4 Angels moves from 2023 that didn't work out as planned

3) The Lucas Giolito trade was one of the biggest LA Angels flops in recent memory

In an effort to snap their long postseason drought and to also show Shohei Ohtani that the Halos were capable when it came to fielding a competitive team, Perry Minasian pushed his chips in at the deadline and went for it.

Going for it wasn't a horrible idea to me, as the Angels had hung around in postseason contention all season, were going to get some injured players back (or so we thought), and the prospects they were going to trade aren't too important to the team's future anyway.

Trading away a guy like Edgar Quero, while he should be good in the future, doesn't hurt as much when you have Logan O'Hoppe behind the plate. Trading away Ky Bush doesn't hurt as much when the rotation is already full of lefties that have potential but haven't put it together yet. Trading those two prospects hurt when the prize was Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez both on expiring deals.

Lopez was mostly solid for the Angels, he isn't to blame for this trade aging so poorly. The Giolito acquisition wound up being just awful for the Angels. His 6.89 ERA with the club is skewed from that one horrific start in Atlanta, but he still wasn't anything special in his five other starts with the Halos.

Giolito didn't help the Angels at all in his six starts with his hometown team, as his 1-5 record indicates. The Angels presumably made this deal with an extension in mind, but were already fed up with the right-hander just one month after acquiring him, placing him on waivers for anyone to get essentially for free. If Quero and/or Bush turn into anything with the White Sox, that'll be a deal the Angels look back at and wonder what if.