The Los Angeles Angels have been the most active team in MLB to begin the 2024-25 offseason. General manager Perry Minasian orchestrated the first trade of the winter, swapping Griffin Canning for Jorge Soler with the Atlanta Braves. He then acquired Scott Kingery and Kyle Hendricks to boost depth in the rotation and the infield.
This falls perfectly in line with what both he and owner Arte Moreno said about the Angels at the end of the 2024 season. While they wouldn’t have the same budget as 2023, the Angels were intentionally transitioning to buyers with the hopes of competing for the postseason in 2025. And with a full free agent and trade market still on the board, the Angels could be looking to make more additions.
After welcoming Hendricks to the Angels, Minasian spoke about the winter meetings and his plans for the Angels and how there is still much to be done to improve the team, via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:
“We’re not ruling anything out,” Minasian said. “We’re looking at everything. It’s got to be the right fit for both sides. It’s got to make sense. Free agency in general, it’s tough to sign free agents, right? It’s very competitive. There’s a lot of teams, and it comes down to fit. We’ll continue to do our homework and do our due diligence on each and every free agent that’s out there. And we’ll continue to monitor the trade market to see if somebody makes sense there.”
There are plenty of high-profile free agent pitchers and position players available this offseason, but Minasian seems more focused on the fringes of the roster and the organization.
“Depth is something we talked about a ton,” Minasian said. “This is not a one-man team. We’ve talked about this a ton. And as our Minor Leagues continue to improve, which we feel like it is, I think that’s one area where we can supplement some of our injuries. But we’re going to have to add depth on the big league team, too.”
The Angels are learning from the mistakes of the past with a top-heavy roster and no depth. And with youth and depth now being a priority, perhaps the Angels can be a team built not only for 2025, but beyond that as well.
Angels Projected lineup as of 11/11
The Angels certainly still need to do some work, including possibly adding an everyday third baseman and seing Anthony Rendon to the bench. But here is how things project to stand as of Nov. 11. Below is a projection of the starting position players for L.A.
C: Logan O’Hoppe
1B: Nolan Schanuel
2B: Christian Moore
SS: Zach Neto
3B: Luis Rengifo
LF: Taylor Ward
CF: Mike Trout
RF: Jo Adell
DH: Jorge Soler
