Angels seeking multiple starters, left-handed bat

The Los Angeles Angels have quite a bit to achieve this offseason. Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com writes that the club would like to add multiple starting pitchers and bullpen help. General manager Perry Minasian said from the GM Meetings that they’re also looking for offense, with preference for a left-handed bat.

“Is (a lefty hitter) the No. 1 pressing need? Is that ‘A’ on the checklist of things to do? No,” Minasian told reporters (link via Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register). “But it is something we’ve talked about a ton. We want to be a more balanced offense. … There are some really attractive right-handed hitters that I’d love to have, that are just good hitters, that I don’t necessarily think anyone cares if they’re right-handed or left-handed. So does it have to be left-handed? No. Apples to apples? Of course, you choose left hand over right-handed.”

The Halos have three pitchers penciled into the Opening Day rotation: Yusei Kikuchi, José Soriano and Reid Detmers. They don’t have much beyond that with none of Caden Dana, Sam Aldegheri, Jack Kochanowicz or Mitch Farris securing a rotation spot. They’re likely to push 2025 second overall pick Tyler Bremner quickly, but it’d be surprising if the Angels were willing to carry him in the Opening Day rotation before he pitches in the minors at all. They skipped 2024 second-rounder Ryan Johnson right to the big leagues as a reliever this past season, but he struggled and was optioned in early May. Johnson built back as a starter and pitched well in High-A but still has no starting experience in the upper levels.

The bullpen could lose its two most reliable arms. Detmers, last season’s top setup man, is moving back to the rotation. Closer Kenley Jansen is a free agent. The Angels presumably would like to bring Jansen back after an excellent season. The four-time All-Star went 29-30 in save chances. He turned in a 2.59 ERA across 59 innings. Even that was inflated by one nightmare appearance against the Tigers in which he gave up six of the 17 earned runs he allowed all season. Jansen is probably limited to one-year deals at this stage of his career, though he could match last winter’s $10M guarantee.

Left-hander Brock Burke enters the offseason as the Angels’ only reliable reliever. Minasian provided a positive update on talented but oft-injured righty Robert Stephenson, who finished the season on the shelf with elbow inflammation. Stephenson will not require surgery and is expected to be ready for Spring Training, Bollinger relays. Stephenson has the talent to pitch late in games, but his durability issues make him a wild card. The Angels clearly need to add multiple leverage arms.

While pitching figures to be the priority, the Halos have a few questions in the lineup. They don’t have an everyday center fielder or third baseman. Christian Moore projects as the starting second baseman, but he struggled as a rookie after being quickly pushed through the minors. There’s arguably a corner outfield glut with Taylor Ward, Mike Trout, Jorge Soler and Jo Adell — who is miscast in center field and should stay in right, where he spent the final month of the ’25 season. Ward and Adell have already come up in trade rumors. One of them could be swapped for a player at a position of greater need, but that’d be nowhere close to all the work for the front office to accomplish.

The club’s preference would be to add a lefty hitter at one or two of those positions. No team gave fewer plate appearances to left-handed batters this year. Only the Astros leaned more heavily on pure righty bats. The Angels had an MLB-worst .224 batting average against righty pitching. They were 28th in on-base percentage (.299) and 24th in slugging (.394). Switch-hitters Luis Rengifo and Yoán Moncada hit free agency, leaving first baseman Nolan Schanuel as their only lefty hitter set for a significant role.

If they go into free agency for that need, it’d make most sense to focus on center field. Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger are available at the higher ends of the market. Cedric Mullins is a rebound candidate who’ll probably sign for one year.

There are far fewer lefty bats who could play second or third base. If neither Rengifo nor Moncada are retained, the best free agent options are Jorge Polanco, Luis Arraez and Willi Castro. Polanco can play either position but saw a lot of DH work with the Mariners this year because of knee issues. Arraez hasn’t played second base regularly in two years because of limited range. Castro is a bat-first utility player who started the season well but went downhill after a deadline trade to the Cubs.

Players like CJ Abrams, Brendan Donovan or Brandon Lowe could be available in trade. That’d require the Angels to deal from an already bad farm system for short-term help on the heels of a 72-90 season. As Minasian noted, that could leave them to pursue a superior righty-hitting infielder even if it’s not ideal for lineup balance. Bo Bichette, Alex Bregman, Eugenio Suárez, Kazuma Okamoto, Ha-Seong Kim and Gleyber Torres are all right-handed hitting free agents who can play second and/or third.

Torres, who is weighing a qualifying offer from the Tigers, was apparently a target of the Angels last winter. Ken Rosenthal, Will Sammon and Katie Woo of The Athletic report that Torres rejected a multi-year offer from the Halos during the 2024-25 offseason because he doubted the team could contend. He signed a one-year, $15M contract with Detroit. The Tigers made the playoffs for a second consecutive season and the Angels still have one of the worst rosters in the American League on paper.