General Manager Tony Reagins

Billy Wagner went to the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, almost a surplus weapon for the best bullpen in the American League. The Angels, with an inexperienced and statistically poor bullpen, could draw the Red Sox in the first round of the playoffs. The Angels had interest in Wagner but it is not clear whether they put in a claim when the New York Mets put him on waivers. General Manager Tony Reagins , citing the confidentiality of the waiver process, would not say whether the Angels claimed the six-time All-Star.

Reporting from New York — The Angels' top pitching prospect, Garrett Richards , is set to make his major league debut Wednesday. That could make the Angels' 2009 draft even more special, but the scouting director responsible for selecting those players is long gone. The Angels had four of the first 42 picks that year. Mike Trout , the outfielder considered one of the two best prospects in baseball, was one. Tyler Skaggs , the pitcher who was the key to the Dan Haren trade, was another.

A dozen or so Japanese media members gathered around Tony Reagins as the Angels general manager checked into the winter meetings hotel Monday afternoon, ready to pounce with their questions about free-agent slugger Hideki Matsui. Reagins didn't disappoint. "He's a person we've talked about," Reagins said of Matsui, who earned World Series most-valuable-player honors by hitting .615 with three home runs and eight runs batted in to help the New York Yankees defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.

Mike Trout had to bow out of Sunday's Futures game, the annual midsummer showcase for baseball's top prospects. The future, it turned out, arrived much sooner than the highly touted Trout could have imagined. The Angels called up Trout from double A late Thursday night, and the 19-year-old center fielder, who two years ago was playing high school ball in New Jersey, made his big league debut Friday night, going 0 for 3 in a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners. Trout, named the top prospect in all of baseball by several websites last winter, was asleep in his Little Rock, Ark., apartment when he got a 1 a.m. call from General Manager Tony Reagins.

To Mike Scioscia, UZR might as well be a demilitarized zone between warring countries and VORP a word Captain Kirk used when he wanted Scotty to beam him up to the Starship Enterprise. To the statistics-savvy baseball follower, UZR stands for ultimate zone rating, an advanced metric that estimates a fielder's defensive contribution, and VORP is value over replacement player, the number of runs contributed beyond what a replacement-level player at the same position would contribute.

The Angels have "no interest" in pitcher Pedro Martinez, General Manager Tony Reagins said Sunday. Reagins said the Angels chose not to pursue Martinez for baseball reasons and not financial ones. The Angels scouted Martinez at his workout last week in the Dominican Republic. The Dodgers did not scout the workout, and Manager Joe Torre said that the team has not discussed Martinez since spring training.

With major league rosters expanding to 40 players Monday, General Manager Tony Reagins is still trying to determine how many minor leaguers the Angels will call up. But Manager Mike Scioscia already knows what positions they'll play. "We're definitely looking to add a third catcher and at least two pitchers. And then we'll go from there," said Scioscia, who said the organization will try to balance the needs of the major league team with the desire to have younger prospects continue to play every day for triple-A Salt Lake, which is heading for the postseason.

General Manager Tony Reagins on Monday shot down a Foxsports.com report that the Angels are one of three teams, along with the Yankees and Red Sox, that have expressed serious interest in free-agent outfielder Matt Holliday. "He's a talented player," Reagins said of Holliday, who hit .313 with 24 home runs and 109 runs batted in for the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals in 2009 and could command a deal in excess of $100 million. "But our focus is not on him right now." The team's top priorities are to re-sign pitcher John Lackey and third baseman Chone Figgins, but Reagins, who secured outfielder Bobby Abreu to a three-year, $19-million deal on Nov. 5, hinted that it is unlikely the Angels will sign either before Thursday, the last day the team holds exclusive negotiating rights to the pair.

Five days before Monday's trade deadline, the Angels continue to pursue a veteran shortstop as insurance in case Erick Aybar is injured. The team has targeted three Toronto players, slick-fielding John McDonald, former Angel David Eckstein and Marco Scutaro, as well as Baltimore's Juan Castro and Cleveland's Jamey Carroll. The Angels lost considerable depth at the position when Maicer Izturis, who was splitting time with Aybar, tore a ligament in his left thumb Aug. 13 and underwent season-ending surgery.

It was as if General Manager Tony Reagins was standing in the check-out aisle on his way to spring training, noticed a proven bat in the bargain bin and threw it in his shopping cart. That's how Bobby Abreu fell into the Angels' laps two days before the start of camp, a call from the veteran outfielder's agent last weekend resulting in rapid negotiations on a one-year, $5-million contract that Abreu agreed to Thursday. "A week ago, we were perfectly content going to spring training with the club we had," Reagins said.

