The Angels are once again staring down a trade deadline with their season already slipping away, and the last five years offer a pretty clear roadmap of how this usually goes in Anaheim: a little selling, a little buying, and not nearly enough payoff.
With the deadline now just over a week away, the first major move around baseball already landed when the Washington Nationals sent third baseman Curtis Mead to the Boston Red Sox for LHP Connelly Early. That deal likely shut the door on a possible Angels-Boston swap involving shortstop Zach Neto, which had only recently started to pick up steam.
Even with a new general manager in place, the same old reality remains in Anaheim under Arte Moreno. The Angels sit with the worst record in the American League, and that puts them on track to be sellers before next Monday’s deadline. Looking back at the past five deadlines, though, shows a franchise that has rarely found the right button to push.
In 2021, the Angels made their biggest move by sending left-hander Andrew Heaney to the New York Yankees for pitching prospects Janson Junk and Elvis Peguero. Junk went on to appear in five games for the Angels, while Peguero pitched in 16 relief outings.
Heaney struggled in New York, so the trade ended up producing no real winner. Anaheim entered the deadline at .500 and finished 77-85 after a soft sell.
The following year brought a more active sell-off. Closer Raisel Iglesias, right-hander Noah Syndergaard, and outfielder Brandon Marsh were all dealt away, and the headliners coming back were catcher Logan O’Hoppe and outfielder Mickey Moniak.
Moniak, a former No. 1 overall pick, had his best season the next year in Anaheim before signing with the Colorado Rockies in 2025. O’Hoppe has flashed and faded in an Angels uniform, but his production since 2023 has been trending downwards.
Iglesias has stayed one of the better closers in baseball, and Marsh has piled up more than 10 WAR since leaving the Angels and was even named an All-Star this year.
Then came 2023, when the Angels acted like buyers. They added CJ Cron, Lucas Giolito, Randal Grichuk, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dominic Leone before the deadline, paying with two of their better prospects in catcher Edgar Quero and LHP Ky Bush. It was a full-throttle push in Shohei Ohtani’s final year with the club, but the result was still only 73 wins.
The next deadline, after Ohtani was gone, flipped back to selling. Closer Carlos Estevez and reliever Luis Garcia were moved for RHP prospect George Klassen, LHP Sam Aldegheri, RHP Ryan Zeferjhan and more.
The season that followed was the worst in Angels history, with just 63 wins. Still, the return brought in multiple arms who matter to the roster now, including Klassen, who remains one of the club’s top prospects.
At last year’s deadline, the Angels went with a very soft buy. They brought Garcia back, while also adding IF Oswaldo Peraza and reliever Andrew Chafin. They didn’t give up much, but the result was still a 72-win season, which made the whole approach look muddy at best.
That’s the backdrop for this year’s deadline, and it’s hard to argue the Angels should do anything but sell hard. No more soft sells or soft buys.
Reid Detmers, Jose Soriano, and Zach Neto should be available. The Angels aren’t winning with them right now, so the obvious play is to stock the minors with talent and hope that, a few years down the line, it finally adds up to a better team in Anaheim.
In Other News...
Angels Fans Wont Like Where This Zach Neto Trade Talk Is Going
Zach Neto has become the kind of player other clubs start circling when they are looking for a long-term answer up the middle, and that is exactly why his name has surfaced in a Red Sox trade discussion. The appeal is obvious: Neto brings offensive upside and still comes with team control through 2029, which makes him far more than a short-term rental and far more difficult for the Angels to part with lightly.
Bostons interest has been framed as exploratory rather than imminent, with no official offer or agreement reported, but the speculation alone says plenty about how highly Neto is viewed around the league. The chatter also hints at the sort of prospect-heavy return it would take to even get the Angels to listen, especially if they decide their own need for pitching has to be part of any larger deal. [Read more 🡒]
Another Angels Pitching Gamble Is Turning Into A Disaster
With nine days left before the trade deadline, the Angels are sitting near the bottom of the standings and looking more like sellers than buyers, which makes the clubs winter approach to pitching all the more relevant now. They spent $20.6 million on external arms viewed as reclamation projects, and the results have been uneven enough that Kirby Yates stands out as the rare success story in a group that was supposed to stabilize the staff.
Alek Manoah was supposed to be one of the bigger upside bets in that mix, but his season has only added to the sense that the gamble is backfiring. He got a brief look with the Angels in May and never found much traction, and the problems have followed him back to Triple-A, where the organization is still trying to figure out what comes next for a pitcher whose name once carried much different expectations. [Read more 🡒]
Angels May Be Breaking A Pattern Fans Know All Too Well
The Angels have spent much of the Mike Trout era treating their best young players as keepers, not trade chips, which is why the latest chatter around the roster feels so unusual. Zach Neto, a homegrown shortstop with years of control left, has emerged as the kind of player this franchise has typically built around, not the kind it has been willing to move.
What makes the possibility more interesting is the front-office backdrop. John Mozeliak, who recently took over baseball operations, has suggested he has more authority from Arte Moreno than his predecessors did, and that kind of shift can change how aggressively a team listens. Even so, the market is hardly settled, with Netos shoulder history and current performance both factors that could shape outside interest before anything gets serious. [Read more 🡒]