3 Angels players Arte Moreno might dump on waivers to save money

August and September are the months in which MLB rosters should be fully operational, and subsequently inspiring hope in fanbases. Unfortunately for Los Angeles Angels fans, their favorite team is among the worst August teams the past decade, and have been experiencing more of the same misery they are used to this season. The Angels are 7-10 so far this month and are pretty much officially eliminated from postseason contention.

So, with the Angels' status as non-contenders close to solidified...what now? Well, the Miami Marlins broke the dam of cheap, non-competitive teams prioritizing finances by placing starting pitcher Cal Quantrill on outright waivers. The Marlins are still on the hook for the remaining $753K of his $3.5 million deal, but the organization is seemingly trying to avoid the $500K in undisclosed performance incentives that he might have received if they kept him. The Pittsburgh Pirates are once again doing the most egregious financial maneuvers by moving old friend Andrew Heaney out of their rotation in order to not pay him as much in performance incentives via innings pitched.

The 2025 Marlins and Pirates are cute, but the Angels, Arte Moreno and John Carpino are the masters of August salary dumps. Get on our level!

That being said, there are a few crucial differences between the 2023 and 2025 Angels -- namely, the 2025 Angels are not above the dreaded luxury tax like the 2023 Angels were. The 2023 Angels shed salaries like nobody's business out of desperation, whereas the 2025 Angels do not hold that same level of financial stress. The Marlins are nowhere close to the luxury tax, yet still are going to try and save money anyway by waiving Quantrill. Moreno will likely follow suit given that this year is a bust once again.

3 Angels players Arte Moreno might dump on waivers to save money

Tyler Anderson

First of all, Anderson should be gone by now. The leash the Angels have given Anderson and Jack Kochanowicz are comically long for no reason whatsoever. Those two have killed this team, and Anderson's atrocious season should outweigh any loyalty the Angels have towards him because he signed a three-year deal with the club in the past. LAA has lost the last five games in which Anderson's started.

The Angels do not want to appear as cruel towards free agent players. Players might see the Angels waive Anderson and think to themselves: "They would cut a player who actually wanted to play for them like that? He pitched well for them the past couple of years! I'm not signing there, they could do the same to me!" That's definitely a fair consideration the Angels need to make, but an appropriate counter is: "He makes $13 million this year and only one player in baseball has allowed more home runs."

Cutting ties with Anderson is more than justified. He is on an expiring contract who they definitely will not seek a reunion with, and the Angels actually have several young, well-rested pitchers in Caden Dana, Ryan Johnson and George Klassen who could step in and start in his place.

Jorge Soler

The Angels would have to eat $10 million of the $13 million Soler's owed in 2026 should they cut ties with him in August (the Giants still are on the hook for $3 million). However, that prospect of eating salary is looking more logical given the state of Mike Trout's knee and the outfield depth the team actually has.

Trout may never play outfield again, he truly needs to be a full-time DH the rest of his career. His offensive game has more warts than ever (his strikeouts are really piling up), but the organization can just chock that up to his knee not being right. This decision is pretty much out of their control -- they have to keep Trout out of the outfield. So, keeping Soler for both the rest of 2025 and 2026 would mean they have two DHs.

The Angels do not historically eat salary, but we'll see if they do now since it concerns Trout's health and well-being. Soler is on the injured list, but if he gets close to coming back it behooves both sides to part ways. Soler does not want to be a full-time outfielder, because as a result he has continually got injured this year and is having the second worst season of his long career. The Angels would rather give right field fully over to Jo Adell, and centerfield reps (now and moving forward) to some rotation of Bryce Teodosio, Matthew Lugo, Kyren Paris and Nelson Rada.

Chris Taylor

Taylor makes virtually nothing (a smidge over $500K for the season), but the Angels will likely not receive any more production this season from him the rest of the campaign. The super-utility man has not officially been ruled out for the season, but it does not feel like he will be able to play at 100% strength.

Additionally, Taylor has no path to playing time whatsoever given that he'd be blocked by Yoán Moncada, Luis Rengifo, Christian Moore and even Oswald Peraza AKA the Angels' big-ticket item at the 2025 trade deadline.

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