Details of Angels-Twins failed Zach Neto trade shows why John Mozeliak is the man for the job

Zach Neto’s name was in the rumor mill at last week's deadline. That's well-known at this point. How many teams actually called is something fans didn’t know (and still probably don’t to the full extent). But new details about the Minnesota Twins’ pursuit of the Los Angeles Angels’ shortstop have shown what the asking price was.

The Minnesota Star Tribune dropped a great look at the Twins’ deadline last week, and within it is a detail Angels fans should sit with and then be happy to know. Minnesota checked in on Neto multiple times but never got anywhere because the asking price started with Walker Jenkins. 

Jenkins is the Twins' consensus top prospect and one of the best position player prospects in all of baseball. He ranks 10th overall and seventh among position players on Baseball America’s latest top-100 list. The conversation stalled out, and the Twins moved on, which is exactly how this was supposed to go.

The Angels set a price nobody wanted to pay for Zach Neto, and that's the point

For a team in the Angels’ position, everyone needs to be available, and the fact that Neto was is encouraging and tells you where John Mozeliak’s head was a few weeks ago. But some players take more to acquire than others, and he was only going to say yes if someone blew him away with an offer. Nobody did. It’s a good thing that the asking price was high, and a better thing that Mozeliak didn’t back down for someone with the team control of Neto.

Jenkins would have been an incredible return. He was the fifth overall pick in 2023, and is currently handling Triple-A pitching at just 21 years old. There’s a reason he sits where he does on prospect lists. Health is a concern with him, but he is one of the elite prospects in baseball when he’s on the field. It’s probably fair to wonder if part of why the Twins said no is that the Angels wanted Jenkins and then some. 

Neto has real value. Yes, he strikes out too much, and he’s not having a great year, but he hits the ball over the wall, can generally steal bases more successfully than he has this year, and is under team control for three more years after 2026. Neto is the type of player who, at this stage of his career, requires a huge return to move.

It’s the same posture they took around the entire deadline. The Angels traded José Soriano and got back Toronto’s best prospect, shortstop Arjun Nimmala. The fact that they acquired a top shortstop prospect who is already looking good in Double-A was a reason why Neto might have been more likely to be moved.

The Halos also flipped Ryan Zeferjahn for a real return. But when it came to Neto and Reid Detmers, it was different. Mozeliak wasn’t selling to sell. He was selling to get back real value, and if he didn’t get what he wanted, he kept the asset, which is smart baseball.

Trade deadline coverage can get a little too binary sometimes. Everything is about whether a guy will stay or go, and then, after that, whether he should have stayed or gone. Mozeliak deserves credit because he didn’t hang on to Neto out of loyalty. He hung on because he set a real price, and let the rest of the league decide if they wanted to meet it. Nobody did. The Angels didn’t fail by not trading Neto. They actually got it right.

Angels fans have seen the team get out-negotiated (or deals put on ice for reasons higher up in the organization) for a long time. But even outside of ownership meddling, they’ve made some questionable trades. A GM willing to walk away from a deal rather than settle for one is a nice change for the organization. It’s the kind of discipline Mozeliak built his reputation on with the St. Louis Cardinals before taking over with the Angels this summer, and it’s exactly what the organization was missing.

Mozeliak’s first trade deadline in Anaheim gave this fanbase more reason for optimism than the past few combined. The Neto non-trade is a bigger part of that than it might look on the surface. Maybe he wasn’t as available as the rumor mill suggested, and asking for Jenkins was Mozeliak’s way of politely saying no without saying it publicly. 

Either way, it works in the Angels’ favor. If the asking price was real, it meant the front office had a clear-eyed view of what one of its best young players was worth. If it was a soft no, it means Mozeliak knows how to protect part of his roster without burning bridges around the league. Whatever it is, Neto’s an Angel and Jenkins is a Twin, and this front office deserves credit for knowing the difference between a rebuild and a fire sale.

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