The January 16th, 2015 edition of Los Angeles Angels news including Angels Angels avoid arbitration with Santiago, Ramos and Butera and much more…
The Story: The Angels avoided arbitration with Hector Santiago, Cesar Ramos and Drew Butera.
The Monkey Says: Santiago gets $2.29 million, Ramos gets $1.3125 million and Butera gets $987,500. All those figures are withing $100,000 of the estimates MLB Trade Rumors does every year, so there is no complaints here. They still have five more cases to resolve and official figures get exchanged tomorrow. None expect to go to a hearing, but Garrett Richards’ situation is a confusing one given that he is a Super-Two player coming off of a breakout season but also a devastating knee injury. Teams don’t need to make a deal by tomorrow, but most teams and players will.
The Story: Is Josh Hamilton valuable enough to not be a salary dump?
The Monkey Says: No. He is a toxic asset at this point. As I wrote earlier in the offseason, I think he can be good enough to stay in the lineup this year, but nobody is touching his contract and the Angels aren’t going to eat the whole thing just to get him to go away. Even if he started playing well, Josh is such a headcase that no team would give up anything of value for him and a major portion of his albatross contract.
The Story: Jeff Passan predicts the Angels to have the sixth-highest Opening Day payroll.
The Monkey Says: He has them just north of $145 million, which is actually down from the $154 million last year. I guess that means they could still spend on something if they really wanted to. There really isn’t much worth buying in that $6-9 million range though. Besides, their bigger concern is keeping their tax number down. Their reduced payroll is more about staying below the tax line enough to have wiggle room to add someone at the trade deadline. That is how I read it, at least.
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