Ranking 3 worst LA Angels trades in franchise history

The LA Angels have botched many trades in their history, unfortunately.

Recently, we totally nailed the Raisel Iglesias trade, but there were times in our past where we didn't have such luck.

When taking a look back at some past blunders from this franchise, three trades in particular stand out that really took a toll on the success of the organization.

No. 3 worst LA Angels trade in franchise history: The J.T. Snow trade (1996)

After the 1996 season, the LA Angels decided to deal a multiple-time Gold Glover in J.T. Snow for...pitchers Allen Watson and Fausto Macey. This failed miserably.

As for Snow? He was a key piece in the Giants pennant that they won before falling to our Angels in the 2002 World Series, and won FOUR more Gold Gloves. He improved very much as a hitter, hitting .273/.369/.438 (.807) with the Giants for nine years (he later came back and played one more game with them in 2008, making it a tenth year).

Macey, however, never even pitched at the Big League level with the Halos. And as for Watson, he did pitch at the Big League level with us, but it wasn't necessarily by our choice. Watson recorded a 5.28 ERA, a 1.541 WHIP, and allowed 10.6 hits per nine innings with the Angels.

He gave up a homer and a half per nine, and only struck out 6.3 batters per nine frames. It's safe to say the team lost this trade miserably. But at least the ring was ours!

No. 2 worst LA Angels trade in franchise history: The Vernon Wells trade (2011)

The LA Angels trading for Vernon Wells really couldn't have gone any worse than it did. Wells was coming off of his third All-Star season, so the Halos thought it was a great time to go ahead and bring him aboard. And on the bright side, due to it being a trade, we didn't have to pay the entire 7-year/$126 million contract.

We did, however, have to pay for the last four, and sure enough he only played with us for two years. He was awful in those two years. Wells hit .222/.258/.409 (.667 OPS) with the Angels, and had a total of 36 home runs, 95 RBIs, and 96 runs.

Just embarrassing. It turned out to be an awful move, and when he went to the Yankees for that third year, we had to pay for most of the money on his contract for that season.

We traded Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera to get Wells. Napoli hit .320/.414/.631 (1.046 OPS) in his first year removed from the Halos, and was an All-Star in just his second year removed from the franchise. To make matters worse, he did this for the rival Texas Rangers.