LA Angels were clearly right to not trade Raisel Iglesias

Raisel Iglesias was thought by many to be the best reliever on the trade block other than Craig Kimbrel.

The LA Angels decided not to trade him by the July 30th deadline, and they’ve got to be feeling good about their decision after he was named A.L. Reliever of the Month. He was seven for nine in save opportunities in the month of July, and gave up just three runs in 14 innings.

That’s an ERA of 1.93. He had an 0.88 WHIP, and hitters batted .176 against him. He was simply sensational all month.

The LA Angels made the correct decision in keeping Raisel Iglesias.

This award proved that Raisel Iglesias needed to stay with the LA Angels.

Does this level of play mean that they could have received a nice haul in return from Iglesias? Yes, it does.

That being said, the Angels can’t go all in on selling. Their future is already on the roster, and it’s a future that can’t really get any better. They have the two best players in the game on their team.

Therefore, if the Halos decided to sell everybody and build for the future, they would just be accepting that they’re going to waste at least a couple of years of prime Mike Trout and prime Shohei Ohtani.

What if the Angels win this series vs. the Rangers (which is likely). They’ll be over .500 with a chance to get Trout back, who is the second most valuable player in baseball when healthy. Having him back on the team with the most valuable player in baseball puts them immediately in contention if the Halos can tread water here without him.

If the Angels have those two but lose Iglesias, they have an embarrassingly bad bullpen. There’s no shot to compete if that was the case. So, they’d be not competing for sure this year, while also setting themselves up to need at least a couple more years before they could compete the next time.

Therefore the Angels would have wasted multiple years of their studs while not even giving them a chance when Ohtani is having the best season of all time. Not to mention, when Trout was playing, he was having maybe the best year of his career. I would not be surprised at all if he returned at that level.

Iglesias staying put gives the Angels the chance to have a more complete roster if the team can play above .500 baseball by the time Trout gets back. Every team in the league would do anything to get Trout added to their team in late August.

If the Angels traded Iglesias, who proved how dominant he is in July, the Angels wouldn’t even be able to take advantage of being able to add Trout.