What's Next For The Angels Now That Shohei Ohtani is Gone?
The day that every Angels fan has dreaded since the season ended has come as reigning two-time American League MVP Shohei Ohtani has agreed to a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The post was announced by Ohtani via his Instagram. The Angels are now without one of their two generational superstars, leaving Mike Trout alone in Anaheim again.
During Ohtani's tenure with the Angels, they failed to reach the postseason or even put together a winning season. The closest they ever came was in Ohtani's rookie year in 2018, when they finished 80-82, 23 games back from first place in the AL West and 16 games out of the Wild Card.
After having what are considered two of the greatest players to ever play the game of baseball, Ohtani's tenure with the Angels will always be remembered as an organizational failure with an inability to win in the present or build for a better future. This will rest on owner Arte Moreno's shoulders for the rest of his tenure with the team.
The Angels continuously failed Ohtani and now he's gone. The question that everyone is asking now is, what's next?
Here's everything you need to know about where the Angels stand, and what could come next in their offseason
What's Mike Trout's Status With the Angels?
Before Ohtani came to the Angels in 2018, the franchise's star was Trout. During that time, Trout was a two-time AL MVP, a four-time Silver Slugger, and a five-time All-Star.
However, while Trout has been dominant in his time with the Angels, the monkey on his back throughout his whole career is that he has only made the playoffs once back in 2014 when the Angels finished with the best record in the MLB but were swept by the Kansas City Royals.
During that postseason, Trout went 1-12 with a home run.
Since then, the baseball world has been starved of seeing Trout in the playoffs — the Angels need to try to fix that.
Earlier this week, Angels general manager Perry Minasian said that nobody on the Angels is off limits aside from Mike Trout. Moving forward, it seems that the Angels will have to find another way to build around the three-time AL MVP once again.
What Does the Angels' Farm System Look Like?
Right now, the Angels have one of the worst minor league systems in baseball as they nearly gutted the whole thing last season at the trade deadline in an attempt to convince Ohtani they are committed to winning by making an aggressive move to make the postseason.
However, the move soured. The Angels went 17-38 and nearly waived every player they traded for.
With a depleted farm system and one of your best players gone, you would think the Angels would consider maybe trying to enter a rebuild. They're not.
Ron Washington Hire Signals a Plan to Win
In the beginning of November, the Angels made a splash as they hired Ron Washington to take over as the manager for the team. So far, he has put together a very impressive staff, arguably one of the best coaching staff the organization has seen since Mike Scioscia was the manager.
Just three weeks ago, Minasian stated that the Angels are planning to be very aggressive this offseason and don't plan to rebuild.
The only way the Angels will be able to do this moving forward is by attracting players to come via free agency.
Last year, the Angels had a spark of a youth movement in Anaheim as names like Logan O'Hoppe, Mickey Moniak, Zach Neto, and Nolan Schanuel all found themselves contributing to the Halos roster and being big pieces of it.
Aside from those four youngsters, the Angels still have many holes they need to fill.
What Holes Do the Angels Need to Fill on Their Roster?
They will need to acquire at least one more corner outfielder, somebody who can play third base in case Anthony Rendon gets injured again. They also will need at least two more starting pitchers to lead the rotation.
Right now, the Angels front runner to be the ace of the staff would be Patrick Sandoval, but he struggled mightily in 2023. The Angels could look to replace Ohtani by signing reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell.
Last season, Snell went 14-9 with a 2.25 ERA in 180 innings pitched, the highest he has done since 2018 when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Expect the Angels to be very active in the starting pitcher market, as they look to put together a much better staff.
In terms of filling in at the outfield, the Angels could look to add a few players and move guys around in the DH position. One outfielder that they have been rumored with is Cody Bellinger.
After starting to decline with the Dodgers from 2020 to 2022, Bellinger had a remarkable year last season with the Chicago Cubs hitting .307 with a .881 OPS and logging 26 home runs, and 97 RBIs, the first time he put up numbers similar to his 2019 NL MVP season.
Another name that I could see the Angels looking to bring in would be Kiké Hernandez, who has spent most of his career playing between the Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox.
Hernandez is a utility man who could spend some time playing in the outfield and also in the infield, being able to split time with Rendon at third base and allowing him to platoon between third base and DH.
With Ohtani officially signing away to the Dodgers, the doors for free agency are officially open. Expect to see the Angels remain aggressive this offseason.
