4 Angels players who are tanking their trade value ahead of crucial deadline

Whether the Angels will be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline is a complicated buyers or sellers at the trade deadline is a complicated diagnosis to make as we pass the Memorial Day checkpoint. More than likely, they'll arrive at the deadline in some sort of hybrid mode, selling off pieces that don't have a future in Anaheim while buying players that can have a future with the club beyond 2025.

Up to this point, some of their clear trade candidates and best chips have not seen the success all sides hoped for come to fruition. Some prominent players have seen their value crater due to their performance, while some prospects who might have been expendable in return for young cost-controlled major league talent have seen their shine whither away.

In the Angels case, they should take these instances as harsh lessons, teaching them the value of having a cohesive long-term plan and sticking to that vision.

There's still time until the deadline, but as of now, these players have seen their value on the highly competitive trade market take significant hits, if not evaporate completely.

Luis Rengifo has gone from the Angels' most in-demand trade piece to a seriously distressed asset

Going back to last year's trade deadline, Luis Rengifo's name was commonly tossed around as a prime Angels trade candidate. With a year and a half left of team control at the time and being relatively young, he could have fetched a pretty penny.

General manager Perry Minasian opted to hang on to Rengifo, who promptly went down with a season-ending wrist injury that required surgery in early August. Still, the buzz surrounding Rengifo followed him throughout the offseason.

On the surface, it's easy to see why. The uber-versatile product of Venezuela can fill a lot of needs for a team. A switch-hitter who commonly plays second base and third base, Rengifo also has some experience playing shortstop and the outfield as well, making him a potential target for teams needing a starter at either of his primary positions or depth in the form of a super-utility man.

His on-field production was seen as versatile as well, with some power production in the form of 17 homers in just 127 games in 2022 and 16 homers in 126 games in 2023, to unlocking near-elite contact production with an even .300 batting average in 2024.

The biggest concern regarding his trade value entering 2025 seemed to be his health as his track record of missing time was significant.

However, Rengifo started 2025 cold as years' long questions about the quality of his contact came to a head as he was no longer able to outperform his peripherals. Now at the end of May, those struggles have continued with Rengifo batting just .224/.257/.285 with a lone home run on his stat line.

Never known for his glove work, Rengifo's defense has been particularly atrocious this season, with -5 defensive runs saved and -3 outs above average between his reps at second and third.

The total package Rengifo has provided as been worth -0.7 fWAR, so despite his affordable, expiring contract, his value is currently zilch and he looks more like a DFA candidate than a premium trade asset.

It would take a monster hot streak over the next two months for Rengifo to regain the luster he lost in the trade scene, and given the way he's performed so far, that really doesn't seem likely.

Kenley Jansen no longer seems like a key Angels' trade piece

When Kenley Jansen signed with the Angels ahead of spring training, a lot of eyebrows were raised. The 37-year-old closer is chasing history and trying to put an exclamation point on his Hall of Fame candidacy.

Entering the season with 447 career saves and chasing the magical 500 mark, it seemed unlikely he'd finish the season with a ball club projected to be one of the very worst in baseball. The most likely scenario was he'd get a chance to prove he still had something left in the tank and get flipped at the deadline to a bullpen-needy contender, especially one who may find themselves without a reliable closer.

At the beginning of the season, everything seemed to be going according to plan for Jansen, who put together a pristine first month. As time has gone on, however, the cracks are beginning to show.

Currently sporting a 4.96 ERA, Jansen has been bitten by the same homer bug that has plagued the rest of the Angels' league-worst bullpen, allowing 2.20 HR/9. The concerns with Jansen don't stop there, however.

The grizzled veteran is striking out batters at the lowest rate of his career, sitting at just 8.82 K/9 and continuing his slide in this metric that has gone on for the past several years. Moreover, while he's not walking a ton of batters, just 2.76 BB/9 versus a career average of 2.73, he's become very hittable.

Jansen's 1.41 WHIP highlights the traffic he's allowed on the bases, mostly coming via the base hit, and is a far cry from his 0.97 career mark.

At this point in the season, he appears much more like a late-30s arm that's running out of gas rather than the finishing touch on a World Series contender's roster.

