Pittsburgh Pirates: Six Potential Joe Musgrove Trade Partners
By Noah Wright
Los Angeles Angels
The Angels seem to run into this problem every year. They load up on offense, and do very little to improve their pitching situation. That happened last off season as they signed superstar third baseman Anthony Rendon to join all-time great Mike Trout, and other notables like David Fletcher, Andelton Simmons, Shohei Ohtani, and top prospects Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh.
Pitching wise, they signed Julio Teheran, traded for Dylan Bundy, and prayed that not only Ohtani would come back to full strength following Tommy John surgery to be a two-way star, but also that the rotation wouldn’t falter to injuries like they had done plenty of times in years past.
However, Ohtani got injured just 1.2 innings into the season, and was limited to a DH role for the rest of 2020. Bundy was a nice find as he put up a strong 3.29 ERA, 2.95 FIP and 1.03 WHIP across 65.2 innings of work, but their other off season pitching acquisition, Teheran, struggled and was even moved to the pen at one point. Youngsters Griffin Canning, Jaime Barria had solid campaigns, as well as Andrew Heaney, but there is still a lot of uncertainty going into 2021. Luckily for the Angels, the Pittsburgh Pirates have a man in Musgrove who can help them.
Big Joe could help provide some stability in a very volatile Angels rotation that hasn’t seen a true ace since Jered Weaver. The Pittsburgh Pirates might be able to get some more out of a trade with the Angels as they could throw in Richard Rodriguez as well since they could always use some bullpen help.