Vaughn Grissom Is In Limbo Without A Role Or A Position

The Los Angeles Angels have dozens of question marks going into the offseason, but not all of them are about bad players. One of the few things the Angels accomplished this year was turning former prospect Vaughn Grissom into something of a player, and it’s an interesting story that comes with a lot of twists and turns. 

The Halos acquired Grissom in a minor deal with the Boston Red Sox before the season, and the Bosox were only too happy to get rid of Grissom, who had become a glaring symbol of the failed Chris Sale trade after the Sox sent the expensive left-hander to the Atlanta Braves after Sale sputtered in Boston. 

Speculation had Grissom at either second or third, but his play was sporadic at both positions. Grissom doesn’t have the range to play second of the arm to play third, but he finally found a home as an occasional first baseman when Nolan Schanuel got hurt, and he was able to have some spot success at DH while occasionally popping up at other infield positions. 

It wasn’t great defensively, but Grissom can hit a little. He was horribly miscast as a cleanup hitter with the Angels, but he did have some impressive games where his power showed through. 

So what’s his role going forward? Who knows? Grissom is good enough to justify a roster spot, especially on a bad team like the Angels, and he managed to turn around his career, which was essentially dead in the water when the Halos acquired him. 

There really isn’t enough evidence to cast Grissom in any kind of role right now, especially with the Angels currently transitioning to a new ownership group. Grissom still needs some work with his offensive approach, as he’s basically a mistake hitter who strikes out a lot, but MLB is full of successful players who also do exactly that.  

The infielder now finds himself in a unique form of limbo, however. His future now depends on whoever Stan Kroenke and his ownership group decide on to lead the team forward, and that may or may not include interim GM John Mozeliak and manager Kurt Suzuki, according to what we know and have been told so far. 

It’s a scary position to be in. If Mozeliak gets hired to stick around and he sticks with Suzuki, Grissom will also stick. If not he’ll be in the wind, but at least he proved he’s a big-league player this year.