This story was excerpted from Rhett Bollinger’s Angels Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ANAHEIM -- The Angels will have more payroll flexibility in the short-term after agreeing to restructure the last year of Anthony Rendon’s contract, but general manager Perry Minasian declined to get into the specifics of the reworked deal and wouldn’t say where the payroll will be heading into the season.
Minasian, speaking to reporters on Wednesday for the first time since news broke that the $38 million owed to Rendon would be spread out over several years, said he believes there’s still time to make additions to the club but declined to say where the payroll will be relative to last season. It’s currently roughly $30 million under last year’s total, per Fangraphs.com, and that’s not including Rendon’s restructured contract.
“Offseasons are long, right?” Minasian said. “If you look at what we did last year, I signed Kenley Jansen and Yoán Moncada with a couple days left right before Spring Training. So there's still a lot of good players out there. We're still looking for ways to improve the team. It doesn't do me any good from a payroll standpoint or doesn't give me an advantage on anybody else to give that information.”
The Angels did make another addition this week, signing veteran right-handed reliever Kirby Yates to a one-year deal worth $5 million. He represents another flier for the Angels after a rough year with the Dodgers but he’ll be reunited with pitching coach Mike Maddux, who helped guide him through the best year of his career in ’24. Yates was an All-Star that season with a 1.17 ERA and finished eighth in the balloting for the AL Cy Young Award while also helping the Rangers win the World Series.
It's part of a pattern for the Angels, who are looking for similar bounce-back campaigns from their other offseason additions such as Grayson Rodriguez, Alek Manoah, Jordan Romano and Vaughn Grissom.
They’ve yet to make a big splash in free agency and Minasian declined to say if they’ll target a premium free agent. The Angels still need starting pitching, a third baseman (or possibly a second baseman) and a center fielder.
There are still several unsigned free agents such as: starting pitchers Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez, Nick Martinez, Chris Bassitt and Zac Gallen; infielders Luis Arráez, Bo Bichette, Alex Bregman and Eugenio Suárez and center fielders Cody Bellinger and Harrison Bader. But it’s unclear if the Angels are willing to make that kind of commitment, even after saving roughly $13-14 million by trading outfielder Taylor Ward to the Orioles for Rodriguez.
“We're going to see where the offseason takes us and there’s still a lot of good players available,” Minasian said. “There's still time to improve the club. We made a jump last year. I think we were in the top four or top five in wins from the previous season. We expect to make another jump this year. We'll see what that looks like and what the team looks like when we get to Spring Training and go from there.”
Minasian also said he doesn’t believe he necessarily needs to find a replacement for Ward’s power after he hit 36 homers last year. The club hit plenty of homers last year, ranking fourth in the Majors, but still ranked 25th in runs scored, so finding a power bat isn’t a huge priority.
“We have to pitch better,” Minasian said. “We're not going to give ourselves a chance to win if we don't pitch better. So that was the priority coming into the offseason. It's still the priority as we speak now. With that being said, we want to improve the lineup. Yes, we lost an outstanding player and a very good hitter. But we acquired a pitcher who's currently in Arizona in Grayson Rodriguez that we feel that can help the rotation. For us to get to where we want to go, we have to pitch better, we have to play better defense. Those are two areas that we've looked at a ton. And there's still quality players and bats that can help us, even in a lot of different ways.”