Angels sign Chris Young to 1-year deal

The Angels have signed veteran outfielder Chris Young to a one-year, major-league deal, per a club announcement on Sunday. Young will receive $2 million plus incentives, according to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

Young, 34, is likely to fill the fourth outfielder role that has been vacant all offseason with the Angels allowing Ben Revere to walk in free agency. While Los Angeles has a few other outfielders — Jefry Marte, Eric Young Jr., and Rymer Liriano — who could have stepped into that role if necessary, Young has 12 seasons of big-league experience and should be capable of adequately filling a starting role for a while if Mike Trout, Justin Upton, or Kole Calhoun goes down.

Young hasn’t seen a ton of action over the past two seasons because the Red Sox have gotten such consistent productivity from their starting outfielders, as he’s collected less than 300 plate appearances in both years. While he struggled a bit in 2017, posting a .235/.322/.387 slash line with seven homers in 276 PAs, he’s just one season removed from an extremely strong 2016 campaign during which he hit .276/.352/.498 with nine home runs in 227 plate appearances. Over the course of his 12-year career, Young has a .237/.316/.430 slash line with 185 home runs in 5,188 PAs.

Young has played just 18 games in center field over the past three seasons and didn’t play there at all in 2017. But he has 950 games of experience there, as well as 254 in left and 120 in right, so if Trout suffers another injury or needs a day off, Young should be able to handle center — at least in limited doses.