Angels may already be facing the Grayson Rodriguez problem they feared

The Los Angeles Angels should have seen the Grayson Rodriguez warning signs well before this. Before his spring training shoulder inflammation sidelined him until mid-May, he couldn't throw strikes, registering 7.11 BB/9 in the short time he was able to get work in before being placed on the IL. When Rodriguez returned, he laid an egg in his first start back on May 17 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Some wanted to look for silver linings in that debacle, but like the last embers in a charcoal grill, they were quickly extinguished. In the six starts Rodriguez has made so far, he's lasted just a total of 25.2 innings, posting a grotesque 8.06 ERA in the process.

The results on the mound are concerning, but not the biggest cause for alarm. Rodriguez has at least looked solid when healthy for the majority of his career, so with time, the results would likely stabilize. The problem for him is actually staying on the mound, and now he's landing on the IL yet again, this time with a sore back.

With that, the Angels might be finally be realizing that their worst fear with Rodriguez has finally come true. Whether he's pitching well or poorly he can't stay healthy. And given what they gave up to get him, it's yet another one in a long line of crushing mistakes.

Angels may have wasted a prime chip in Taylor Ward for a consistently injured Grayson Rodriguez

Rodriguez's lengthy injury was well documented before Los Angeles acquired him. He was limited to 23 starts and 122 innings in 2023 due to a lat strain, 20 starts and 116 innings in 2024 with another lat strain, and then missed the entire 2025 season with a litany of elbow injuries that culminated in elbow debridement surgery.

Still, the Halos decided to use Ward, a cost-controlled outfielder in his walk year coming off a 36-homer campaign, to secure Rodriguez's services despite a lack of truly elite performance and a history of durability issues.

The state of the market was such that any starter with a decent amount of team control went for an astronomical cost, and with Rodriguez not hitting free agency until after the 2029 season, he had a sky-high price tag relative to his performance.

Years of mismanaging pitching prospects had left the rotation in need, and Perry Minasian had acted out of desperation, as he far too often has and then lives to regret his decisions. Now, if the club tried to turn around and trade Rodriguez, they'd get back pennies on the dollar.

Ward, meanwhile, still would be an in-demand trade piece thanks to his patience at the plate, even if he is only a rental who hasn't hit for anywhere near the same level of power as last year. That's not how you win trades.

Even more egregious, the Angels missed multiple opportunities to trade Ward when his value was even higher, like at the 2024 and 2025 deadlines, when he would have had the added value of additional team control to go along with his strong performances.

Had the Angels done that at either of the past two trade deadlines, they could have obtained prospect packages that brought back potential cornerstone youngsters.

Instead, they sold low on a key asset to buy in a niche where prices were sky-high relative to value, and not only got back a player without elite talent, they got back a player with serious availability issues.

They squandered a prime opportunity and are now staring down the barrel of rostering a player in Rodriguez, who might spend more time on the IL than the active roster year in and year out. All the while, the rotation is still lacking.

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