After clearing Taylor Ward's contract, how much do Angels have to spend?

The Angels pulled off a heist in on the trade market, sending outfielder Taylor Ward to the Baltimore Orioles for former first round pick and potential ace Grayson Rodriguez. While just trading those two players is a fantastic move for Perry Minasian, diving deeper into what this trade means for the Angels and their offseason gives them an even better grade than one might imagine.

With Grayson Rodriguez heading the Anaheim, the team is getting a young starting pitcher who has flashed the ace potential that the Orioles hoped for when they drafted him 11th overall in the 2018 MLB Draft. With four years of team control, the Angels have added to their young pitching core of Jose Soriano and Reid Detmers with a pitcher in Rodriguez who might just have the highest ceiling in Anaheim now.

And on top of all of that, the biggest win might just come this offseason. By swapping Ward's ~$13.7 million contract for Rodriguez's, the Angels are saving somewhere in the range of $13 million this offseason. It does not need to be said that amount of capital gives them a better chance at bringing in top free agents this offseason, but just how much room do the Angels have?

How much do Angels have to spend after moving Taylor Ward?

Unfortunately, the worst contract in MLB history still resides in Anaheim. Anthony Rendon's deal finally ends after 2026, but even with that in tow the Angels can still make solid upgrades in the coming weeks and months. At the moment, Spotrac has the Angels projected for $158.7 million in payrolls. That includes current contracts, minor league spending, and arbitration decisions, and is a rough estimate as to how much the team can expect to spend next season if they make no moves.

But the Angels are going to make moves, even more now that Ward is in Baltimore.

In the past three seasons, the Angels have had Opening Day payrolls of $208.4 million in 2025, $171.9 million in 2024, and $230.5 million in 2023. Given Minasian's comments, would be fair to expect the Angels to spend somewhere near their 2025 mark, if not higher. With the Angels rumored to be in the market for starting pitching, left-handed bats, and bullpen help, they now have (at least) about $40 million of spending power to attack and fill those holes on the free agent market. So not only did acquiring Grayson Rodriguez partially solve one of their biggest problems, it upped their ability to be aggressive this offseason and maybe actually make some noise in 2026.