Angels Rumors: Prime Zach Neto opportunity squandered after surprise Red Sox trade

Most outside observers agree that the Los Angeles Angels are going to be aggressive sellers at this year's trade deadline. John Mozeliak was clearly brought in with the idea of shaking things up, and given the state of the Angels' roster and farm system, the most likely logical conclusion a sane executive would come to would be to enact a bit of a reset. Exactly how aggressive the Angels should be with this reset is up for debate, but one name that has come up repeatedly in trade rumors has been Zach Neto.

Many had hoped that Neto would establish himself as a franchise cornerstone by now, but that isn't really what happened. Thanks to a brutal strikeout rate and rough-looking defensive metrics, Neto has been one of the more frustrating Angels players to watch this season. Not only has he been one of the worst qualified infield defenders by OAA in baseball this season, but Neto has only managed a mediocre .771 OPS at the plate. That lack of actual production has made Neto expendable, although the Angels may have lost one of their best trade suitors for the young shortstop on Saturday night.

Everyone knew that Boston was looking to add a right-handed hitter at the trade deadline, and Neto seemed like a really good fit. Unfortunately, after the Red Sox traded for Curtis Mead in a deal with the Nationals, they may not be in the running anymore at all.

Angels may have lost their top suitor for Zach Neto after Red Sox's trade for Curtis Mead

Before the Mead trade, the Red Sox were widely considered to be interested in Neto and definitely tried to acquire him in the past. Their need for a righty bat that can play shortstop has been well-documented for a while now after some of the injuries they have dealt with, and trade rumors involving Neto had been ramping up over the last week or so.

Now, all bets are off. On one hand, it looks like Boston just added the right-handed bat they have been looking for and used one of their better trade chips in Connelly Early to land him. At first glance, that would seem to mean the Red Sox would be out of the Neto sweepstakes at the trade deadline.

However, Mead's fit in Boston is a little odd given that Mead has only played four MLB innings at shortstop and they already have Caleb Durbin and Anthony Seigler doing good work at third and second base, respectively. Given that the Red Sox were reportedly interested in Neto as well as Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña, it would be pretty odd that they would settle for an imperfect solution like Mead this far out from the deadline.

In short, the odds that Boston will end up being the Angels' trade partner on Neto have gone down, but they are not zero. The Red Sox may have other plans for Mead's bat or could even flip him to complete another trade over the next week or so. What the Mead trade does tell us is that the trade market is finally starting to move, and the Angels are one of the teams to keep a close eye on.

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