The Angels may have trade chips worth talking about, but their deadline plan is still very much a work in progress.
Interim GM John Mozeliak is the one trying to sort through it all, and he’s not pretending the answers are easy. In a conversation with Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com earlier this week, Mozeliak made clear that the organization is still figuring out what kind of path it wants to take as the deadline approaches.
“I reflect back to when I was first named general manager and that was a turbulent time for the Cardinals,” Mozeliak said. “And so for me, coming in here with an organization that is trying to get back to being a perennial winner, there are some similarities.
But clearly when you look at having a successful franchise year over year, it really comes down to how you're built. … Scouting and player development have to be a major force.”
That’s the backdrop for an Angels team that appears headed toward selling, even if the exact shape of that sell-off remains unclear. Mozeliak has started to sound like someone who understands the depth of the problem, not just the surface-level issues.
"We are going to have to be very open-minded,” Mozeliak said. “Obviously, we're not having the year we hoped to.
When you think about the trade deadline, you think about the offseason, there's certain times where you have the ability to get better. And so understanding the market and where that's going, that's first and foremost my biggest thing.”
That market, at least for now, is leaning toward starting pitching. Conveniently enough, the Angels have two arms that could draw plenty of attention in Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano, both of whom were showcased coming out of the break and both of whom performed well.
Mozeliak stopped short of naming names, but he did make it clear that change is coming in some form.
“I'm not going to mention names, but what I am going to stick to is we know things have to change,” Mozeliak said. “And what that looks like, who that looks like, that's to be determined. But not going into this with an open-minded approach, I think, would be a failure on my part.”
How far the Angels go is still the big question. Mozeliak’s willingness to keep the door open on a broader reset may not line up neatly with owner Arte Moreno, whom Mozeliak said he has not met yet. Moreno has long been associated with holding onto players until their value is squeezed dry rather than taking the obvious rebuild route, and that reality hangs over whatever the Angels do next.
“That's the question we're trying to answer, right?” Mozeliak said about the possibility of a full rebuild.
“So that's what we are asking for a little time and grace for, so we can understand what it looks like. But I don't want to ever think like we don't want to think about next year either.
If we can find a way to do both, that would be awesome.”
For now, Mozeliak is still in information-gathering mode, trying to buy enough time to make the right call while the rumor mill keeps spinning. Whether the Angels can actually turn this into a meaningful step forward is still unclear, and Mozeliak isn’t pretending otherwise.
“That's a challenging task,” he said when he was asked if the Angels can contend next year. “Can I answer that like in a week and a half? I'm working through some things to sort of understand how to get there, and I don't know.
"I definitely feel like Mr. Moreno is trusting me to get this right,” Mozeliak said. “And so, that's what I'm certainly going to try to do."
In Other News...
Angels May Be Weighing A Move Fans Never Wanted To Hear
The Angels are headed toward the trade deadline in seller mode, but the bigger question may be how far they are willing to go. Interim general manager John Mozeliak is still sorting through player values and trying to gauge how much owner Arte Moreno is open to moving, which leaves the club in a familiar spot: talking about flexibility while knowing the real decisions might not come until later.
Mozeliak has already suggested the most significant moves could wait until the offseason, and that makes the next few weeks feel more like a test of the market than a full teardown. One name to watch is shortstop Zach Neto, who has drawn attention as a valuable trade piece, but there is still plenty of uncertainty about whether the Angels will actually part with him or keep him as part of whatever comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Angels Fired Someone After Crossing A Line Against The Rockies
A quiet offseason personnel move turned into a much bigger story for the Angels after Major League Baseball flagged a violation tied to a June series against the Rockies. The club moved quickly once the issue was brought to its attention, cutting ties with a scout and trying to contain the fallout before it spread beyond a one-off breach of protocol.
Both teams came away believing the scout acted on his own, which is a big reason the Angels are not facing league punishment. Still, the episode left the organization doing damage control with Colorado, and then-general manager Perry Minasian apologized to the Rockies front office as the club worked to put the matter behind it. [Read more 🡒]
Angels Fans Suddenly Have A Zach Neto Question They Never Expected
Zach Neto has become the kind of name Angels fans did not expect to see in trade chatter this early, but ESPN analysts Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan have put the shortstop on a list of possible fits for a handful of contenders. Atlanta is among the teams mentioned, with Boston also in the mix, and the broader field reportedly includes Toronto, Minnesota, Tampa Bay and the Yankees, which is enough to make this feel less like idle speculation and more like a real winter-to-summer storyline taking shape.
The twist for Los Angeles is that Neto is still under club control through 2029 and has not even reached arbitration yet, so any talk of a move is coming well before the Angels would normally have to confront it. ESPNs estimate gives him a 30% chance of being traded, but for now the bigger question is whether this is just deadline noise aimed at a 2026 decision point or the first sign that a much more surprising conversation is starting to build. [Read more 🡒]