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Justin Bour has agreed to a deal with the Angels per Jeff Passan.
Source: Justin Bour has agreed to a dealing with the Los Angeles Angels, pending a physical.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 13, 2018
Was this who you were expecting? Someone on Reddit even posted the news this morning.
Bour is a first baseman, so would look to split time with Albert Pujols which begs the question: What does Pujols do when Bour is at first base? If he is DH’ing, then he takes at bats away from Ohtani - at least when Ohtani comes back.
30-year-old Bour is a career .260 hitter with a .344 OBP. Last year he hit just .227 but still put up a nice .341 OBP with 20 home runs over 141 games.
What’s surprising to me is that he will likely platoon with Pujols, taking the lion’s share of right-handed at bats perhaps. Bour his .242 off righties last year and only .192 vs. lefties - a prime candidate for a platoon. Pujols, however, was worse against lefties (.200 AVG) than against righties (.259 AVG), so this potential platoon is problematic to me. I am certainly not a fan of this move so I hope Bour comes really cheap (he made 2.5 million in 2018).
Update: The reported contract is 1 year / 2.5 million
Bour deal is for $2.5M #Angels
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 13, 2018