Bullpen arms are always in high demand at the deadline, but unless Jansen has a swift return to form, it's very doubtful any contenders will come calling the Angels to inquire about his services.

Denzer Guzman hasn't become a coveted trade chip for the Angels

With a league-worst farm system and no clear path to contention, it hasn't seemed likely that the Angels would be dealing prospects, but rather trying to acquire them, at the trade deadline.

With that said, one player stands out as a guy who could have been dangled for help on the major league roster due to his boom-or-bust potential. That player is Denzer Guzman.

Guzman, 21, is commonly regarded as one of the best second-tier Angels prospects, ranking in the back-half of the club's top-10 prospects according to most outlets. The issue for Guzman has always been projection versus reality.

A toolsy shortstop prospect, Guzman has the athleticism and arm strength to not only handle the position but thrive playing it. With that said, he also has the quick twitch reflexes to play the hot corner if that's what's warranted, and his 6-1, 180-pound frame provides room for additional muscle without sacrificing a ton of athleticism.

Offensively, Guzman has a stroke that can provide above-average pull-side power with a line drive approach, according to Baseball America. However, they also note that he has issues with swing decisions and plate discipline that have hampered his ability to fully tap into his offensive tools.

After signing as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic for a hefty $2.1 million, Guzman has been aggressively promoted through the Angels' system, despite a lack of results more often than not.

In 2024, arrived at Double-A Rocket City as a 20-year-old and struggled mightily against the advanced competition, posting a .206/.297/.304 line with six home runs in 342 plate appearances.

2025 has been his second year with the Trash Pandas, and despite some early flashes in addition to some work at the hot corner, Guzman has not produced consistent results. On the season, he's slashing .205/.292/.358, and while his five homers in 171 plate appearances are better than last year's power production, most of his offensive value has been sapped by a lack of contact and a way-too-high 26.9% K-rate.

There may have been a world where Guzman produced enough to garner value on the trade market, but not enough to make the Angels firmly believe that he was finally tapping into his immense tools consistently, leading them to sell high in an effort to help the big league roster.

That has not come to fruition, and Guzman's entire future, let alone value as a trade chip, is in serious doubt.

The Angels are doing everything in their power to destroy top pitching prospect Caden Dana's value

To be clear, the pitching-needy Angels likely were never going to trade their prized top prospect, however, if the opportunity presented itself to acquire a young, cost-controlled ace, the team may have been forced to part with 21-year-old Caden Dana as the package headliner.

Despite the potential that has him almost unanimously ranked as the Angels' no. 1 prospect and a part of most top-100 lists, Dana's faced his fair share of challenges over the past year.

He arrived on the scene as a September callup last season at the tender age of 20, generating much buzz and excitement. Somewhat unsurprisingly, he struggled mightily making the leap from Double-A to the bigs, making just three starts and tallying 10.1 innings, and posting a 9.58 ERA.

During that time, it became clear that he was struggling with finding a consistent recent point, changing his arm angle depending on which pitch he threw and effectively tipping his pitches to big league hitters who were too savvy not to notice.

Still with optimism high, he entered spring training as a dark horse rotation candidate, but ultimately had an uneven showing with one dominant outing sandwiched between several that ranged from subpar to disastrous.

Dana began the season at Triple-A Salt Lake, reaching the minor league pinnacle for the first time in his young career. Over the first few weeks of the season, he displayed the same level of dominance that he had last season at Double-A, and at one point looked like an option to help stabilize the Halos' scuffling rotation.

Instead, the Angels have taken a strange approach that only seems to serve to his detriment, calling him up twice now to serve as the sacrificial lamb to save a worn-down bullpen and then immediately sending him back down once the bludgeoning is over.

Dana's two big league appearances in 2025 have seen him log six innings and post a 7.50 ERA. Meanwhile, his performance at Salt Lake has cratered as well, with him now owning a 5.21 ERA amid some recent struggles.

While the Angels seem hell-bent on breaking his confidence, his struggles at the Triple-A level matter more. No longer can he serve as an MLB-ready centerpiece to land a serious difference maker on the trade market, and while it's too early to write off his MLB future, his recent struggles are something to keep a close eye on.

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