Angels offseason questions just got louder after insider’s latest comment

The Los Angeles Angels haven't exactly been dormant this offseason. The Grayson Rodriguez-Taylor Ward trade was one of the offseason's very first moves. Since then, we've seen an influx of relievers shuffled into the bullpen, an intriguing, if risky, reclamation project for the rotation brought in via the Alek Manoah signing, and now a much-needed left-handed bat for the outfield in Josh Lowe.

However, this is still a weak roster overall. It's hard to look at the Angels and see a club that can truly compete with the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros. Despite cutting payroll this offseason, the Texas Rangers still intend to compete, and are still probably a step or two ahead of the Halos. If the Athletics can figure out how to pitch, their impressive young lineup could propel them ahead of Los Angeles, too.

In a piece for ESPN, Aiden Gonzalez broke down the urgency rating for each team in the league, and his assessment that the Angels' offseason will be judged from here on out shows how little they've actually done to answer the questions they faced when the winter began.

Despite a flurry of moves, the Angels have done very little to answer their key offseason questions

A microcosm of this is the trade for Lowe. The Halos desperately need a center fielder. They simply can't risk putting Mike Trout out there. The club should have learned last year that the position is above Jo Adell's head. Is Lowe the answer? Perry Minasian might be open to the idea, but relying on that is 2025 all over again.

Lowe has played just 156 innings in center during his career. His last appearance out there came back in 2024, when he logged a whopping seven innings at the position. For better or worse, he's a right fielder, and that's unfortunate. Jo Adell's best position is also right field, so trying to keep both of them in the lineup will be a challenge if defense is any sort of concern. It should be given the disastrous performance we saw last season.

The outfield as a whole is lacking in that aspect. Trout needs to be a DH-only player. His health is paramount, and his limited sample last year in right field wasn't encouraging. The problem is that Jorge Soler is now your starting left fielder, but he's such a butcher that he should be a full-time DH as well.

Second base and third base are both incredibly barren as well. Are we really going to believe in Vaughn Grissom as the answer at second? Is playing Christian Moore out of position at the hot corner (instead of letting him develop in Salt Lake) really the best decision for the present and the future? Moreover, the rotation is still without a leader, the bullpen is still chock-full of question marks, and the team is a long way from truly contending.

As Gonzalez notes, "By trading Taylor Ward to the Baltimore Orioles for Rodriguez, the Angels saved more than $11 million in salary commitments for 2026. By deferring the last year of Anthony Rendon's contract, they saved an additional $30 million or so. And yet almost none of those savings have filtered their way back onto the roster."

With the free-agent market withering and a limited prospect portfolio to trade from, the question is what the Angels could even do to improve if they chose to put those funds to work? Not much, unfortunately.