Reporting from Seattle The Angels, who had lost nine of 11 games as they embarked on a 12-game trip in which they will touch all four corners of the country and travel 6,822 miles, needed this. General Manager Tony Reagins, who is feeling heat for his January trade that brought Vernon Wells and the four years and $81 million left on his contract to Anaheim, needed this. Hitting instructor Mickey Hatcher, the object of harsh criticism from fans calling for his firing amid the drought-like conditions surrounding the team's offense, needed this.

To Mike Scioscia, UZR might as well be a demilitarized zone between warring countries and VORP a word Captain Kirk used when he wanted Scotty to beam him up to the Starship Enterprise. To the statistics-savvy baseball follower, UZR stands for ultimate zone rating, an advanced metric that estimates a fielder's defensive contribution, and VORP is value over replacement player, the number of runs contributed beyond what a replacement-level player at the same position would contribute.

The Angels are looking more and more like the teenager who has to sit at the kids' table for the holiday meal while teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are at the grown-ups' table enjoying the feast. They couldn't hang with the big boys again this winter, swinging and missing at their top free-agent target when outfielder Carl Crawford agreed to terms on a seven-year, $142-million deal with Boston on Wednesday. Since the big-splash signings of Vladimir Guerrero, Bartolo Colon and Kelvim Escobar before 2004, the Angels have become perennial bridesmaids, coming up short in negotiations for Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, John Lackey, Chone Figgins and Paul Konerko and in trade talks for Roy Halladay and Miguel Cabrera.

Arte Moreno has been in stealth mode since the All-Star break, his appearances in Angel Stadium and availability to the media fading with his team's playoff hopes. But Torii Hunter has spoken to the Angels owner several times recently and has a handle on how Moreno feels about the club. "Arte is [ticked off]," Hunter said. "And when he's [ticked off], great things happen. " The Angels will not be in the playoffs for the first time since 2006, closing the season with Sunday's 6-2 win over the Texas Rangers, and if they are to avoid a similar ending in 2011, Moreno will have to put his money where his malevolence is. Some first-class upgrades are available in free agency this winter, the most attractive being Tampa Bay outfielder Carl Crawford, but they will be expensive.

Tony Reagins emerged from two days of organizational meetings with an assessment of the Angels that might surprise followers of the team. "I don't know that the offense has been the biggest shortcoming of the club," the general manager said before Wednesday night's 2-1, 12-inning loss to the Texas Rangers. "There have been several areas we haven't performed well in. "The offense sticks out because of the numbers, but the bigger aspect of the game we have to get better in is all-around baseball, whether it's fundamentals, defense, pitching or getting into the type of game we do well.

Most teams with playoff aspirations consider their closer an integral, almost irreplaceable, part of the club. The Angels on Friday discarded theirs like yesterday's newspaper, sending Brian Fuentes to the Minnesota Twins for a player to be named. The deal, which came after the Twins made a waiver claim on Fuentes, has "surrender" written all over it for the Angels, who were 9½ games behind Texas in the American League West entering Friday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles.

Last summer the Angels spent about $1,600 buying a couple of baubles for Bobby Abreu in recognition of career milestones the outfielder achieved largely while playing for other teams. As it turns out, that might be the best money the team has ever spent. Because Thursday the outfielder announced he would pass up free agency to re-sign with the Angels. And he said those two crystal mementos helped seal the deal. "Those trophies they gave me, it meant a lot," Abreu said.

The Angels will pay their highest salary this year to Torii Hunter. They will pay their second-highest salary to a guy who could be on the bench for the New York Mets, and so the Angels might not be done spending money to assemble this year's team. Gary Matthews Jr. asked out of Anaheim after the season, but the Angels could not find a taker until the Mets suddenly needed an outfielder because of Carlos Beltran's knee surgery. The Mets acquired Matthews on Friday for middle reliever Brian Stokes, but not before the Angels agreed to pay all but $2 million of the $23.5 million remaining on Matthews' contract.

Those eight American League West championship flags flying above the outfield wall in Angel Stadium could have some company soon, only the next one raised might be white. Three days after acquiring pitcher Dan Haren for an expected playoff push and three days before the nonwaiver trade deadline, the Angels might have gone from buyers to sellers on a potentially landscape-altering Wednesday afternoon. Joel Pineiro, who won seven of his previous eight decisions, was scratched from Wednesday's start because of a left rib-cage strain, an injury the right-hander suffered while warming up in the bullpen.

Say this about these Angels: They're not haunted by the past. The Angels traded three players and took on $24.5 million to get Scott Kazmir last year, a bust so far. They traded four players and took on $32 million to get Dan Haren on Sunday, with no regrets about the Kazmir deal. In the first inning of his first game with the Angels, Mo Vaughn tumbled into the dugout and wrenched his ankle. He had just become the costliest purchase in club history, and he was never the same again.