Whicker: Jansen, Hendricks signings more of Angels “holding on to yesterday”

The Los Angeles Angels have signed 37-year-old closer Kenley Jansen to a one-year, $10-million contract.

February 12, 2025

By Mark Whicker

Canadian Baseball Network

Kyrie Irving was right.

You can fall off the edge of the world. Usually it requires a contract with the Los Angeles Angels.

They signed Kenley Jansen this week to a $10 million, one-year contract. Jansen is 37 years old and has a pretty good shot at the Hall of Fame, or at least he did before he signed with the Bermuda Triangle of baseball. He has a career WHIP of 0.963 and has led his league twice in saves. Remember him fondly.

They also have signed Kyle Hendricks, which moves them closer to the 2016 World Series. Hendricks was 16-8 that year as the Chicago Cubs won their first championship since William Howard Taft was President of the U.S. Hendricks is an Orange County native who prospered with command and trickery, not velocity. He was a Wal-Mart version of Greg Maddux. But then he’s gone 14-24 the past three years and had a 5.92 ERA in 2024, as he turned 34. Perfect for the Angels. They don’t pull on the vine until it’s time.

Why stop there?

The Angels acquired Tim Anderson, who won a batting championship with the White Sox in 2019 and had three .300 seasons after that. Last year he managed 65 games for the Marlins and hit .214. The good news is that he’s only 31. Never too late to start a youth movement.

But never accuse the Angels of picking up has-beens. They also lean toward never-wases. Yoan Moncada was considered the jewel of the Red Sox farm system, good enough to lure the White Sox into trading Chris Sale. The Cuban infielder did hit .315 in 2019, but the year before that he struck out 217 times. One of those was a fluke. Moncada has fanned 918 times in 747 major league games. Only 12 of those games happened last year, but by then he was out of the White Sox plans, which is not encouraging since the Pale Hose lost 121 times.

This is what you do when you’ve already fast-tracked your best kids into the big leagues and when your Caribbean operation is at a standstill. The Angels have participated in, and won, only one World Series. But they followed that 2002 breakthrough with ALCS appearances in 2005 and 2009 and playoff spots in 2004, 2007 and 2008. Mike Scioscia is the only manager who has ever won a postseason series with the franchise. He was nudged out after the 2018 season, when the Angels were 80-82 for the second consecutive year, and the club has had four managers since and hasn’t won more than 77. Last year Anaheim was 63-99, its worst record ever for a 162-game season. Unlike most other bottom-feeders, it’s not because they’re not spending. The 2024 payroll was eighth in baseball, at $218 million.

Much of that went to the care and feeding of Anthony Rendon, who is five years into a seven-year deal worth $245 million. The Angels don’t have DOGE, so they’re relatively stuck with a guy who said he turned down the Dodgers because he didn’t like the “Hollywood Lifestyle” and now makes about as many appearances as Daniel Day-Lewis. Rendon has played 257 games in those five seasons with 22 homers and a .717 OPS. Combine that with the frequent absences of three-time MVP Mike Trout, and that’s how you finish a combined 83 ½ games out of first place since 2020.

Ever since free agency came around in the late 70s and Gene Autry broke out the checkbook, the Angels have been Leisure World for some of the greats and near-greats. They’ve often considered themselves just “one player away” from glory, then signed someone who was five years away from prime.

Mo Vaughn was the big free agent prize in 1999. He was coming off 40 home runs and 115 RBIs for the Red Sox, and the Angels particularly enjoyed the tales of his leadership ability. On Opening Day, he promptly fell into the dugout, pursuing a foul ball, and got hurt. It’s forgotten that he hit 69 home runs with 135 RBIs in the next two seasons, but he didn’t exactly cut a dashing figure, and he missed the entire 2001 season with injury. He left, and the Angels won the World Series the next year. He played 27 games for the Mets in 2003 and was out of ball. Tim Lincecum won two Cy Young Awards with the Giants. He only made 15 starts in 2015. He was cut loose and the Angels couldn’t resist. Lincecum was 2-6 with a 9.16 ERA in 2016 and retired at 32.

Cecil Fielder stopped by in 1998, at 34, hit 17 home runs with 68 RBIs, got traded to Cleveland, played 14 games and called it a career.

Eddie Murray’s Hall of Fame plaque was safe by the time he showed up in 1997. At 41, he hit .219 with three homers in 46 games, did a nine-game stopover at Dodger Stadium, and then activated his Cooperstown clock.

Dave Winfield escaped from New York and George Steinbrenner in 1990 when the Angels got him in exchange for Mike Witt. He was 38 at the time, but still gave the Angels 47 homers and 194 RBIs in a little over a season and a half. In 1991, he was joined by Dave Parker, much to the marketing department’s delight, but at 40 the Cobra could only squeeze out 11 homers in 119 games and hit .232. He wrapped it up with 13 games in Toronto.

Rickey Henderson still had six major league teams in his future when San Diego traded him to Anaheim in 1997. He spent 32 games there, at age 38, and hit .183.

Even when the Angels couldn’t sign their targets, they couldn’t get a break. Owner Artie Moreno identified Carl Crawford as his free agent of choice in 2011, but Crawford signed with Boston. Crawford was a relative bust, playing only 163 games in three years. Meanwhile, Moreno dealt catcher Mike Napoli to Toronto for Vernon Wells, who was coming off 31 home runs in Toronto. Wells got tangled up in the Anaheim blues to an extent few could imagine. He hit .218 in 2011 and .230 the next year, and played his final season with the Yankees in 2013. With all that, Albert Pujols stands as one of the Angels’ relative bargains. He came to town in 2012 with palm fronds waving, signing a mind-bending, 10-year, $240 million deal at age 32.

The Angels only played one postseason series when he was there, but Pujols finished his decade with 222 home runs, including his 500th and 600th, and drove in 100 runs four times. In 2022, he closed his show triumphantly, returning to St. Louis to lead the Cardinals into the playoffs with 24 home runs in 109 games.

So, the Angels keep holding on to yesterday, just as their fans grasp for a reason to stay interested. Bobbleheads are fun, unless they’re playing.

Mark Whicker's new book, "Don Drysdale: Up And In" is available in bookstores on Feb. 18 and can be ordered on Amazon.com. It's a biography of the Dodgers' Hall of Fame righthander who posted a record shutout streak in 1968 and was the symbol of pitching intimidation in a career that spanned 1956 through 1969, always with the Dodgers. It can be ordered through this link: