The Case For Resigning David Freese

The slowest offseason of player acquisition in memory trudges on and the Angels, somehow, can still improve the roster if they’re just willing to shell out a little money. All the big-ticket players are off the board other than Yoenis Cespedes, but Arte Moreno has thus far proven too cheap to pay a minor luxury tax for the premiere players anyway.  But there’s still plenty of more affordable options on the market. What about David Freese? Angel fans won’t charge the stadium box office demanding season tickets if Billy Eppler brings Freese back, but it’s the type of move that will cover a hole…somewhere.

It’s possible the Angels already think they filled their third base hole when they traded Trevor Gott to the Nationals for Yunel Escobar. In a sense, they did, as Escobar is a proven MLB veteran with a higher floor than farmhands Kaleb Cowart and Kyle Kubitza. Escobar matched his career-high with a 120 wRC+ last season—thanks to some tremendous batted ball luck, but still. Cool, fine. If Escobar starts 150 games at third base this season he probably won’t be the reason the Angels fail to qualify for the postseason.

Escobar’s skeptics would point to his glove, where he was worth minus-11 runs for the Nats last season. I’ll take a glass half-full approach to his defense. He has only played 156 career games at the hot corner, perhaps a natural learning curve that will bear better defensive fruits in the future. He’ll also have shortstop god Andrelton Simmons to his left, there to suck up any balls Escobar fails to reach. Still, Escobar’s glove is probably better suited for second base anyway, even if we have little evidence to suggest he would succeed there. Though I would point out that anything better than Johnny Giavotella defensively is an upgrade. I have a hard time believing Escobar, an above average defensive shortstop not so long ago, wouldn’t be better than Johnny G at the keystone.

And really, the reason to retain Freese is to replace Giavotella because Escobar is going to play every day regardless. Giavotella is much more popular than Freese among Angels Twitter because he’s short and had a knack for clutch hits last year; meanwhile, Freese is considered a disappointment because he’s not the 2011 World Series MVP we all wanted him to be. (Plus he cost Randall Grichuk, who would look awful nice in left field right now.) Yet, Freese is a better player than Giavotella; FanGraphs WAR credits Freese with 2.2 wins above replacement in 2015 while Johnny G clocks in at 1.1. Despite his high-leverage heroics, Giavotella was still a below average hitter (96 wRC+) while Freese has been consistently above average his entire career with the stick. Freese doesn’t have a sparkling glove himself, but his minus-2 runs saved is superior to Giavotella’s minus-12. Plus, we can also assume Simmons will aid with Freese’s limited range; Albert Pujols is a good-no-longer-great first basemen, but if he misses time in the field with injuries or DH duties, C.J. Cron won’t be able to cover up Giavotella’s mistakes as much as Pujols surely did in 2015.

What happens if Giavotella’s magic in high-leverage plate appearances runs out? In 2015 Giavotella slashed .351/.362/.439 in high-leverage, propped up by a .432 BABIP. When those singles stop falling in—whether through worse luck or better defensive shifting or both—can Giavotella make up the difference in lost clutch production with more extra bases? Probably not.

The case for Giavotella is that he’s four years younger than Freese and much cheaper, basically “free” for a MLB team. Is signing Freese to a guaranteed contract worth several millions worth the extra 1-2 wins he would provide over Giavotella? If the Angels were building towards the future it makes sense to hand Giavotella the second base gig and hope he builds on 2015.. If the Angels want to contend in a crowded American League while Pujols is still useful and Mike Trout is still on the roster then yeah, it probably is worth signing Freese. Every upgrade the Angels can make this winter has to be considered, particularly one as affordable as Freese. He won’t cost a draft pick, like Howie Kendrick would, and if his contract pushed the Angels into the luxury tax the damage would be minimal and temporary, as Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson come off the books after the season with Josh Hamilton joining them a year later. Freese might not fit the mold of the “right player” for which Moreno would allegedly be willing to splurge some tax dollars on, but those players are off the market and it would be foolish to withstand from exceeding a $189 million payroll just because Freese isn’t as sexy as Jason Heyward or David Price. An upgrade is still an upgrade.

Of course, it depends how many years Freese’s camp demands for a new deal. Obviously, anything over three years for Freese would be lunacy, but I can’t imagine that’s the case. With few, if any, teams in need of a third baseman Freese could settle for a team-friendly deal that only lasts a couple seasons. It’s lucky for the Angels no other teams need a third baseman, because while they tinker with the imminent probability of the LF Platoon of Sorrow being a thing an above average MLB third baseman is just sitting there, waiting for a team to scoop him up. In a winter with so much talent available, we’ve already been disappointed that the Angels are seemingly settling for 2016 mediocrity in left field. If they do the same at second base, we better hope Mike Trout has another gear to make up the difference.