Angels Could Use David Fletcher, Luis Rengifo To Fill Shortstop Position

Ron Gutterman
Ron Gutterman
3 Min Read
Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Angels enter the 2021-22 offseason with some very pressing questions. The biggest of these is obviously surrounding their pitching, as it has been for several years now. However, they also have to do something about the shortstop position.

The Angels went into the 2021 season with Jose Iglesias as the team’s everyday shortstop. However, after a career-worst year from Iglesias as a batter and a fielder, they ultimately chose to release him and find a new path forward at the position. For the rest of the season, it was some combination of Luis Rengifo and Jack Mayfield.

The shortstop free agent market figures to be robust — perhaps the most loaded free agent class of any position — but Perry Minasian is unsure about the usefulness of allocating assets towards it. Instead, he may look towards Rengifo, or even David Fletcher, to fill that role, according to Jeff Fletcher of The O.C. Register:

“(Luis) Rengifo played a really solid shortstop in September, which was really encouraging,” Minasian said. “I think (David) Fletcher has the ability to slide over if we wanted him to. As good as he is at second, he’s very confident he could play a high-level shortstop too.”

“We can go out and make a free agent splash with one guy and ‘win the offseason’ to a certain extent, but there needs to be a lot of internal improvement too,” Minasian said.

Based on this alone, it doesn’t appear as though Minasian is going to spend any money to bring in free agent infielders. And despite the loaded free agent class of shortstops, this is an outcome fans have been waiting for.

Yes, the Angels could go out and sign Corey Seager, Carlos Correa, Javier Baez, Marcus Semien, Trevor Story, or others to fill a middle infield spot, but it wouldn’t solve their issues.

Meanwhile, Fletcher is obviously a strong defender and could move over, while Rengifo actually played well in the final weeks of the season.

Perhaps the correct answer is somewhere in between just having an inconsistent Rengifo or going out and signing someone like Seager to a nine-figure deal. It will be up to Minasian to figure out the best balance of the money he’ll have available to him.

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Ron Gutterman is a college student from Anaheim, California, and is currently the lead editor for AngelsNation.com. He is also a Staff Writer for LakersNation.com, RamsNewsWire.com, and RaidersNewsWire.com. He is a student attending Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, studying Sports Management. With Lakers Nation, Rams News Wire, Raiders News Wire, and Angels Nation, Ron assists in news, game coverage, analysis, and hot takes via his Twitter account, @rongutterman24. Ron's favorite Angels player of all time is either Mike Trout or Vladimir Guerrero. Ron began watching baseball when he was seven years old with his dad taking him to games. Ron's all time favorite Angels moment is when he was at Angels Stadium to watch the Halos throw a no-hitter in the first home game after the death of Tyler Skaggs. Contact: ron@mediumlargela.com