LA Angels: Who stays and who goes when Trout, Rendon and Upton return

No matter how things turn out by the trade deadline, there’s no scenario in which a position player isn’t removed from the active roster.

The LA Angels roster features several position players with unclear roles moving forward.

Starting with the first two guys on this list, either Rengifo or Mayfield is practically guaranteed to be gone by month’s end.

The struggling infielders have spent most of their time as of late filling in for Rendon at third base, a tell-tale sign that at least one of them will be gone once he returns. Likewise, with no more need for him in the outfield, Phil Gosselin will likely be shifted back into his infield utility role, thus taking one of their spots.

Making the decision even easier here is the fact that both of these guys can be optioned or DFA’d with virtually no risk to the team whatsoever.

For my money, Mayfield is more likely to go due to being older and less defensively versatile than Rengifo.

In a similar vein, Lagares is pretty much the outfield equivalent to Rengifo and Mayfield, albeit with much better offensive and defensive numbers.

Despite this, the recent signing of Adam Eaton and the arrival of top prospect Brandon Marsh make Lagares an expendable piece.

There’s simply no way the team will carry six regular outfielders on the 26-man roster going forward, especially with Gosselin being able to fill in during emergencies.

Then there’s Ward. His inclusion may come as a shock to some as he’s easily the best of the position players on this list. That said, his status with the team has also been shaken by the arrival of Eaton and Marsh.

With those two combined with Trout and Upton taking up the top four outfield spots, one has to wonder if this is a sign that the promising 27-year-old might feature into trade talks in the next couple of weeks.

Though his performance this year seemed to indicate that he would be the Angels’ starting right fielder of the future, the front office may be putting more faith in either Jo Adell or Jordyn Adams to develop and take that spot in 2022.

In that case, there’s a chance that Ward, either in a trade package or solo (I have to imagine he’s worth a decent middle reliever straight up), will be gone by the time Trout and Upton come back.

That said, this is just conjecture based on the Angels’ recent moves. Lagares is still the more likely of the two to lose his place on the active roster just on merit alone.

Moving on to the pitchers, whether or not any of them get moved for Trout and the others is heavily dependent on how the team performs over the next week or so.

The status of the LA Angels playoff hopes will determine what happens to these pitchers.

Starting with Iglesias, he is arguably the Angels’ best reliever. However, if the team is out of the playoff race by July 30, it’s almost a given that he will be traded, thus freeing up a roster spot right then and there.

On the other hand, if the team surges to close out July, his inclusion on this list will be moot.

As for the other expendable relievers, I think it’s safe to say that most Angels fans will be elated to see either Claudio or Guerra get DFA’d.

More so than any other relievers on the team, these two have struggled the most out of the bullpen (and that’s saying a lot).

The benefit of cutting one (or both) of them is that it would give the Angels the option of either keeping an extra position player and running with a five-man bench, or going out and getting a quality reliever to take their place.

Similarly, the status of Bundy and Quintana is pretty much the same as with Claudio and Guerra. The failed starters turned relievers have, to put it bluntly, been deadweight for most of this season.

With their respective trade values at virtually zero, flat out cutting them from the team may be the best course of action.

Again, though, what the Angels do with these four will be dependent on the situation at the trade deadline.

If the Halos are still competitive and aim to be buyers, there’s a good chance that at least of couple of these guys will be cut sooner rather than later, regardless of Trout, Rendon and Upton returning.

However, if the Halos are out of the hunt, then there really isn’t any more harm to be done in keeping these four once Trout and the others are added.

Even in that nightmare scenario, I doubt anyone would be too broken up over sending down Mayfield and Lagares, and the team wouldn’t exactly have much need for a premium closer like Iglesias anymore either.