3 Los Angeles Angels free agents who won’t be back in 2025

The Los Angeles Angels find themselves in one of the worst situations in all of professional sports.

They have one of the greatest players of all time in Mike Trout, but Trout just can’t stay healthy. After him, they really have nothing of note other than Anthony Rendon. And Rendon doesn’t stand out because he’s good. Rendon is known for having one of the worst contracts in sports. Due to injuries, he never plays and is paid millions of dollars to watch.

The team is now in the “post-Ohtani era” and could be in for a very long rebuild. Their rebuild continues this winter in free agency, where there are three players who will definitely not return to the team in 2025.

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The Angels paid big money to struggling, departing veterans this season. There were several departing players on their roster that they should have dealt at the trade deadline but chose not to. Many of these players will hit free agency this winter.

But there are also the departing players who had such big problems that the Angels don’t even want to bring them back. The team is on the path to building a new, young talent core rather than trying to squeeze every ounce of success out of aging veterans.

One player who won’t be back next season is veteran pitcher Matt Moore.

The 35-year-old Moore played 51 games, posting an ERA over 5.00 out of the Angels’ bullpen. He walked more batters than ever before and his strikeout numbers were down. Moore was hit harder than anyone expected.

With him entering a contract year, there’s no way Los Angeles is even considering the idea of ​​bringing him back, especially since he ended the year injured and on the IL. The Angels would be better off playing up their young, unproven talent rather than letting Moore continue to trot around for nearly $10 million a year.

Of the three players on this list, this one is perhaps the most obvious. While the other two players are headed to free agency in 2024 after a poor season, this player is coming off two consecutive unplayable seasons in which he posted ERAs over 7.00.

It’s reliever Adam Cimber, who was once a notoriously consistent and dominant figure in successful bullpens. However, those days appear to be long gone for the veteran right-hander, who is coming off a season in which he walked 14 batters and gave up 19 earned runs in just 24.1 innings.

In each of his 50 appearances over the last two seasons, he has been completely unreliable, easy to hit and disastrous.

If he hits free agency, the Angels will be perfectly fine with him trying his luck elsewhere. There are plenty of cheap pitchers in free agency or prospects in the farm system who could move up to the big leagues and do what Cimber did in 2024. As the Angels find their identity in the post-Ohtani era, it will be crucial that they don’t field pitchers who lose games for them as regularly as someone like Cimber would.

The Angels decided to bring in utility man Brandon Drury after he had a Silver Slugger year in which he slashed .263/.320/.492 in 2022. Drury continued his success in the major leagues in his first year with the Angels, slashing .262/.306/.497 with an OPS over .800. But when Drury entered his contract season this year, he performed significantly worse.

During the 2024 season, Drury hit a terrible .169/.242/.228 with 11 extra-base hits in 97 games. It was by far the worst statistical season of Drury’s professional career. Now that he’s headed to free agency, there’s no way the Angels can bring him back for another season.

If Drury had continued with the .800 OPS he’s been chasing for two years, it would have been a completely different story. But he didn’t. Top prospect Christian Moore will move up to the big leagues next season to play some infield time and take potential opportunities away from a veteran like Drury.

The team has a new direction for the future and there is no struggling veteran like Drury. He may be able to secure a cheap contract with another team in a “prove” year, but that team probably won’t be the Angels.