On Monday, FOX Sports MLB reporter Ken Rosenthal reported that the Angels and Dodgers were discussing a possible Howie Kendrick deal all the way up until the July 31 deadline last month. With the deal falling through, the Angels traded for Grant Green with the Athletics as they shipped away Alberto Callaspo within the division. The Dodgers on the other hand apparently didn't need him enough where they made a backup deal. So, what could have been the results of this trade between LA's finest?
First off, the Angels would have saved a boatload of money. With Joe Blanton receiving an utterly confusing deal, the Angels really could have saved themselves something. Kendrick is due to receive more than eighteen million dollars over the next two seasons, according to Cot's Baseball Contracts. That could have drastically lowered their payroll and would have allowed Jerry Dipoto and Arte Moreno to fix other issues in Anaheim.
The second thing that would have been great builds off of the first: younger players would be given more attention. The Angels have guys like Grant Green, Andrew Romine, and Luis Jiminez all waiting to play the infield; however, Howie Kendrick, Erick Aybar, and previously Alberto Callaspo, were all holding up these young players from getting more on-field action.
My third and final plus of Howie Kendrick being shipped away would have been the fact that the Angels would potentially have gotten Dodgers' pitching prospect Zach Lee. Lee, who signed a multi-million dollar deal with LA after being drafted in 2010, dominated in both baseball and football throughout his pre-professional days. Clearly the Angels would have gotten an athletic prospect that could likely outperform Joe Blanton and his seven million dollar-plus annual salary.
Although the Angels could not pull the trigger on the Kendrick deal in July, General Manager Jerry Dipoto could absolutely move him in the offseason. But what many of us fear is that if Howie gets moved, does Arte push Dipoto to make a splash... again? I don't want to throw Robinson Cano out there, but no one was expecting Albert Pujols to be in The Big A, let alone Josh Hamilton.
Signing Cano would be far-fetched, right?