After the Angels waited for days on the drama surrounding the Dodgers’ pursuit of Mookie Betts, the deal they believed they had struck might not be happening at all.
The Angels had reportedly agreed to get slugging outfielder Joc Pederson and starter Ross Stripling from the Dodgers after both players were rendered surplus once the Dodgers got Betts and David Price from the Boston Red Sox.
However, amid reports of the Dodgers getting Betts and Price in a reconfigured deal on Sunday, there were multiple reports that the Dodgers were no longer trading Pederson and Stripling to the Angels.
As of Sunday night, it was unclear whether the deal was dead entirely, or just in need of changes in light of the altered Betts deal.
In the big picture, the Dodgers still need to reduce some salary if they are to stay under the luxury tax threshold after taking on the salaries of Betts and Price. Pederson is set to make $7.75 million after losing his arbitration case, and Stripling will make $2.1 million. That’s nearly $10 million for players the Dodgers no longer need.
They have no apparent place for Pederson to play with an outfield of Betts, Cody Bellinger and A.J. Pollock. Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernandez, who can both play the infield as well, also crowd their outfield. Stripling had become more of a swingman than a starter in the Dodgers’ stacked rotation.
While that all pointed to the deal still making sense for the Dodgers, there was one theory floated that Angels owner Arte Moreno was frustrated by the delay and pulled out of the deal.
After the stunning reversal, the Angels were back to where things stood a week ago, with Brian Goodwin as their right fielder until highly regarded prospect Jo Adell is ready.
Their rotation depth chart still includes Dylan Bundy, Griffin Canning, Andrew Heaney, Shohei Ohtani and Julio Teheran, with a secondary group including Jaime Barría, Dillon Peters, Felix Peña, Patrick Sandoval and José Suarez.
The Angels had been set to trade infielder Luís Rengifo, who now has no apparent spot with the addition of Anthony Rendon to the infield. They were also reportedly going to acquire outfield prospect Andy Pages from the Dodgers. At least one other prospect was expected to go to the Dodgers in the reported agreement.