Mariners’ trade for Randy Arozarena should concern Angels ahead of deadline

The Los Angeles Angels and every other team around the league have been waiting for a while for someone to start setting the trade market. Everyone wants a great deal in their favor, but the real test of whether or not deals actually start getting done is when moves actually get made. Until Thursday night, those moves just hadn't happened yet.

All of that changed when the Mariners acquired Randy Arozarena from the Rays. While the Arozarena trade is likely to finally get the market moving, it also wasn't particularly great news for the Angels ahead of the deadline given the details of the transaction.

Rays' (potentially) light return for Randy Arozarena could hurt Angels' haul at trade deadline

While Arozarena is having a down year by his standards in 2024, he is still a supremely talented hitter with a track record of performance in the postseason. He also is under team control through 2026, so the expectation was that the Rays would need a pretty significant package to be persuaded to part with him at the trade deadline.

However, that isn't really what happened with the actual trade itself. While Tampa has a storied history of winning trades handily by acquiring players that were under the radar at the time, getting Aidan Smith (a decent hitting prospect), Brody Hopkins (a promising, but far away pitching prospect), and a player to be named later isn't exactly an overwhelming return at face value.

While the PTBNL does matter, the Rays perhaps sold low on Arozarena and it could have trickle down effects on the Angels at the trade deadline. With the Rays not exactly cashing in on their biggest trade chip, this could mean the market for guys like Taylor Ward and Luis Rengifo isn't as robust as LA would hope.

The silver lining here is that Arozarena could be an edge case scenario and it is possible that Hopkins and/or Smith are valued more by teams than by prospect experts. However, it sure seems like that hopes of a wild bidding war for the position players the Angels are making available may not end up transpiring the way fans had hoped.

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