Zach Neto has made his feelings clear: he wants to stay with the Angels, and he wants to be part of the turnaround.
"I'm very loyal and I want to stay here. I want to be able to flip this thing around for the team."
That kind of loyalty is rare in modern baseball, and it would be easy to frame Neto as the sort of young cornerstone a team builds around for years. He has already shown plenty of promise, too. Even with a step back in his third full season, he has still been one of the most impactful players in the sport early in his career, and back-to-back 5 WAR seasons at his age - especially at shortstop - is not something many players can claim.
But the Angels are in a different place than Neto is.
This is not a roster ready to win now, and it does not have the kind of established support around him that would make holding onto him the obvious choice. Los Angeles has continued to lean on a familiar pattern: pushing prospects up before they are fully ready and giving veterans one more chance to provide value, even when that value never really materializes. There is no real core here built around Neto.
That is why the Angels should consider trading him while his value is so high.
Neto will play all of 2027 at 26 years old, and he is under team control through 2029. That combination of age, production and control is exactly why his name kept coming up in trade chatter at the deadline. For a contender, that profile is incredibly difficult to find.
The asking price would be massive, and it should be. John Mozeliak was right to push for the team’s No. 1 prospect just to get trade talks started. A player like Neto could bring back a package that changes the direction of an organization, including multiple top-100 prospects and even proven young major league talent.
The Angels have not done enough elsewhere on the roster to make keeping Neto in his prime make sense. Unlike the situation Mike Trout stepped into at a similar age, there is not much in the way of established MLB help around him now. If Los Angeles is serious about building something sustainable, the smarter move is to use Neto as the centerpiece of a larger reset and rebuild the farm system around him.
In Other News...
Angels Face A Kikuchi Decision That Could Speed Up The Rebuild
Yusei Kikuchi is back after a two-month injury absence, and for the Angels, his return lands at a familiar crossroads between present value and future planning. In a rebuilding phase, Los Angeles has to weigh every veteran move against the bigger picture, and Kikuchis situation stands out because he still brings rotation experience while fitting the profile of a player who could be moved as the club sorts out its next steps.
With one year left on his contract, Kikuchi also gives the Angels a chance to make the kind of decision that can shape a rebuild. Trading him would trim salary and open more major league innings for the young arms the organization is developing, giving those pitchers a clearer path while helping the club reallocate resources toward the long view. [Read more 🡒]
Angels GM Search Suddenly Has One Complication Fans Can't Ignore
The Angels front office picture has become a little murkier at exactly the wrong time, with the organization still sorting out how its baseball operations department will look moving forward. John Mozeliak has already come aboard with authority over baseball operations, and there is at least some speculation he could wind up staying in a long-term role, which would naturally shape how the rest of the hierarchy gets built.
If Mozeliak remains in place as president of baseball operations, the search for a general manager could shift toward a younger hire, the kind of executive who can grow into the job rather than walk in and take over the whole operation at once. That would open the door to assistant GMs from other clubs, and it adds another layer to a search the Angels needed to be straightforward after a busy stretch around the American League West. [Read more 🡒]
Angels Just Lost Depth As Their Outfield Squeeze Gets Harder To Ignore
Cade Marlowe has chosen to exercise the opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Angels, and that leaves one more organizational outfield option off the board as the club keeps sorting through a crowded depth chart. Marlowe had been playing well at Triple-A Salt Lake, but the path to Anaheim never really opened up, with the roster squeeze in the outfield making his route to the majors hard to see.
The move sends Marlowe back into free agency, where he will look for another opportunity after spending parts of two seasons in the big leagues with the Mariners. For the Angels, it is another reminder that even solid minor league production does not guarantee a lane to the roster when the outfield is already jammed. [Read more 🡒]