Glory Hallelujah! The Angels finally made a signing!!!
Is it Pujols? Ummm, no.
OK, so it must be Wilson, right? Not quite.
Then who is it?
…
…
It’s LaTroy Hawkins. Yeah, I know. Alden Gonzalez has all the “juicy” details
Alden_Gonzalez Alden Gonzalez Baseball source confirms it’s a one-year, $3M deal for LaTroy Hawkins. Still pending a physical. #angels
So there you have it. Two straight days of Winter Meetings cockteasing and all we have to show for it now is an ancient middle reliever. That’s most definitely not a big splash. It barely even registers as a ripple.
OK, enough jokes. Here is what the Angels are getting in Hawkins:
- He’s been in the bigs since 1995, which means he must have lots of great wisdom thus making him an ideal mentor for Jordan Walden.
- He has limited experience as a closer and his strikeout rate isn’t what it used to be, so he isn’t a threat to Walden. Basically, he’s Jordan cool new older brother.
- He broke in with the Twins and is good friends with Torii Hunter, so he must be a good dude.
- If you remove the 2010 season, Hawkins has been a pretty reliable reliever for a number of years. Then again, we can’t just ignore a season, so there is a chance that he could suck in 2012.
- As I mentioned, he doesn’t miss many bats anymore, but he also doesn’t issue a lot of walks but does get a decent amount of grounders. At best, that makes him like a right-handed version of Scott Downs. At worst, it makes him a $3 million mop-up man.
So, yay. The Angels have more bullpen depth. Given the small investment in Hawkins, I’d say there is still a chance they add more depth if the right bargain comes along, but now they also could just stand pat with what they have and hope that Hawkins defies Father Time for another season, that Walden improves and that Mike Scioscia becomes cognizant of the existence of Rich Thompson.