The ALDS is over and so is the Angels season. The result and the way it all went down left every Angels fan feeling pretty depressed. Well, you might want to get a refill on your anti-depressant prescription because I have even more bad news for you: they probably just blew their best chance at a World Series for the next few years, too.
This Angels team was a pretty great Angels team. It had a deep and balanced offensive attack. The bullpen was top notch. The rotation, eh, it had some good things going for it too. It obviously wasn’t a perfect roster, but it was good enough to win a championship. As such, it should be taken as good news that virtually the exact same roster will be coming back next season.
It should be good news, but it probably isn’t. The problem with bringing back the same roster is you are bringing back the same roster, but a year older. For the seventh-oldest roster in baseball, that’s kind of a problem. Albert Pujols may have had a bounceback year in 2014, but he’s going to be 35 on Opening Day. Josh Hamilton clearly isn’t aging well. Neither is C.J. Wilson. Jered Weaver turned 32 today and loses velocity with each passing year. In fact, Kole Calhoun, Mike Trout and C.J. Cron are the only projected position player starters under 30 and Garrett Richards and Matt Shoemaker will be the only rotation members under 30. This is an old team which is great for experience, but bad for avoiding a drop in talent level.
The best way to offset an aging roster is to bring in some new blood. But the Angels shouldn’t count on that happening either. With only Jason Grilli, Joe Thatcher and John McDonald headed to free agency, the Halos aren’t clearing much in payroll space. More importantly, they aren’t clearing any luxury tax room, which is kind of a big deal now that Mike Trout’s fat extension will be kicking in. As it currently stands, the Halos will be less than $10 million under the tax line once they give everyone their arbitration raises. Assuming Arte Moreno sticks to his “no luxury tax” pledge, and there is no reason to think he won’t, the Angels won’t be adding much, if anything at all, to the roster.
With Tyler Skaggs out with Tommy John surgery, Garrett Richards coming back from a major knee injury, Matt Shoemaker no longer taking people by surprise and the aforementioned aging, it is hard to see how the 2015 Angels can be any better than the 2014 Angels. They shouldn’t be bad, just not better. In fact, they figure to be the AL West favorites again with the Rangers down-and-out, A’s looking like they might blow up their roster and the Astros not quite ready to compete.
Things only get worse in 2016 and beyond. By then, the high-paid veterans will be entering the twilight of their careers, but their paychecks will only be escalating and not going away. With a poor system unlikely to produce much in the way of reinforcements, things could start getting pretty ugly around then.
Even with Mike Trout still well in his prime, their championship window already appears to be starting to close. If that sounds bad, it should. The Halos very much look like they are on the Philadelphia Phillies trajectory. They had a great shot at a World Series this year and came up short. They should have another good shot in 2015 with a slightly worse team. After that, they are going to be trapped by a slew of bad contracts, hoping that they can milk one last quality season or two out of ancient former stars. That hasn’t worked out too well for the Phillies and it is hard to see it working out much better for the Halos. They better make 2015 count.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
