In the NFL, Patrick Mahomes makes your team a contender. In the NBA, Nikola Jokic makes your team a contender.
In baseball, as the Angels and their fans know all too well, one player does not make your team a contender. Over the past decade, Mike Trout could not do it all by himself, and he and Shohei Ohtani could not do it all by themselves.
The Angels agreed Monday to a three-year, $63-million contract with pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, according to a person familiar with the deal but not authorized to comment publicly. The team has not announced the deal because Kikuchi has yet to complete his physical examination.
With the deal, the Angels topped the $100-million mark in holiday spending before Thanksgiving, buying six players in their 30s: Kikuchi and fellow starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks, designated hitter Jorge Soler, backup catcher Travis d’Arnaud, backup infielders Scott Kingery and Kevin Newman.
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Kikuchi and Soler are about impact, the others are about depth. But if this is really about contention, the Angels are back to being all about Trout.
How good, really, are the Angels? They lost 99 games last season, the worst team in franchise history. They have resisted a full rebuilding, and the best young player to emerge — shortstop Zach Neto — is coming off shoulder surgery and might not be ready when the new season starts.
No team made the playoffs last season with fewer than 86 victories. Could the Angels really go from 63 victories to 86 in one year?
The Kansas City Royals went from 56 victories (and 106 losses!) two seasons ago to 86 victories last season, and into the playoffs.
The Royals’ primary pickups in free agency: starting pitchers Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha. That couldn’t have worked any better: Lugo and Wacha each finished among the top 10 in earned run average in the American League, and the duo combined to pitch 373 innings.
The Royals’ starters ranked second in the league in ERA, at 3.55. The Angels’ starters ranked last, at 4.97.
Kikuchi and Hendricks combined to pitch 306 innings last season. Hendricks has posted an ERA below 4.00 once in the last four seasons; Kikuchi has done that once in his six major league seasons, but he posted a 2.70 ERA in 10 starts following a trade from the Toronto Blue Jays to the Houston Astros last summer.
The Angels bet $39 million on Tyler Anderson after he put up a career year for the Dodgers. They now are betting $63 million on Kikuchi after he put up two brilliant months for the Astros. Such is the price of durable if not spectacular pitching.
Read more: Infielder Kevin Newman agrees to one-year, $2.75-million deal with Angels
The Angels still have significant needs: more starting pitching, even more relief pitching, infield, big bat. Their lineup is thin, their bullpen thinner.
It is uncertain how much more owner Arte Moreno might spend this offseason. Including Soler, who was acquired in a salary-dump trade, the Angels have taken on $107 million this month. The number of teams spending more than $110 million on free agents last winter: five (three of them in the National League West: the Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants).
Let’s get back to the Royals for a moment. Their pitching was good; their offense was not. The Royals had four players with at least 300 at-bats and an OPS+ above 100 — that is, better than league average. Same for the Angels.
The difference: Only one of those eight players was even 20% above league average: Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., the runner-up to Aaron Judge as AL most valuable player. Witt batted .332 with 32 home runs and had a 171+ OPS — that is, 71% better than league average.
Soler had a 121+ OPS. That helps.
But what the Angels really need are elite hitters, like Witt. Moreno already has signed two. He needs them to play, and play well.
The Angels are not counting on Anthony Rendon. If he earns playing time in spring training, great, but he has not hit a home run in 513 days.
That brings us back to Trout, the three-time MVP who has not played even 120 games in a season since 2019. When Trout plays, he remains an elite hitter.
His OPS+ last season: 140 — that is, 40% better than league average. Over a full season, that would have put him within the top 10 in the AL. He played 29 games last season.
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No one really knows how many games Trout might play next season. Even the Angels appear mystified. Their promotional calendar usually is highlighted by Trout giveaways: bobbleheads, jersey replicas, T-shirts, even fish hats.
On Monday, the Angels announced their 2025 promotional calendar. The five bobbleheads are all blank faces, to be announced at a later date.
The Angels have gone 10 years without a postseason appearance, the longest such drought in the majors. This offseason appears little different from most recent offseasons for the Angels: patch some holes, add some depth, hope for a run at .500 and then some luck.
The luck would come from within the house. Mike Trout, an Angels nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
