Los Angeles Angels offseason target: Yasmani Grandal

The Los Angeles Angels are going to be shopping this winter to continue to build towards the playoffs. That is where a power-hitting, seasoned bat can come in handy.

The Los Angeles Angels are going to continue to build towards being a true World Series contender as long as Mike Trout is on the team. With Mike Trout, there is no rebuilding mode; every year has the potential to be the year.

That has led the Angels to make some pretty bad moves in past years and some pretty great ones as well. The addition of Andrelton Simmons is such an underrated move and is one of the best over the last three years.

However, it has also caused the Angels to overpay and over commit to guys like Zack Cozart, who missed 104 games in his first season as an Angel and was not great in the 58 that he played. While Cozart has plenty of time to return to all-star form, his .217 batting average and .658 are legit reasons for concern.

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This winter the Angels are going to have to balance on the fine line between adding pieces that could help and staying away from bad fits. One of the names that will be naturally tossed around for the Angels is Los Angeles Dodgers catcher, Yasmani Grandal.

Grandal is a natural candidate right away for the Angels considering the fact that the team is not great at the catcher position. Thus, Grandal, among others, will be dissected heavily by the Lakers.

Grandal is entering free agency this summer and with the Dodgers being stacked at catcher in the minor leagues, likely will not be a Dodger in 2019.

However, if Grandal loves Southern California and wants to continue to build his family here, well, the Los Angeles Angels or San Diego Padres are his only options.

The Angels make sense. Being an American League team, Grandal’s power stroke would fit in perfectly with the Halos. Although his fielding is not great, he is an excellent pitch framer and would be a great seasoned veteran that is not too far over the hill to help this young pitching staff.

Grandal finished the 2018 season with a .241 batting average, 24 home runs and 61 RBIs. Grandal joins Salvador Perez as the only two catchers with 20 or more home runs in each of the last three seasons and is the third-best catcher in baseball over that time, per FanGraphs’ WAR.

Perhaps the biggest gripe with Grandal is his tendency to be red hot and then ice cold right away. Grandal can look like one of the best hitters in the league when he is swinging a hot bat and getting pitches to hit.

However, when he is in a slump, it is much worse than traditional slumps in the league and he simply looks lost at the plate. Grandal is a career .307 hitter in the month of July and a career .204 hitter in August. As soon as that calendar turns to August the production flips.

Grandal would be protected in the Angels’ lineup that is filled with other power hitters. Most importantly, it gives the Angels a serious left-handed hitting power bat. The team does not have that, aside from Shohei Ohtani, and would benefit from Grandal hitting on the left side.

Granted, he is a switch hitter so he will not exclusively be on the left side but that is where most of Grandal’s power numbers come from.

Yasmani Grandal is an interesting catcher this offseason. He has the statistics, the experience and the age to get the kind of contract he wants. Yet still, a bad postseason has hurt his market value, which may actually help out the Los Angeles Angels.