Offseason Needs: American League West

The virtual Winter Meetings have finished a second week. With activity and rumors picking up around Major League Baseball, I am going to go division by division over the next week to suggest what moves each team should make this offseason.

The tour around the big league ends in the American League West, which has the makings of a potential power shift coming in 2021.

Los Angeles Angels

Sign Trevor Bauer.

This is the move that makes the most sense for both sides. The Angels have an offense that can win with players like Anthony Rendon, Justin Upton, David Fletcher, future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols, Shohei Ohtani and the best player in all of MLB Mike Trout. Bauer has said many times he wants to win, and he wants to be seen as the missing link for a championship level team, and that is exactly what he would be with the Angels, the missing ace to go with the champion caliber offense. The Angels’ fans have gotten #BauertoAnaheim trending multiple times, which as we know from his YouTube videos has caught his attention. The Angles are also the one team that can offer Bauer the opportunity to pitch every fourth day like he has said he wants. The Angels like to keep Ohtani on his Japan schedule of pitching once a week, so this allows Joe Maddon to be able to let Bauer pitch every fourth day and keep everyone else in their rotation on a close to every fifth day schedule.

Outside of Bauer, Maddon has said he wants the team to add multiple starting pitchers in the offseason and adding Masahiro Tanaka makes a lot of sense. Tanaka can help give Ohtani tips on staying healthy and finally making the adjustment to MLB hitters, and Tanaka is still very productive pitcher to have in your rotation with a career 3.74 ERA and 17.5 WAR.

Bauer, Tanaka, Ohtani, Dylan Bundy (6-3 with a 3.29 ERA in 2020), Andrew Heaney (4.35 career ERA in Anaheim) and Griffin Canning (3.99 ERA in 2020) would have the making of a rotation that is finally strong enough to get Trout and company back to the playoffs.

To make a deep run in the playoffs, the Angels need to continue to strengthen their bullpen. They have already added groundball and lefty specialist Alex Claudio on a one-year deal and traded for Raisel Igelsias. Both of these add will help in the late innings, but an addition of a pitcher like Blake Treinen from free agency (67 saves during three seasons in Oakland and a career 3.02 ERA) and using two-way player Jared Walsh a bit more on the mound (one run allowed in five inning of work) would definitely help solidify the late innings.

Seattle Mariners

The Mariners have the AL Rookie of the Year in Kyle Lewis and got strong years in 2020 out of J.P. Crawford, Marco Gonzales and Justus Sheffield. This has the making of a young core that could finally end the longest playoff drought in the four major professional sports. The Mariners have already added to the team this offseason by trading for Rafael Montero and signing Keynan Middleton to strengthen the bullpen. In the sense of adding to the team, I wrote in an earlier article that the Mariners should acquire Jean Segura and Vince Velasquez from the Phillies for Donovan Walton and Yusei Kikuchi. Segura could play third, which would help strengthen the lineup by allowing Kyle Seager to move to the full-time DH role. Velasquez can be a potential swing arm in the bullpen that could make occasional starts if needed. Moving Walton frees up space for Shed Long and Ty France to get more innings, and moving Kikuchi frees up some money and rotation space.

To fill this rotation space, I believe the Mariners should target veterans to help young arms like Gonzales, Sheffield and Justin Dunn continue to develop. There are two arms that really fit that mold. The first is Taijuan Walker, who started last season in Seattle and was a leader in the clubhouse until he was traded at the deadline. Walker was better after moving to Toronto (1.37 ERA after trade, 4.00 before), but still had a good year overall (2.70 ERA) and could continue to add veteran presence and leadership to the Mariners clubhouse.

Another good arm for the Mariners to target would be Jon Lester. He is a Washington native (Tacoma) and coming off back-to-back down years, so Seattle maybe able to get him for lower than normal while adding a pitcher with multiple World Series rings on his hand to help the young arms. Also, for Lester, he has two rings with the Red Sox and a ring with the Cubs, so being a part of the team that broke the playoff drought in Seattle would be another big add to his legacy as he reaches the final few years of his career.

Speaking of Washington connections, Michael Brantley is a free agent. Brantley’s father Mickey spent his entire career in Seattle, and the Mariners could use a veteran professional hitter to help solidify leftfield while helping young outfielders like Lewis, Dylan Moore and Tim Lopes develop as hitters and outfielders.

Oakland Athletics

The A’s won the division last year but had to fight back from being down 0-1 to the White Sox in the Wild Card Round before being eliminated by the Astros in the ALDS. Being the small market, Moneyball A’s, they are even more looking for value in 2021 after the season that was in 2020.

Re-signing Tommy La Stella and Mike Fiers would be two solid players to keep for cheap off of last year’s club. La Stella can provide depth on the infield while Fiers provides consistent innings for the rotation with a lot of young options around him.

For the bullpen, players like Hansel Robles and former Athletic Jesse Chavez could be two good adds of pitchers with past success looking to rebuild value after rough 2020 seasons. These moves are the moves the A’s make and keep the team in thick of things in 2021 without having to spend a ton of money, but the Athletics are potentially looking like a team that could take a step back if young players like A.J. Pulk don’t produce like expected.

Houston Astros

The Astros dealt with a lot of injuries in 2020, but still managed to make the playoffs and come within a win of returning to the World Series. With the young pitchers that stepped up in 2020 and the return of Yordan Álvarez in 2021, the Astros still look to be competitive.

Kyle Tucker (.269 with nine home runs) had a very solid 2020 and Myles Straw got more playing time, which could set him up for a bigger role in 2021, which means the outfield is really only missing one more solid starter. This where the Astros should target Joc Pederson. He would instantly provide a power hitting bat to solidify one of the corner spots while rebuilding his value after a rough regular season. His postseason number should give Astros fans hops that he will produce in Houston in what hopefully is a full season in 2021.

Texas Rangers

Play young guys and start to shop Joey Gallo and Elvis Andrus. The Rangers have been sitting in the middle since 2016. Sitting in the middle is what hurts teams in the long run in any sport but especially baseball. The Rangers need to finally make the turn toward the future and retooling this offseason and in 2021.

Starting to shop Gallo and Andrus this offseason will lay the groundwork for moving them at the deadline for packages that when combined with seeing what young players can make an impact at the MLB level can set this team up for a quick rebuild instead of the long process like the Tigers and Orioles are completing over the next few seasons.