4 missed opportunities for LA Angels at 2024 MLB trade deadline

By almost everyone's account, the Los Angeles Angels royally screwed up the trade deadline. In a prime seller's market, the Angels only traded away Carlos Estevez and Luis Garcia. For a team that is starved for talent in the minor leagues and without a real path back to contention, such a strategy is indefensible.

Now, Angels fans have to watch a bad Angels team that is likely to be without Mike Trout for a while (and Anthony Rendon, but that isn't a surprise), with little hope that 2025 will be much better. To better illustrate LA's mismanagement of the trade deadline, here are just some of their missed opportunities over the past week.

The Angels really needed to sell high on Tyler Anderson at the deadline

Tyler Anderson stood out at the trade deadline as one of the few starting pitchers "available" that is both having a good season and would have come with some team control beyond 2024. Contenders far and wide needed rotation help and Anderson would have likely fetched a nice package of prospects even with his lack of swing and miss.

Instead, the Angels held onto him for reasons beyond understanding. Sure, LA could end up trading him this coming offseason, but there is no guarantee that he will be able to maintain his current level of production, and he will almost certainly command less than he would have had the Angels moved him on Tuesday.

There is no reason LA should have held on to Luis Rengifo

Luis Rengifo is in the middle of a career season on an Angels team that isn't going anywhere. There were multiple contenders vying for him and he is under team control through 2025, which would have increased the Angels' expected return. Selling high on Rengifo in a market that didn't have much of anyone that could play the infield just made too much sense, right?

Apparently not. There was barely a mention of Rengifo trade talks in the final hours of the trade deadline and he remains an Angel now. Again, it is hard to understand what LA is thinking here as it's unlikely that having Rengifo around (especially with his suspect defense) is going to make much of a difference next season. And again, it's likely his trade value will depreciate as time goes on.

Taylor Ward should have been traded despite his slump

This one is a bit more defensible. The trade market was bereft of bats period and Taylor Ward was one of the few outfielders of note that could have been moved. Unfortunately, Ward has been mired in quite the slump since getting hit by a pitch, which may have impacted his trade value.

That said, moving him at the deadline still should have been the Angels play. While the return may not have been what the Angels were hoping for initially, they could have found a suitor that believed they could turn him around. There is no guarantee whatsoever that Ward will figure things out offensively and LA will have spoiled a chance to get something of real value for him.

The Angels keeping Kevin Pillar and Hunter Strickland was malpractice

If any decision the Angels made at the deadline should make fans mad, it is this one. Hunter Strickland is a pending free agent reliever in the middle of a good season and veteran outfielder Kevin Pillar is set to retire at the end of the season (and has been a nice boost off the bench for the Angels). Even if you are the most optimistic of Angels fans and think this team can compete next season, you still probably agree these guys should have been traded.

Well, they weren't, and there is little explanation for it. Pillar is going to spend his last season on a team that will finish well below .500 unless LA does him a favor by putting him on waivers. Strickland is going to walk at the end of the year and probably sign somewhere that gives him a better chance to win, assuming he can finish strong. What will the Angels get? Regret. Just regret.

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