The Angels head into the offseason with 3/5's of the rotation missing and holes in the bullpen that need to be fixed. Dipoto's going to have to get creative with the money available (even with Abreu, Torii, Santana, Haren, Izturis, Hawkins, Isringhausen, and Scott Kazmir's buyout all coming off the books.) It's pretty clear that Dipoto has let these players go so that their is enough payroll flexibility to sign the number offseason priority, Zack Greinke. Unfortunately, there's one HUGE problem standing in the way and that's the Dodgers idiot owners signing every player available, because apparently money does grow on trees.
Getting into a bidding war with the Dodgers is almost a lose-lose situation, the Angels bid against them, win, and sign Greinke for a billion dollars, or they watch Greinke go because the price is astronomical. This leads me to my point, would the Dodgers be doing us a favor then? Although losing Greinke would make the rotation a joke, I think avoiding paying Greinke $150 million would help the Angels in the long run and possibly make them better next year.
Allow me to explain, while the idea of Greinke seems terrible, letting him walk and not overpaying him would allow the Angels to use that money, along with the money already of the books, to fill other holes on the team. Instead of giving Greinke $20+ million dollars the Angels could use that to get 2 or even 3 starting pitchers for the price of Greinke. The Angels could sign Kuroda, Saunders, and Young-I'm referring to Chris Young-or Villanueva and fix their rotation issues. With the remaining money, the bullpen could be fixed. Pitchers like Howell, Uehara, Farnsworth, and Fujikawa could all be fits and help solidify a major problem of this team over the last few seasons.
Keep in mind major salary jumps for Pujols, Wilson, Weaver, and Kendrick are about to happen and the Angels also have some arbitration cases to take care of. There's also the idea of an extension for Trout going forward so letting Greinke go could help with that. And if the Angels really wanted to, once all the other contracts are gone (Vernon Wells), they could use the money and sign someone like Kershaw, Longoria, or King Felix in a couple seasons. I would prefer the Angels to retain Greinke, but not for $130+ million dollars! Be smart Angels and don't overpay for Greinke, let the Dodgers make the mistake and figure it out the hard way
The Angels head into the offseason with 3/5's of the rotation missing and holes in the bullpen that need to be fixed. Dipoto's going to have to get creative with the money available (even with Abreu, Torii, Santana, Haren, Izturis, Hawkins, Isringhausen, and Scott Kazmir's buyout all coming off the books.) It's pretty clear that Dipoto has let these players go so that their is enough payroll flexibility to sign the number offseason priority, Zack Greinke. Unfortunately, there's one HUGE problem standing in the way and that's the Dodgers idiot owners signing every player available, because apparently money does grow on trees.
Getting into a bidding war with the Dodgers is almost a lose-lose situation, the Angels bid against them, win, and sign Greinke for a billion dollars, or they watch Greinke go because the price is astronomical. This leads me to my point, would the Dodgers be doing us a favor then? Although losing Greinke would make the rotation a joke, I think avoiding paying Greinke $150 million would help the Angels in the long run and possibly make them better next year.
Allow me to explain, while the idea of Greinke seems terrible, letting him walk and not overpaying him would allow the Angels to use that money, along with the money already of the books, to fill other holes on the team. Instead of giving Greinke $20+ million dollars the Angels could use that to get 2 or even 3 starting pitchers for the price of Greinke. The Angels could sign Kuroda, Saunders, and Young-I'm referring to Chris Young-or Villanueva and fix their rotation issues. With the remaining money, the bullpen could be fixed. Pitchers like Howell, Uehara, Farnsworth, and Fujikawa could all be fits and help solidify a major problem of this team over the last few seasons.
Keep in mind major salary jumps for Pujols, Wilson, Weaver, and Kendrick are about to happen and the Angels also have some arbitration cases to take care of. There's also the idea of an extension for Trout going forward so letting Greinke go could help with that. And if the Angels really wanted to, once all the other contracts are gone (Vernon Wells), they could use the money and sign someone like Kershaw, Longoria, or King Felix in a couple seasons. I would prefer the Angels to retain Greinke, but not for $130+ million dollars! Be smart Angels and don't overpay for Greinke, let the Dodgers make the mistake and figure it out the hard way