Los Angeles Angels should join the fun, trade for Dee Gordon

The Seattle Mariners are having their own sale for the holidays and the Los Angeles Angels are in the market for a certain lead-off middle infielder.

The Los Angeles Angels are in the market for a second baseman after trading Ian Kinsler last season and especially with the worry of Zack Cozart flopping for a second straight year.

The team already made a move to bolster the infield depth by trading for Tommy La Stella from the Chicago Cubs. While La Stella has shown some potential and has some good numbers behind his name, he is not someone the Angels should be banking on to be a great everyday second baseman.

That is why the Los Angeles Angels should hit up fellow American League West team, the Seattle Mariners, to take part in the Mariners flash sale of the winter. The product in particular that the Angels should be shopping for? Dee Gordon.

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The Mariners have made some moves and are pretty close to a massive move. The massive move is sending Robinson Cano to the New York Mets alongside Edwin Diaz for Jay Bruce and some prospects.

This is a move to free up Cano’s massive contract, something the Mariners are still going to have to pay a portion of, to create opportunities in the future.

The Mariners are definitely not focused on getting better right now.

This is especially evident when considering that the Mariners traded elite reliever Alex Colome to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for catcher Omar Narvaez. Narvaez has put together some decent numbers, to be fair, but it was his youth and the fact that he is under contract until 2022 that made this deal happen. Not that he helps the team this season.

With the Mariners’ goal of restructuring the entire franchise in mind, the Los Angeles Angels can get an absolute steal for infielder Dee Gordon.

The Angels are in a weird spot where they have to add talent wherever they can get it in order to have success to hopefully keep Mike Trout from leaving once his contract expires.

Gordon’s contract is not great, but certainly is not terrible. However, with the Mariners wanting to free up money, dealing Gordon makes sense.

Gordon is owed $26.5 million over the next two seasons with a vested option worth $14 million in 2021. Gordon gets the option if he has 600 plate appearances in 2020 or a combined 1200 in 2019 and 2020.

This timeline fits perfectly with Trout and if the Los Angeles Angels still cannot get it done, the front office has comfort in knowing that Gordon would not hurt the team long-term.

Meanwhile, Gordon presents the team the speedy lead-off hitter that it has lacked. Having someone like Gordon that can get on base and steal his way into scoring position is going to have a huge impact on the entire season.

The Angels three-bat punch of Andrelton Simmons, Mike Trout and Justin Upton. Having someone like Gordon ahead of those three is going to bolster all of their production numbers.

The best part? It is not going to cost a fortune. The Mariners are seeking young controllable players or prospects with some upside. Since Gordon has that somewhat hefty contract, it only drives his price down less.

This deal could be focused around middle infield prospect Kevin Maitan, who the Angels signed after the Braves were forced to give him up. Maitan is the team’s seventh-ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline but is someone that has a high ceiling that the Mariners could be interested in.

Throw in another top prospect in the top-30 that is farther down the list, such as William English, and this is a deal that Mariners cannot refuse.

dark. Next. Angels should stay away from Yusei Kikuchi

English might be the team’s 25th-ranked prospect but he has a ton of upside as a pitcher with a great bat. After signing Shohei Ohtani and seeing his success, the Angels are letting him work on both his hitting and pitching, which provides a world of possibilities for the Mariners.

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