Royals Rumors: Mike Moustakas signing with Angels seems inevitable
Royals Rumors will begin to heat up here shortly, but one constant team being linked to Mike Moustakas is the Los Angeles Angels. Moustakas grew up in Los Angeles and the two seem like a match made in heaven (no pun intended).
The Kansas City Royals know they can’t keep all of their free agents, but every time I see a former Royal linked with another team, the sadness rolls in. One of the most likeliest scenarios this offseason is that Mike Moustakas will sign with the Angels.
That deal would make perfect sense for a variety of reasons. One, Moustakas grew up in that area and it makes sense that he’d want to play for a team in his hometown. Two, the Angels have a need at third base and Moose is one of the best third basemen in this free agent class.
Oh, there’s also the fact that there have been reports about the Angels reaching out to Moustakas. The latest came from Jeff Fletcher, who tweeted that the team had talked to Moose.
Now this doesn’t mean anything official has happened and Fletcher even notes that it isn’t “hot at the moment”, but we’ve heard Moustakas’ name being linked with the Halos practically all season (and offseason) long. Moose going to Los Angeles seems almost as inevitable as Eric Hosmer ending up in Boston.
If that tweet above didn’t mean enough, Jerry Crasnick also had some news about a month ago. Apparently Moustakas’ number one landing spot was with the Angels, which was the first tweet that really showed Moose was serious about wanting to sign with the Halos.
Moustakas had a tremendous year in 2017, slashing .272/.314/.521 with 38 home runs and 85 RBI. It took awhile for Mike Moustakas to find his groove as a major league ball player and he was even sent to the minors for a brief period of time during the 2014 season.
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When 2015 began, however, Moustakas was one of the Royals’ best hitters and helped pave the way to a World Series title that season. There could certainly be an argument made that Moose getting injured in 2016 was the reason why the Royals only finished at .500 on the year.
The point being that Moustakas has been pivotal to the Kansas City Royals’ success, but it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards for him to re-sign with the team that drafted him. It’s hard to blame him on that, as the Royals will likely be rebuilding and have made it a known fact that Eric Hosmer is their main priority.
The Angels are top ten when it comes to MLB payrolls while the Royals are a few spots behind. The difference is that even though the Royals have more dough this year, they’re not going to shell it out as much as some teams will. The Angels are trying to make it to the playoffs in 2018 while the Royals are hoping for a rebuild.
Mike Moustakas is as good as gone and more than likely, he’ll be wearing red and white next season. That first time hearing Angels fans doing the “MOOOOOSE” chant is going to be a depressing moment for Royals fans.