It appears Gary Matthews Jr.'s days are over as LA's center fielder now that the Angels have signed Torii Hunter. Hunter has won 7 Gold Gloves in a row and the Angels openly admit Vladimir Guerrero will be their right fielder (duh) while Garrett Anderson will start in left. In addition to Matthews they also have Juan Rivera back from a broken leg, who hit .279 in 43 AB's at the end of '07 after a .310/23/85 performance the year before...and Reggie Willits who stole 27 bases and had a .391 OBP last season, even though his second half was poor.LA says Matthews will spell Vlad and Garrett and see some time at DH in '08, which doesn't seem to justify the 5-year, $50 million dollar deal they signed him to last year, although they're paying Hunter almost twice that ($90M over 5). Matthews came back to Earth last year going .252/18/72 with 18 steals after a .313/19/79 year with 10 steals in 2006.
Clearly, LA has to trade somebody out of this group of 6 and you can bet it won't be Vlad or Hunter. They're better off keeping Anderson considering what they'd be able to get for an aging, injury-prone corner outfielder and they'll have an equally difficult time getting a team to take on Matthews' absurdly large deal especially because he turns 34 next August (I had no idea until I looked it up). That makes the most likely trade candidates Willits or Rivera (or both).
LA's already made one trade this offseason, so don't be surprised to see another, soon.
1 comment:
gary matthews now becomes the highest paid bad 6th OF. how many teams even carry 6 OF only players?
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