The Hunter Renfroe trade has aged worse than expected

One of the biggest acquisitions the Los Angeles Angels made this offseason was acquiring Hunter Renfroe in a deal with the Brewers. Milwaukee had no intention of keeping Renfroe who was entering his final year of arbitration due to their glut of outfield prospects ready to make the jump.

The Angels swooped in and made a deal that felt like an absolute steal, acquiring a proven power hitter for two arms who figured to not be in the equation at all for this team in the present or future.

Renfroe started out just as advertised, but his play of late and the emergence of one of the players that headed to Milwaukee has made this deal go from a steal to somewhat of a dud.

LA Angels trade for Hunter Renfroe isn't aging as well as we expected

Renfroe lived up to the billing in the month of April, posting an OPS of .844 and hitting seven home runs with 20 RBI. He was the Angels most consistent run producer in April and was particularly crushing the ball at Angel Stadium.

Since the calendar turned to May, Renfroe has just seven home runs and 20 RBI with an OPS of .682. It's taken Renfroe two months to match his April production in terms of home runs and RBI, and that obviously is a problem.

Renfroe has slowly lost some playing time with Taylor Ward producing against right-handers and Mickey Moniak putting on a show seemingly every time he starts. Some added versatility of Renfroe playing some first base lately has helped him get into the lineup more, but he's now hitting sixth or seventh instead of fourth and fifth like he was in April.

Renfroe has been a league average hitter overall, posting an OPS+ of 101. That wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't one of the worst marks of his career, and if the Angels didn't give up a piece that would actually be helping them.

The main piece in this trade that the Angels gave up felt like Janson Junk, but the right-hander has made just one big league start this season and it did not go well. The real surprise has been the emergence of Elvis Peguero.

Peguero had an ERA of 9.15 in 16 appearances as an Angel. In his first 28 appearances as a Brewer, that ERA sits at 2.70. He allowed 20 runs in 19.2 innings of work as an Angel, and has allowed just nine earned runs in his first 30 innings as a Brewer.

Peguero has emerged as a key set-up man for closer Devin Williams, and has provided some consistency that the Angels certainly could've used.

The hope here is Renfroe gets going. When he's hot, he has the ability to more or less carry a team like we saw in April. Until he finally gets going again, this trade will continue to look worse for Perry Minasian and the Angels.