Los Angeles Angels have the biggest variance of success in 2019

The Los Angeles Angels have made some interesting moves that nobody saw coming this offseason which is leading to an unexpected 2019 season.

The Los Angeles Angels have been busy this offseason, signing five established big-league names to one-year contracts.

On the pitching side of things, the Angels have brought in Matt Harvey, Trevor Cahill and Cody Allen to shore up the rotation and bullpen. In terms of positioned players, the Angels have signed Justin Bour and Jonathan Lucroy to one-year deals.

Each of these players certainly have upside but they each have a common trait that could be concerning to the Angels; each player has been great in the past and has since regressed, with the exception of Cahill.

The Angels are going with a low-risk approach hoping that these players could turn it around while in Anaheim. The only problem is that the Angels are not the first team to try this strategy and the team has not been particularly great at evaluating free agents in the past.

In fact, it is hard to find a good free agent signing by the Angels over the last few years. Trading for Andrelton Simmons and Justin Upton were good moves but the team then extended Upton on a contract that was worth way more than he will be worth in two-three years.

Back to this offseason: these moves that the Los Angeles Angels are making are certainly low-risk. However, due to the nature of these moves and the team’s track record, I would not expect to get the best out of any of these guys.

There is a good chance that each of these guys continue to regress. If that happens and Zack Cozart cannot rebound, Albert Pujols continues to age, Shohei Ohtani sits out and the starting rotation continues to battle health and production, the Angels could legitimately be one of the worst teams in the American League.

However, if just three of these guys can produce similar to what they did before, Mike Trout does Mike Trout things, Justin Upton doesn’t regress, the rotation stays healthy and Cozart rebounds, well, we very well could be looking at a playoff team.

It is a lot of things to happen on either side but the Angels could realistically fall anywhere from 72 wins to 92 wins. No other MLB team, barring injuries to every single player, realistically have this level of variance.

When your team is a contender there is the comfort knowing that the team will at least be competitive. When your team is rebuilding at least you know you can sit out a year and look to the future.

However, when your team is in the middle, as are the Los Angeles Angels, it is nearly impossible to predict what is going to happen.