Arte Moreno may be happy just to be rid of Josh Hamilton, but he’s got to be a little it happy to get some financial savings from dealing him as well. OK, maybe he’s a lot happy about it. The Angels have been living in fear of the luxury tax line for the last few years, but trading Josh Hamilton got them some additional leeway. That leeway gives them plenty of flexibility to operate on the trade market this year, so what do they plan to do with it?
Depending on how the cash payments from Texas are worked out, the Halos went from about $12 million under the tax line, space created almost entirely by trading Howie Kendrick, to between $17 and $20 million. That’s enough room to make whatever kind of deal the Angels desire without having to worry about the luxury tax implications. Clearly they have big plans for that spending room, otherwise it means they dumped Kendrick and Hamilton just to pad the profits for Arte Moreno and he’d never do that, right?
Right?
Even with a thin far system, the Angels simply have to make use of that $20 million in tax space on the trade market. They already whiffed on their chance to use this year’s space to sign someone like Huston Street to a more luxury tax friendly extension. It is trade or bust now. Considering that the Angels are a World Series or bust team, that’s a whole lot of potential busting going on if Dipoto doesn’t work his trade market magic.
The most obvious need for the Angels is another bat, preferably a left-handed slugger, preferably a left fielder. Ironic, I know. Maybe had they kept Hamilton he could’ve helped a little in his declining state, but the Angels don’t need a little help in the black hole that their left field has turned into, they need to do something significant.
The problem is that there isn’t a whole lot of significance to be had. The best of the outfield trade market are all expensive underachievers like Carlos Gonzalez, Jay Bruce and (gulp) Shin-Soo Choo. The last thing the Angels should be doing is going down that road again, but they may not really have any other choice as the market isn’t much better even if you expand your criteria to include right-handers and more DH-types.
A lot of that has to do with how tightly bunched the standings are right now. There are almost no teams that look like obvious sellers right now. There’s the Twins, who have nobody worth acquiring, and the Phillies whose only assets are on the pitching side. Once we get closer to the deadline, the contenders and pretenders will shake themselves out a bit more, but even trying to project for that, there doesn’t look to be much in the way of a top-tier talent being made available.
But maybe top-tier talent isn’t what the Angels were targeting by clearing this additional financial wiggle room. If we’re honest, the $12 million in room they had before should’ve been enough to pay for half a season of a guy with a $20+ million annual salary. Perhaps what they were hoping for with the millions they saved is the ability to make multiple moves. After all, it isn’t like there is just one flaw on this roster.
Left field desperately needs help, but if C.J. Cron‘s recent hot streak doesn’t hold up, the DH slot is going to be just as big of a barren wasteland for production. If Johnny Giavotella‘s hot start isn’t real, the Angels could look to upgrade there. Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson, Matt Shoemaker and Hector Santiago have all displayed varying degrees of shakiness early on, so a more reliable rotation option could be needed. It certainly never hurts to acquire more bullpen talent either.
Whatever the plan is, and I sure do hope there is an actual plan, the Angels only get one shot at it. The savings they got from moving Hamilton are the biggest and most impactful in 2015 as their luxury tax situation isn’t nearly as dire going forward. If they don’t make use of that luxury tax room this season, then they really did just dump Hamilton for the sake of dumping him and lining Arte Moreno’s pockets… but it isn’t about the money, or so I’m told.
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