I don’t think the Angels should sign Fuentes. They are going to have to give some big contracts to keep the talent they already have. Lackey, Saunders and Santana are all good investments and I don’t want the Angels unable to sign them because they have a guy throwing 55 innings a year making 10 million.

1) you missed the $5M or so coming off the books for Tex’ salary
2) The name is “John Garland” — not “White Sox pitcher guy”
3) We will lose $6-9M or so from Figgy being gone as a FA sfter next season
4) $9.5M comes off the books after next season for Escobar.
5) i don’t think Vlad will see his salary increase over his current $15M for next year. He won’t get higher than that anywhere considering his health and that he’ll basically be a Full-time DH.
6) Also note that Shields/Speier both come off the book in 2 years ($10M+).

- Torii Hunter ($18M)
- Gary Matthews Jr. ($11M)
- Scot Shields ($5.35M)
- Justin Speier ($5.25M)
- Juan Rivera ($4.25M)
- Kendry Morales ($0.7M)

Technically, no one else is owed any money, though it’s hard to imagine guys like Santana and Weaver not being tendered a contract. But, for the sake of argument, that’s $44.55 million. The Angels would still have to fill 19 roster spots, so with a league minimum salary of $400,000 in 2010, they’ll have to pay no less than $52.15 million to field a major-league baseball team.

Depending on Arte’s budget, he has between $50 and $70 million to work with for 2010. Even if he signs $20 million of that away to free agents this off-season, that’s still $30 to $50 million. Most of that will probably go to paying the kids as they become arbitration-eligible: Santana, Weaver, Kendrick, Aybar, Napoli, etc., unless any of those guys are traded. If they continue to progress, Santana and Weaver in particular should be up for huge arbitration raises.

The Angels could have afforded Teixeira in 2009, but they might have been worried about 2010. He might have forced them to dump the salary of a very good player like Santana. I blame the centerfield fiasco: Arte’s paying $29 million to centerfielders in 2010 (Hunter and Matthews) where even a centerfield of, say, Carlos Beltran and a replacement player would have cost under $19 million. The Angels just don’t have the revenue to completely paper over the Matthews mistake.

Signing bonuses for first-round picks also keep getting more expensive, and with as many as six first-round picks coming next June and possibly six more in 2010 if Lackey, Figgins, and Guerrero leave (though it’s unlikely they wouldn’t sign other Type A’s to compensate), I would expect more payroll to be shunted away from the team on the field.

we will always be limited when the right opportunity comes along. Face it – we have $140mm invested in center fielders – duh?
While I can appreciate the fact that Arte stuck it to Boras, we have sat around and made second tier financial moves for 3 years while passing on all the marquis names, and then maybe we get one good year out of them, Steve Finley notwithstanding.
The worst part is that whether it is Soth’s decision or Arte’s, we will see GMJ get significant playing time this year because we can’t stand to see $11mm ride the pine. Sad, but true.
So, except for Hunter, we pretty much have a below average outfield with questionable ability to reach balls and stop singles from turning into doubles, and gappers into triples – that is, assuming when the throw comes in, it is somewhere in the general vicinity of the cutoff man / infielder….
I think there needs to be more of a longer term strategy with regards to the spending. It seems we are always playing catch-up instead of leading the way.