Los Angeles Angels’ best remaining move is trading for Matthew Boyd

The Los Angeles Angels do not have much more that they can do this offseason but one thing that the team could pull off is trading for southpaw Matthew Boyd.

The Los Angeles Angels did not get the big-name pitcher that the fans were hoping for heading into the offseason as the biggest target of the winter, Gerrit Cole, signed a record-setting deal with the New York Yankees.

Stephen Strasburg decided to stay in the Nation’s Capital, Madison Bumgarner wanted to be on another Dodgers’ division rival and the Angels did not net either Dallas Kuechel or Hyun-Jin Ryu, despite both signing not-so-bad of contracts.

What the Angels have added thus far, outside of the huge signing of Anthony Rendon, is Julio Teheran and Dylan Bundy. Both moves are good in their own respective right as both Teheran and Bundy are innings eaters, but they certainly do not fix the problems that the Angels have.

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The Angels have more work to do and at this point in the offseason, there is not much more that the team could do. The idea of trading for David Price has been floated around online, but the Angels would be taking in too much salary in return, making it an unlikely trade to occur.

Right now, as we head into the new year, the best thing that the Los Angeles Angels can do is trade for Matthew Boyd, which presents its own risks as well. However, if the Angels can trade for Boyd and sign another depth starting pitcher, such as Alex Wood, the team might not be so bad in the pitching department after all.

According to Jon Morosi of MLB Network, the Angels and Tigers were engaged in trade talks for Boyd and one of the names mentioned was Brandon Marsh, who is expendable for the Angels. With Jo Addell in the wings, the Angels do not need Marsh and would benefit much more from using his trade value for starting pitching.

Boyd has a decently high ceiling and has shown signs of being a productive and consistent pitcher at the big league level. While his 4.56 ERA from last season does not appear to tell that story, Boyf had a really strong first two months where he showed how good he could be.

When playing for a team that is going to be more competitive like the Angels, Boyd might pitch more like the early-season version of himself than the late-season version. While he still not going to be at all-star-caliber, as long as he can keep games close and be reliable it is a win for the Angels.

At this point, that is all the team can really hope for. The best route might be to stack the rotation, which in this case would be trading for Boyd and signing Wood, giving the team seven starting pitching options to help rest guys and give the team depth when injury strikes.

The Los Angeles Angels do not need an elite pitching staff to win games, they just need one that can be good enough to keep the offense in the game. It could become a problem in October, but right now, there isn’t really anything else the team can do.