In his first offseason as general manager, Billy Eppler learned how to stretch a dollar. He entered the Angels' offseason with a variety of holes in the lineup, a payroll that was close to maxing out -- which in this case meant reaching the $189 million luxury-tax threshold -- and a farm system that wasn't going to be much help.
Eppler dealt a pair of top prospects early, jumping at the opportunity to fix shortstop long term, then he had to get creative. He needed to rely on the free-agent market, but mostly had to scrape the bottom of the barrel.