Wednesday, November 19, 2008 |
Jerry Crasnick On Nine Who Might (Should?) Retire
The Angels declined a $14 million club option on Anderson after the season, but haven't ruled out bringing him back in 2009 at a more reasonable price.At the moment, Anderson is well down the pecking order of priorities. Francisco Rodriguez, Jon Garland and Juan Rivera might all be leaving through free agency, and Mark Teixeira wants huge money to stay, so GM Tony Reagins has more pressing items than Anderson on his agenda.
Even if Anderson is still available when the Angels are ready to make a move, the team might decide to commit to prospect Brandon Wood at third base and shift Chone Figgins to left field. (As an aside, Wood was just released by his winter league team after hitting .167 in 13 games in the Dominican Republic.)
Anderson's .433 slugging percentage this year was 15th-best among the 17 left fielders with enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title (only Skip Schumaker and Delmon Young were worse). And get this: In 14 years as an Angel, he has yet to draw 40 walks in a season.
But Anderson is only 36, and he has enough life left in his bat to stick around a while. He'll just have to wait to see where Adam Dunn, Raul Ibanez, Bobby Abreu et al surface before his 2009 destination becomes clear.
"He still probably has two or three years left," said a National League front office man.
Labels: angels, ex-angels, ex-dodgers, rumors
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