like the kids are playing and you know this is the young you know it's just it's okay yeah it's a nice like it's a nice thought and yeah i mean i guess you're playing young players but that's not like by design it's kind of like the the Rockies said like we want to be like the Rays you're like yeah this is like the angels saying we're gonna be like the Orioles yeah no okay yeah totally looks like the Orioles to me yeah it's like it's jokes on us if they all take another another step forward and it looks good next year i just don't think we're taking our step forward i don't think they we still don't think they'd be good they're 15 below 500 on June 25th so the way they'd be 8 below 500 if everyone took a small step forward yeah 100 percent of the would be at maximum i think of that's what we're talking about and you know i mean i mean that not only there's not a lot of these guys have so it's uh some of them have taken steps back this year yeah unfortunately you can go the other way as well sam thanks so much for taking the time to join us today we appreciate all your your time and your insight uh where can people follow you uh on twitter follow me at uh say @samblum3 on twitter please i appreciate uh appreciate uh appreciate having me on yeah read the articles and let me know anything in the works coming up do you want a pimp um yeah but uh god it's going through such a weird editing process i don't want to talk about it just just wait just it's gonna be great when it gets out super refreshing that they you've done some great stories this year uh off the angels beating on the angels beat so thanks thanks for coming by of course thank you for having me guys talk to you later all right that's going to do it for this episode of rates in barrels if you want to subscribe to the athletic you can do that at athletic.com/ratesinbarals find edo on twitter at uniseris find me at derrick van ryber find the pod at rates in barrels we are back with you on thursday thanks for listening bye! 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