The Los Angeles Angels were the most active team in baseball in the month leading up to the Winter Meetings. And general manager Perry Minasian made it seem as though the work was far from over. That’s why there was a belief that at least one more major move would get done by the Angels during the four-day event in Dallas.
However, the Winter Meetings came and went with the Angels holding on to the same roster. It’s one that has already made many improvements, including offensive depth and two new starting pitchers. But Minasian and the Angels know there is more to be done, but the Winter Meetings were only the start of it.
Minasian hinted that he laid the groundwork for future deals while in Dallas, even though nothing got agreed to in the moment, according to Jeff Fletcher of The O.C. Register:
“We’ll find out,” he said. “I hope so. There are a lot of conversations.”
The Angels top decision-maker would not give any indication as to which part of the roster had the most focus, as he is aware that just about every facet of the Halos roster could stand to improve.
“We want to get better,” he said. “We want to get deeper. Is that the bullpen? Is that the position players? Is that infield? Is that outfield? Is that starting rotation? We’ll find out. But we would definitely like to add to the team, not only the 26 but below that too.”
The bullpen is the only area of the roster that has not been touched yet this offseason, making it a likely candidate to be the subject of the next move. The Halos have added Scott Kingery and Kevin Newman to their infield, Jorge Soler to their outfield and DH platoon and Yusei Kikuchi and Kyle Hendricks to the starting rotation.
The Angels do have the luxury of a technical free agent addition to their bullpen already in Robert Stephenson, who missed the entire 2024 season. But it would be extremely surprising to not see L.A. make any additions beyond that.
Angels almost traded an outfielder
One major rumor that came out of the Winter Meetings that ultimately did not happen — or at least, did not happen yet — was the reported deal the Angels nearly made to trade away an outfielder. Taylor Ward was a potential name to be dealt, but that would only be the case if the Angels had another deal for a different outfielder lined up with it.
