Los Angeles Angels: Corey Kluber is the right next move, but is risky

The Los Angeles Angels may have missed out on Gerrit Cole but made a quick pivot and signed the next biggest free agent, Anthony Rendon.

The Los Angeles Angels‘ biggest target this winter was Gerrit Cole, who ultimately signed a nine-year, $324 million contract with the New York Yankees, breaking the record for the largest contract given to a pitcher and clocking in at the third-largest contract of all-time behind Bryce Harper and Mike Trout.

The Angels did not take much time after Cole signed with the Yankees to make a follow-up move, as the team signed Anthony Rendon to a seven-year, $245 million contract.

It was a quick pivot for the Angels and went against what we knew heading into the offseason. While the offense undoubtedly gets better with Rendon, the big need entering the winter was pitching, and Rendon is a very expensive person to sign that does not help the pitching staff whatsoever.

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Thus, the Angels have to mull over the leftover options on who to bring in on the pitching staff and they might not have as much money to spend as fans would like to think. With Rendon and Spotrac’s estimated arbitration numbers, the Angels’ payroll is sitting at $153 million.

This is important as the team has never gone over the $175 million mark but they certainly have tip-toed it. They did not sign Dallas Keuchel to a one-year deal during the season and it is safe to say that this has been the team’s self-imposed budget.

They certainly could go over the budget and perhaps signing Rendon is a sign that they will, but they still do not have unlimited funds. So while there are options such as Madison Bumgarner, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Keuchel available on the free-agent market, they might only be able to bring in one.

Another name that has been floated around for the Los Angeles Angels is Corey Kluber, who is the right person for the team to pursue this winter, the only problem being that it is a very risky move that does not have a lot of long-term giveback.

What makes Kluber such a great fit on the Angels is his salary, as he is only set to make $17.5 million next season, which is a bargain for a pitcher in 2020. He also has a club option after this year, so if things do blow up, it is not a long-term commitment.

But that is the problem, even if the Angels exercise their club option he only has one more year on his contract and who knows where he is at as a pitcher at that point in his career. This very well could be a trade that only impacts the team for a maximum of two seasons.

However, it is still a move that the team has to make. It has already made it clear that it has intents of winning, based on the Rendon signing, and they cannot simply sit and twidle their thumbs and not make a move.

Kluber, at his best, is a Cy Young caliber pitcher that is better than both Bumgarner and Ryu and is going to be cheaper as well. The problem is that he is coming off a season in which he only made seven starts, had an ERA over 5.00 and showed negative signs with his velocity and spin rate.

While he had only a fifth of the sample size, he posted the highest barrel percentage of his career and the highest hard-hit percentage of his career. He was only in the 14th percentile in fastball velocity, 57th percentile in curveball spin rate and 71st percentile in fastball spin rate.

Spin rate has become an important measure of pitchers and how good their stuff is compared to their numbers. Kluber has been trending downwards.

That makes it risky, however, the Indians are seeing the same thing and because of that the Los Angeles Angels likely won’t have to surrender a top-100 prospect, although it could take Jared Walsh and Griffin Canning to make it happen.

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But, like we said, the Los Angeles Angels are kind of backed up against the wall and with the remaining options, Kluber is the best fit.

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