3 small moves LA Angels made that are already paying off in 2025

The Los Angeles Angels are the kings of unimportant, non-newsworthy roster transactions during the Perry Minasian era. Minasian's biggest splash during his tenure as general manager was trading for Lucas Giolito, and the big prize of the 2025 trade deadline was Andrew Chafin. He signs players like Kevin Newman, Tim Anderson, Chris Taylor, Nicky Lopez and prays they over-perform all projections. However, every now and again, a few of these waivers Minasian takes shine.

Kyle Hendricks

Hendricks' stats for the season are not the prettiest, but the Angels would be so much worse off without "The Professor." Hendricks has a 1.47 HR/9, meaning he will often serve up a long ball during his outing, and he has the same K/9 as Jack Kochanowicz... which is never a good sign. He was signed to a one-year, $2.5 million deal in the offseason, and many people eye-rolled and largely forgot about it immediately.

Hendricks just floats his pitches in, but has been doing a great job of dancing around danger and keeping batters off-balance of late. In his last three starts (16 innings pitched) against the Tigers, White Sox and Mariners, Hendricks allowed a total of just five runs, 11 hits and has an 11:3 K:BB. The Angels lost to the White Sox 1-0 in Hendricks' start and 6-5 against the Tigers in large part due to a blow-up outing from Reid Detmers. Hendricks has been steady and carrying his weight and then some.

The Angels bought at the MLB trade deadline, meaning every game this month is massive for them given how far back in the standings they are. Hendricks has showed up the last two weeks, unlike many (if not all) of the other pitchers in the rotation, and the Angels would be cooked without him.

Yoán Moncada

Handing the oft-injured Moncada a one-year, $5 milion deal felt like a massive stretch even for Minasian. The Angels' third basemen have been cursed by Anthony Rendon for half a decade now, and Moncada was both unavailable and bad when he has been healthy as a member of the White Sox. How was this cheap offseason acquisition who had a soft market going to make a bleak situation any better?

Obviously, Moncada has missed a solid amount of time (he only has 50 games played) and currently cannot hit right-handed because of a knee injury. However, he has the same OBP as Zach Neto, the same OPS as Nolan Schanuel and has a not-insignificant amount of clutch moments this year.

The Angels did not trade Moncada at the deadline, which might signal that they would want a reunion this offseason. Angels fans would not be too upset by that, he has done a solid job as a linchpin of the lineup.

Hunter Strickland

The Strickland reunion was yet another case of Minasian going back to the well with former Angels, like he did with Luis García and to a lesser extent with Brandon Drury and Chad Wallach. He was signed to a minor league deal mid-season, and his effect on the bullpen was palpable.

Strickland did not allow an earned run or allow an inherited run to score in his first 14 appearances for the Angels. Ron Washington deployed the 36-year-old in high-leverage spots and he came through over-and-over again. Not only did Strickland pitch well, but the rest of the relievers followed suit.

Strickland pitched for the Angels from May 20th until July 6th before going down with a shoulder injury that should keep him sidelined for another month. In that span, Angels relievers posted a 3.19 ERA, 4.18 FIP and 1.30 WHIP. For the whole season, Angels relievers have a 4.82 ERA, 4.78 FIP and 1.42 WHIP.

There's always a secret sauce with MLB teams, and Strickland somehow provided exactly that for the Angels during their best stretch of baseball this year.

More LA Angels News from Halo Hangout