On Wednesday evening, the Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno said that his team will "probably be out" when it comes to signing Alex Gordon, Yoenis Cespedes or Justin Upton. This was announced concurrently with the Daniel Nava deal becoming official.
It appears that, with Mike Trout and Kole Calhoun inked into their rightful spots in center and right field, Nava and Craig Gentry will platoon in left field. The only problem with that is Gentry's career against left-handed pitching isn't that good. In fact, over his career, he is exactly league average, indicated by his 100 wRC+.
Furthermore, this past season, Nava actually hit worse against right-handed pitching than he did against lefties. That was a small sample size of only 166 plate appearances though, and over Nava's career he has a 119 wRC+ against righties.
Frankly, the Angels have more pertinent issues than left field then. With four serviceable outfielders, Moreno could want Billy Eppler to target other areas of need. Moreover, according to Baseball Reference projections, the Angels sit at about $167 million in payroll for the 2016 season. Less than $22 million shy of the luxury tax threshold. Moreno could likely want to stay shy of that penalty.
It's also worth noting that the Angels are paying $29.41 million to Josh Hamilton, Erick Aybar, and David Murphy to not play for them. That being said, they did get $1.5 million back from the Washington Nationals in the Yunel Escobar deal.
There are two main takeaways from this. Firstly, this could just be a red herring; a way for Moreno to publicly dismiss the worth of Gordon, Cespedes or Upton in hopes of signing one of them for cheaper. Secondly, this news could be more indicative of the fact that Moreno cares about investing elsewhere -- perhaps the rotation. C.J. Wilson and Jered Weaver are worth a combined $40 million next season and weren't very effective last season.
The truth is likely somewhere in the middle. Moreno and Eppler likely don't want to spend up to the luxury tax threshold, but they also have to find a way to compete in what looks to be a tightly-contested AL West.