The Angels are heading into an offseason where the roster has to start making sense again, and that means some arbitration-eligible players could be squeezed out before they ever get paid.
With a first-ever 100-loss season looming, Los Angeles needs turnover. The club doesn’t have many players locked into long-term deals, which leaves a lot of the roster sitting in either pre-arbitration or arbitration.
The pre-arb group is easy enough to keep because the money is minimal. Arbitration is where things get tricky, because salaries can climb fast enough that teams decide the production just isn’t worth it.
The Angels already have some more prominent arbitration names in the mix, including Zach Neto, Reid Detmers, and Nolan Schanuel. Lower-end contributors like Grayson Rodriguez, Tyler Heinenman, and Sam Bachman are also in that group and seem likely to remain part of the picture next season. But a couple of others look vulnerable as the bills come due.
Josh Lowe is one of them.
A few seasons ago, Lowe looked like he might become a fixture in Tampa’s outfield, but back-to-back years of underwhelming production changed that quickly. Across 214 games in that stretch, he put up just 0.8 bWAR and a .670 OPS. The Angels rolled the dice on the 28-year-old in a three-team deal, and the fit has not paid off.
This season, Lowe has played 109 games for Los Angeles and hit .209 with a .637 OPS. He has 12 home runs, nine doubles, and 29 RBIs, but the bat has dragged his value down to just 0.1 bWAR.
The glove has helped keep him around. His six Fielding Run Value places him in the 81st percentile, and his two Outs Above Average also land him in the 81st percentile.
Even so, the offense hasn’t come close to carrying the profile.
The Angels also don’t exactly need to force him into the plan. Mike Trout and Wade Meckler look like everyday outfield options next season, and Jose Siri is arbitration-eligible too while offering historically better defense.
On top of that, the club needs flexibility for free agency or a trade. Spotrac.com projects Lowe to make $2.6 million next season, which isn’t a massive number, but it may still be too much for an outfielder producing at replacement level.
Oswald Peraza is in a similar spot.
The former top-100 prospect finally got a real stretch in the majors with one team this season, and while he did bring some value, it probably wasn’t enough to secure his place. Peraza’s bat never really got going. In 121 games, he hit .226 with a .619 OPS, good for a 78 OPS+.
His defense has been better at shortstop, where he posted +1 OAA, than at second base, where he checked in at -3 OAA, even though he played almost three times as many innings at second. Peraza does have a 1.3 bWAR, and a lot of that comes from his running game. His +2 base-running value sits in the 79th percentile.
Still, the Angels have bodies all over the infield. Zach Neto, Vaughn Grissom, Christian Moore, and Denzer Guzman all appear likely to stay in the mix as non-first-base options, and there are more young players coming.
That makes Peraza easier to walk away from, especially if the team wants room to add talent through free agency. Spotrac projects his salary at $1,000,000, another figure that won’t wreck the budget but could be better spent on a player with more impact.
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