John Mozeliak just foreshadowed an Angels fire sale at the trade deadline

One of the most interesting things to watch at the MLB trade deadline this year will be how the Los Angeles Angels choose to operate. Interim general manager John Mozeliak is running the show now and he seemed to signal with some recent comments that the team will undertake a fire sale at the deadline.

Mozeliak talked about entering the deadline with an open mind and when asked about the possibility the team could trade two of its best trade chips, José Soriano and Reid Detmers, he said the following: 

“I'm not going to mention names, but what I am going to stick to is we know things have to change. And what that looks like, who that looks like, that's to be determined. But not going into this with an open-minded approach, I think, would be a failure on my part.”

That sounds like a guy who is ready to shake things up for an organization that has been struggling for a decade. What the Angels have been doing has not been working. That’s why Mozeliak is now in charge and it’s why it wouldn’t be a shock if he trades a lot of the team’s assets.

Mozeliak already showed that the team was willing to take a different strategy in the MLB Draft. For years it was just assumed that the Angels would take cheaper college players who could be rushed up to the big leagues, but they broke with that tradition by selecting Jared Grindlinger with their first pick, a 17-year-old with a ton of upside.

John Mozeliak has already signaled he will take a different approach at trade deadline

Maybe that was meant to foreshadow a different trade deadline approach as well. Don’t expect the team to trade Mike Trout or anything like that, but outside of him it seems like everyone could be on the table.

Shortstop Zach Neto’s name is coming up more and more in trade rumors. Outfielder Jo Adell is another guy who could offer value to a team in need of a power-hitting bat. It wouldn’t shock anyone if the team looked quite different after the deadline.

Mozeliak wasn’t brought in to just play things safe. He was brought in to change things in a very material way. That’s obviously very difficult to do so quickly after he assumed his new role but why not take some risks and make some big swings? The organization has had the same playbook for so long and look where it’s gotten them.

It’s time for the Angels to be bold and based on Mozeliak’s comments he is going to do just that at the trade deadline.

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