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Long overdue, but the Angels are down to three arbitration cases. Weaver, Howie, Napoli and Reggie all signed for 1-year deals before last Tuesday's deadline to exchange arbitration figures. I was pleasantly surprised that they avoided arbitration with Weaver, but I was still hoping for a multi-year deal. Saunders, Aybar, Mathis are still unsigned, while Izzy got a 3year/$10M deal today. The most worrisome case to me is the nearly $1M difference in Aybar's case.
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I definitely like the deal for Izzy. He's one of the best backup infielders and he's good enough to be a starter. The price might seem high for a bench player, but Izzy is a premium bench/platoon player which I think makes the deal a great bargain. In fact, I think the deal might be too good. No doubt that Izzy could get a better deal on the FA market next year, and he probably could get a starting job. So I hope the reason he signed has more to do with him liking the organization rather than the FO promising potential playing time. Izzy is great and dependable, but I (and a good deal of the fans) don't want him blocking BWood. Furthermore, I'm still a believer in Howie's upside despite his close to crash-and-burn status last season. So what's gonna be Izzy's role? My hope is that Izzy is for insurance and his usual backup infielder versatility.
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The Dodgers were able to lock up Kemp, Either, Broxton to multi-year deals and I'm hoping that the Angels will lock some up too. Izzy's deal was nice, but he's not the core of the team. Aybar, KMo (who's signed), Weaver, Santana (who's signed), and Saunders. That's the young core. (I'd actually put Howie as part of the young core too, but I think it'll be better to wait to see what he does next season.) Weaver will be hard to lock up, but signing Saunders looks promising with only $250K difference in arbitration figures. Signing Saundo would definitely make me happy - I love his tough-but-quiet demeanor on the mound and, like Izzy, he's undervalued. I'm hoping that Aybar can be signed too, but waiting one more year won't hurt.
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The prices of these arbitration raises can easily explain Reagin's frugal strategy on the FA market. It'll be interesting to see the total raises once all the arbitration cases are settled.
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I absolutely agree with this commentor at Halosheaven:
"You know what this offseason is? A challenge/gamble to our young core: OK, which one of you is going to be a star? ... This young core is getting more expensive every year, limiting our ability to go after free agents, but they’re also all around 26, 27 years old. A couple of breakout seasons and we’ll forget all about what a lousy offseason this was supposed to be."
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