Los Angeles Angels: It is safe to say the 2019 offseason was a dud

The Los Angeles Angels brought in some new names in the 2019 offseason, all of which fell far short of expectations in 2019.

The Los Angeles Angels made some interesting signings this past free agency period. The front office decided to stick exclusively with one-year deals, which is understandable, it is just the players that they brought in there were questionable.

They all had something in common: they were all players that were once very good but have since regressed. The mindset here with the Angels had to have been that the team could find what was missing over of the last few years.

Matt Harvey is a former all-star and Cy Young candidate, Cody Allen was once one of the best closers in the league, Justin Bour was once a very solid left-handed bat, Jonathan Lucroy was once one of the best catchers in the game and Trevor Cahill was once a consistent innings eater.

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Of course, the Angels likely did not expect the absolute best out of each one of these guys, but it is safe to say that the team expected better than they got out of that group.

Of those five names, Cahill is the only one that is still on the big league roster, albeit he is no longer in the starting rotation and was moved to the bullpen with his 6.28 ERA. his time may be running out.

Bour is the only other player that is still in the organization, although it won’t be surprising to see him go as he is in the minor leagues with a .183 average and -0.4 WAR in the big leagues.

Allen was the first to be released as he quickly lost his closer job early on in the year and wasn’t great at all. Harvey followed suit after spending a lot of time on the IL with an ERA over seven.

And just recently, the Angels released Lucroy, who had a promising start with the Halos to start the year but was not great offensively and was poor defensively.

In fact, these five guys have a combined -1.8 wins above replacement on FanGraphs. Not a single one of them had a WAR over zero.

Now, there have been some standouts that were not expected. Tommy La Stella and Brian Goodwin have exceeded expectations and have given the Angels something promising to look at from this past season.

But as a collective whole, Angel fans cannot be happy with the performance of the team in the offseason. I get that the team only wanted to sign one-year deals and that limited their options, but there were much better options that signed one-year deals.

Dallas Keuchel signed a one-year deal after the MLB Draft and has already been more valuable than all but three Angel starters this year. Mike Moustakas is making less than Harvey, Jonathan Schoop is making less than Trevor Cahill and Cody Allen and standout lefty, Wade Miley, is only making $4.5 million this year.

So there not only were standouts that signed one-year deals but there were affordable standouts that signed one-year deals. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20 but we were questioning the Angels’ signings when they happen, much to the dismay of Angel fans that read our articles.

At the end of the day, the Los Angeles Angels still have a long time to put together a contender around Mike Trout. However, because of their swings and misses this past offseason, this current team is not a legitimate contender.