2 reasons to believe the Angels should be buyers, 2 reasons they should be sellers

2 reasons the Angels should be sellers

Remember 2023?

If there was ever a case to be made that the Angels have been cursed by the baseball gods, it might start with what happened to the Angels after the 2023 trade deadline.

The Angels were 56-51 at the end of July. They bought Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, C.J. Cron, Randal Grichuk, Mike Moustakas, Eduardo Escobar and Dominic Leone in an effort to finally clinch a playoff spot. The prospects they relinquished to acquire those seven have not amounted to anything, other than Edgar Quero of course. That definitely shows that even if the Angels do trade prospects in bulk this year, then they could easily flame out like many of their others. However, the organization might not be so lucky if they do so this time around.

The Angels pushed their chips in that year to round out the roster around Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. Trout went down with an injury after playing in a game on July 3rd, came back and played in a game on August 22nd, then was not seen again. Angels fans know the rest -- the team lost their first seven games in August and ended up waiving Giolito, Matt Moore, López, Leone, Grichuk and Hunter Renfroe before the month concluded. Every single one of those players was flat out awful after being landed by Perry Minasian.

If the Angels go all-in at the 2025 trade deadline, it will be a massive bet on Trout's health sustaining...which has been a losing proposition for years now. He has not played in all of May, and had his on-field issues when he was active. The Angels do not have many prospects they want to deal or that other teams would want, meaning they will not be able to bring in marquee names that would make much more of an impact that Giolito, López, etc. did in 2023.

Remember 2024?

Just like last season, the 2025 Angels have some clear trade candidates on their roster. In fact, they retained three members of last year's squad that very likely should have been dealt in Taylor Ward, Tyler Anderson and *sigh* Luis Rengifo. Obviously, Rengifo has negative value on the open market but the same cannot be said for some of his teammates.

Just as a reminder, the Angels turned Luis García and Carlos Estévez into George Klassen, Sam Aldegheri, Ryan Zeferjahn, Matthew Lugo, Niko Kavadas and Yeferson Vargas at last year's deadline.

The Angels have Kenley Jansen and his 11:0 SV:BS on an expiring deal. Tyler Anderson is expiring as well, and he's one of the more professional pitchers that could become available for relatively cheap come July 31st. Perhaps someone will want a crack at a switch-hitting third baseman whose shown signs of life this season in Yoán Moncada? Taylor Ward is under team control the rest of this year and all of next, and is tied for the fifth in the league with 15 home runs right now.

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