The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim must have been frustrated with the way that this season turned out. However, it is shaping up to be another busy winter in the City of Angels.
Jon Heyman of CBS Sports is reporting that the Angels are looking at potential trades for both Dan Haren and Ervin Santana.
On one hand, it definitely makes sense to try to trade these two athletes. In 2012, Haren only managed to go 12-13 with a 4.33 ERA while Santana was a touch below that at 9-13 with a 5.16 ERA. If the Angels want to try to climb back on top of the division next season, they will obviously need more production out of their starting rotation than these two men demonstrated last year.
However, could that production come out of Haren and Santana themselves? Haren has been a reliable starting pitcher throughout his entire career and has won at least 10 games the past nine seasons. Last season was arguably the worst of his career, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is automatically done.
Similarly, Santana is still in his prime and he is only two years removed from a 17 win season. In fact, even though he finished 11-12 in 2011, he posted a career-best 3.38 ERA during that campaign. Yes, 2012 was definitely a bump in the road, but I don’t think that he has totally gone off that path yet.
As you can probably tell, I am not entirely sold on trading either of these athletes simply because of their history of success. Many players have suffered from bad seasons, and many players have also rebounded from bad seasons. Obviously, the Angels need to decide if they are willing to take the risk associated with keeping a player who might not bounce back, but given such long track records of success, these two men do not necessarily seem like unreasonable risks.
Nevertheless, since it appears that the Angels are willing to trade either of these two men at the right price, they need to make sure that they at least get a fair return. These two men have a lot to offer any team in baseball if they are able to return to form, so they should command at least a decent return.
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