With Josh Hamilton out and Howie Kendrick traded, the Angels will be on the lookout for additional sources of offense to help propel a team that finished with the second best offense in the AL to another championship.
It’s strange to think most reports indicate the sky is falling in on the Angels because the Mariners and Astros got better and the Angels are now without Hamilton and Kendrick. But let’s first clear up a few things.
First, Howie Kendrick is a good player. He’s not an annual all-star. He’s not one of the greatest second basemen ever. He isn’t a middle of the order hitter or a top notch run-producer. He’s a GOOD PLAYER. This means he was solid both at the plate and in the field. But it isn’t as if they’re replacing .300 and 30 HR’s in their lineup. More, they’re replacing a .292 hitter with 10 HR’s. That’s not so bad. Their current second base options aren’t great but there’s certainly some hope that Green, Rutledge, Giavotella or Featherston can at least make up for a little of that. It isn’t as if they’ll hit .000 with zero homeruns or stolen bases
Second, Losing Josh Hamilton isn’t a blow. He gave them very little at the pate last year and it isn’t clear whether or not Joyce/Cowgill in LF is any worse or even possibly an improvement over Hamilton.
Third, Recouping some of the lost offense may fall on the shoulders of several players.
- Mike Trout – He might cut down on the K’s, raise his batting average and steal more bases. In other words, he alone has a chance at singlehandedly making up for the difference between Kendrick and Rutledge.
- Albert Pujols – Yeah he’s old, but this is the first year he’s reported to Spring Training completely healthy.
- David Freese – Not disappearing at the plate for 2-3 months would go a long way in helping. Also, he’s heading into a contract year, which means potential big money.
- Kole Calhoun – Last year was his first in the majors. It isn’t out of the world to think Calhoun will probably get better.
- C.J. Cron – He was good last year for his first go-around in the big leagues. He showed his power plays up in a major way. Now if he can find some consistency and a little patience, he could become a monster. If nothing else, it isn’t strange to think a player can improve after his first year in the majors.
Anyway, back to the whole subject of the article, Carlos Quentin. The Padres can’t use him in the OF anymore, both because he can’t play the OF and also because they traded for Upton, Myers and Kemp. They also haven’t broached the idea of him playing first base. They also might want to get rid of part of the 8 million he’s owed this year, his last of his contact.
Granted, Quentin was awful last year, but as we’ve seen with Albert, if you don’t have legs to stand on, you can’t hit. Quentin has had chronic injury woes in his career and last year he was playing on nothing-knees. Supposedly, he’s feeling 100% again, but just in case, the Padres may want to use him at DH in Spring Training to see if they can deal him to someone in the AL in need of one. Before last year, Quentin had shown throughout his career that he was a middle of the order force to be reckoned with. His 162 game average for his career is .252/.347 with 34 doubles and 30 homeruns.
Now no one actually believes he’ll hit like that. But even in 2012 and 2013 Quentin showed that in only a half season’s worth of AB’s (due to injury of course), Carlos Quentin was still capable of posting an OBP of .374 and .363 and smacking 21 doubles and either 13 or 16 HR’s.
Translation, even if you know he’s going to be hurt, he’s still a great clean up hitter for half the season.
With Hamilton out and Cron being unproven at DH, the Angels may want to strongly consider trading for Quentin. He may end up being an absolute steal for the Angels. It’s possible playing DH only keeps him from being injured, and if that’s the case the Angels my infuse a .350 OBP and 20-30 HR’s to their lineup by trading for him. In fact, Quentin likely would cost the Angels almost nothing in return.
Seeing as they’re approximately 15 million under the luxury tax cap, The Angels could easily afford bringing in Quentin. But that’s an 8 million dollar gamble. A huge gamble on someone that hit .177 last year (though as we said, he was hurt). But if this became a 5 million dollar gamble, suddenly it looks promising for the Angels as they’d still have another 10 million of wiggle room later on.
They wouldn’t even have to add in a prospect or player that is critical toward their success. Perhaps one of their lower level prospects such as Rucinski or Stamets would do. Or the Angels could even thin out the second base competition and send Johnny Giavotella to the Padres to compete for playing time over there. If it saves the Padres 5 million, you have to think they’d do it.
In the event that Quentin is healthy and thus killing the baseball, Joyce would play LF until Hamilton was healthy again (May or June?) and Cron would be a power bat off the bench of fine tuning his approach in AAA. In the event that Quentin is washed up, Cron/Joyce are the DH and Joyce/Cowgill are the LF, which is where the Angels are at right now. If Hamilton returns to glory, no problem, just slot either Quentin or Joyce at DH and the other on the bench. Both could even give Pujols a day off at 1B.
The more you look at Carlos Quentin as a DH or bench option for the Angels, the more it makes sense.
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