Angels Rumors: Gauging interest levels in former MVP, elite closer, veteran slugger

The Winter Meetings are built on extremely fatigued and stressed media and team members just throwing darts. Who knows who to believe? Who is actually available for a trade? Which teams a free agent is actually interested in? Words are wind after all (shoutout George R.R. Martin).

The rumor mill is CHURNING! This article will solely focus on external players who are linked in a way to the Angels, but there is plenty of content to come concerning Angels players who are either on their way out or in route for a role-change. Stay tuned.

Here is your mega-round up of every player who has been linked to the Angels in some way by the national reporters on-hand at the Winter Meetings.

Cody Bellinger

Heyman appeared on a B/R Walkoff live show, and mentioned the Angels once. He simply said that the Bellinger contract might be too steep to pique the Angels' interest. However, the Angels are in desperate need of a left-handed power bat, and Bellinger would be a great fit. Trout and Bellinger could trade-off center field duties, with both filtering into the corners every now and again. Bellinger would slot right into the heart of the order, and also could play first base every now-and-again.

Clearly, the Angels could off-set a portion of his incoming salary by sending out Tyler Anderson and Taylor Ward in return (two players who are in a plethora of trade rumors). An Anderson+Ward+ prospect package would be difficult to top for the expensive Bellinger, who's coming off a down year and on a club that is also openly shopping him. A team looking to spend cash that's burning a hole in their pocket, like the Yankees, could intrigue Chicago if they could get out of Bellinger's entire salary while still receiving a player or two. That being said, the Angels could offer the Cubs one of the better returns if Chicago is still trying to compete next season and not solely off-load salary.

Devin Williams is in-play?!?!

The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal on the trade market for Devin Williams: "According to league sources, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees are among the teams expressing interest in Williams...even mid-market clubs like the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers could be in play, and perhaps even apparent non-contenders such as the Los Angeles Angels." He also reported at least 10 teams have contacted Milwaukee about their star closer.

First off...rude, Ken. Anyways...yes, it will be difficult for the Angels to out-bid the Dodgers, Yankees, Royals, Tigers, and six to seven other teams who are in on Williams. It just seems like Rosenthal threw the Angels' name in there to show that the entirety of the league covets Williams, not that the Angels actually have a shot. Williams is in line for a great 2025 season after an injury-plagued 2024, and teams looking to compete will happily pay top-dollar for a premier closer like Williams. He is far more established and nasty than Tanner Scott, the best closer on the free agent market.

The Brewers traded Josh Hader to the Padres in 2022 for Robert Gasser, Dinelson Lamet, Taylor Rogers and Esteury Ruiz. It seems implausible that the Angels would be all-in on winning the Williams sweepstakes and mortgage practically their entire future for a reliever.

Eugenio Suárez

In Rhett Bollinger’s Angels Beat newsletter, the beat writer speculated: "[the Angels] could dip into their farm system to swing a trade or look to trade a player as part of a change-of-scenery move such as Detmers or Silseth. Maybe a third baseman like Eugenio Suárez could make some sense, as he’s in the last year of his deal with the D-backs after they picked up his $15 million option for ’25." The Diamondbacks are a team that assuredly would consider sending a hitter out to get a pitcher back, as their pitching staff was among the worst in the league last season.

Suárez is an intriguing player who started his Diamondbacks tenure slowly last season, but picked it up by the end of the year. He's made a career off of putting balls in seats, the exact trait that Perry Minasian is clamoring for more of this offseason. He can pick it and has great range at third base as well. His 5.1 defensive fWAR ranked third on the D-Backs last season, and his OAA ranked in the 82nd percentile.

Anybody else?

OCR's Jeff Fletcher threw out a ton of names: David Bednar (who Perry Minasian loves and has constantly checked in on over the years), Hunter Harvey, Derek Law, Alec Bohm, Nico Hoerner, Nolan Gorman, and Brett Baty.

Gleyber Torres-to-the Angels is getting some buzz as well, as it was reported by Jon Morosi. The Blue Jays were bidding on him as well, but then turned around and traded for Andrés Gimenez who plays the same position as Torres. The Yankees are burning their Soto-offered money, as they just spent $218 million on Max Fried. They could easily over-spend to bring back their leadoff hitter.

Angels fans were whispering that they believed the Angels could land Fried due to the Braves connections. Well, in hindsight, there was no chance that was going to happen. The Yankees blew all contract projections for Fried out of the water.

How about Nolan Arenado? The eight-time All Star might have interest in the Angels, and would reportedly waive his no-trade clause to play in Anaheim! Like Bellinger, the Angels would need to send out Anderson+Ward to off-set the incoming salary. The likelihood of a Rendon+pieces for an Arenado swap seem staggeringly low.