The 1967 Angels broke from the past, trading their ace pitcher and 1964 Cy Young Award winner Dean Chance to the Twins. In exchange, they obtained power hitting first baseman Don Mincher. Mincher would be their first legitimate consistent power threat since Leon Wagner was traded after the 1963 season. The Angels also obtained outfielder Jimmie Hall, who had averaged 25 home runs per season for the Twins from 1963–66. The Angels counted on young pitchers Jim McGlothlin and Rickey Clark to pick up the slack for the departed Chance.
The 1967 Angels had the second best record in franchise history to date and ranked a franchise best to date 4th in the American League in attendance. Mincher chipped in 25 homers and Hall added 16 in 129 games. Former bonus babyRick Reichardt finally started showing promise by batting.265 with 17 homers, while shortstopJim Fregosi had another solid season, batting.290 and earning a Gold Glove. Second basemanBobby Knoop also won a Gold Glove, and the Angels led the league in fielding percentage. The pitching staff was led by McGlothlin, who was named to the AL All-Star team, along with Clark and hard luck veteran George Brunet, who lost 19 games despite a 3.31 ERA. Relief pitcherMinnie Rojas had a remarkable season, with a league-leading 27 saves, winning 12 games in relief, and sporting a 2.52 ERA.
Season summary
The Angels, coming off an 80–82 record in 1966, started slowly. On May 31, they were 18–27 and 10 games out of first place. At that point, they began to jell, and after going 20–11 in June and 17–11 in July, they found themselves at 55–49. While this put them in fifth place, they were only 4½ games out of first in what had become a five-team race between the Angels, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, and the surprising Boston Red Sox. On August 13, the Angels completed a 3-game sweep of the Red Sox. They were now only 1½ games out of first as they embarked on a crucial road trip that included stops in Minnesota and Boston. The Angels lost 3 games to the Twins, and 3 games in Boston. When they returned home, the Angels lost 3 out of 4 to the Tigers, and they entered September only 1 game over.500 and 8 games out of first. They played well in September, going 17–11 to finish 84–77, but never got closer than 6 games out of first. However, they had a big influence on the tight American League pennant race as they beat the Tigers in Detroit in the last game of the season, enabling the Red Sox to win the pennant by 1 game.
August 7, 1967: The Angels sent a player to be named later to the Houston Astros for Jim Weaver. The Angels completed the deal by sending Héctor Torres to the Astros on November 21.
