The Los Angeles Angels spent $172.2 million on their roster for the 2024 season, according to Spotrac. That was a drastic shift for general manager Perry Minasian and owner Arte Moreno. The year prior, the Angels spent over $230 million on payroll, but intentionally scaled back after Shohei Ohtani signed with the L.A. Dodgers.
The stark drop-off in payroll was made even more drastic by the fact that Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon played 29 and 57 games respectively, and the latter did not play well in the games he was able to be on the field for. The Angels had $75.7 million, just under 44% of their total payroll, on the injured list for a majority of the season.
So it’s no wonder that Minasian’s Angels lost a franchise record 99 games. And as the GM looks ahead to 2025, he knows the team needs reinforcements. But he also needs the team’s two highest-paid players to be on the field, via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:
“There’s been significant money spent on the payroll, it comes back to the players we’re spending on,” Minasian said. “And we need our best players to play. They know that. With that being said, we definitely need more players.”
And in a more subtle way, Minasian not only called on Trout and Rendon to play more, he asked that they play better when they are on the field.
“We need them to be better,” Minasian said. “It’s not a lack of effort. It just is what it is, but they understand how important they are, and from a payroll standpoint, they take up a significant chunk of the payroll. So when your best players aren’t playing, it makes it more difficult.”
Trout batted .220 with an .867 OPS, an almost cavalier stat line for a player of his caliber. Rendon batted .218 with a .574 OPS and zero home runs on the season. Neither of these slash lines are good enough to justify the price tags north of $37 million on both players.
At this point, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Rendon assume a bench role next season, despite being owed $77.1 million over the next two seasons. Trout, meanwhile, could see more time at designated hitter and in corner outfield spots as a means of preserving him for more games in 2025.
But the short of it is that as long as those two make a majority of the payroll, they have to be on the field if the Angels want to have any form of success.
Perry Minasian excited by Angels young core
For the first time since he took over as GM, Minasian feels the Angels actually have a strong young core to build around. This core includes three position players and three pitchers, with some other intriguing options.
Zach Neto, Logan O’Hoppe and Nolan Schanuel make up the position players while Jose Soriano, Jack Kochanowicz and Ben Joyce make up the pitchers. Christian Moore and Caden Dana could easily be added to this list as well.