Los Angeles Angels: A David Price trade shouldn’t and won’t happen

The Los Angeles Angels are waking up on Christmas Day hoping to find starting pitching in their stockings but cannot be overly desperate for certain options.

The Los Angeles Angels signed the biggest position player free agent of the offseason and it still feels like the offseason was not a complete win. While the offense undoubtedly got better with Anthony Rendon, the team could not address the biggest need: starting pitching.

The Angels have tried to address the starting rotation by trading for Dylan Bundy and Julio Teheran and both of those moves are good for a certain purpose. Both Bundy and Teheran are guys who are reliable in staying healthy and can provide innings for the Angels in the middle-to-back of the rotation.

But if those are the two best starting pitchers that the team signs this winter, well, that is going to be a problem.

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With Hyun-Jin Ryu signing with the Toronto Blue Jays, there are not any more frontline starting options on the free-agent market. Thus, the Halos are likely going to have to turn to a trade to add pitching.

There are not very intriguing options, although there are fun possibilities such as J.A. Happ, Caleb Smith or Matthew Boyd. Again, none of those three are all-star-caliber but they would make the Angels better.

The one big-name that is a former all-star and Cy Young candidate that is also a realistic trade target is David Price. Price is no longer the pitcher he once was, but with the Boston Red Sox wanting to cut salary, he becomes a prime candidate to be dealt.

Some Angel fans have gotten excited about the idea of adding Price, and on paper, it is great. The Angels theoretically don’t need to send a jaw-dropping prospect package as the biggest cost of the trade is taking on Price’s salary.

However, it is that salary that is the reason why this should not and will not happen this winter. Price is set to make $32 million in each of the next three years, which is awfully a lot for a pitcher of his caliber.

A team that has luxury tax space and needs Price to be the third-best pitcher in the rotation could justify taking on that money, but it is still a stretch. The Angels are not in that situation as they would be taking on that money for Price to be the ace of the staff, or at least 1A behind Shohei Ohtani, restricting them from really doing anything over the next few years.

The free-agent pitching market is slim in the next few years but there are better options than Price, especially at that price point. Heck, it would be better for the Angels to bring in three okay pitchers on one-year deals at $10 million each than pay price $32 million across three more years.

Yes, that strategy did not work last offseason but it is still better than taking on Price. There are some potential bounceback options available, such as Alex Wood, that could be better this season. Plus, this would give the team eight viable starting pitchers, which is huge for a team that has struggled with injuries and depth in the recent past.

Those are the reasons why it should not happen, and as for why it won’t happen, it all has to do with a self-imposed budget that the Los Angeles Angels have set.

We have no inside knowledge on the situation and this is by no means reporting anything, but it is pretty easy to see the trends that the Angels have laid out. The team has never gone over $175 million in payroll, despite the luxury tax threshold being above $200 million.

The Angels are at $162 million. So unless Arte Moreno has raised that budget, chances are that the Angels are going to spend, at most, around $15 million more this winter.

It’s not like the team hasn’t had chances in going over that budget, either. The team could have signed Dallas Keuchel last year, who ended up signing a one-year, $21.2 million contract with the Atlanta Braves. The Angels could have paid Keuchel $25 million if they wanted to and would have stayed under the luxury tax threshold.

At the end of the day, unless the Boston Red Sox are willing to pay half of Price’s salary (which is unlikely), then chances are that David Price will not be traded to the Los Angeles Angels.