:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56477263/usa_today_10249044.0.jpg)
Hi, folks. Hope all is well. I'm still kind of up in the air — will be out of my house with several months, and the building where my office is will be closed thru at least next week — but I'm no longer ripping up carpet and dragging waterlogged stuff out to the curb all day, so I'm thinking I should be getting back to blogging again.
Along those lines, it is worth noting that the Angels, who are battling for a Wild Card spot and are in Arlington for this weekend's series, picked up a couple of position players at the deadline. Clearly, the thought of having to square off against the Rangers without reinforcements terrified them...
One of those new additions is second baseman Brandon Phillips, acquired by the Angels with minutes to spare before last night's deadline. Phillips had the right to veto the trade due to his partial no-trade clause, but agreed to waive it and spend the final month with Anaheim. Phillips isn't anything great, but he's a serviceable second baseman, which is something the Angels haven't had this year. Anaheim gave up a minor league non-prospect catcher, Tony Sanchez, for Phillips, and are paying his $500,000 assignment bonus (the Reds, who traded Phillips to Atlanta in the offseason, are paying $13M of his $14M salary for 2017).
The bigger move for Anaheim, though, was getting Justin Upton from the Tigers. The Angels sent Grayson Long, a pitcher out of Texas A&M who was the team's third round pick in 2015, along with a PTBNL or cash. Long is a decent enough prospect, I guess.
Uptown is having a terrific season after two down years with the bat, and his contract situation complicated the market for him. Upton is owed $88.5M over four years after this year, but also has an opt out after 2017. Thus, the Angels either get Upton for a month, after which he opts out and is gone, or they get him for four more years, but at a price he and his reps don't think he could beat on the open market.
It's a weird situation, but the Angels got better for the final month with these two guys at minimal cost,