Ranking of Angels’ offseason moves is completely and utterly depressing

Sometimes you really wonder if the Los Angeles Angels care about winning. In fact, despite all evidence to the contrary, Arte Moreno doesn't seem to think the fans particularly care one way or another if the club wins games. For most, that would be considered a tremendous foot-in-mouth moment. For Moreno, it's par for the course.

And it might help shed some light on the offseason's plan of attack. Or maybe better said, lack thereof. Again, par for the course.

This is the team that at one point possessed both the greatest player of his generation in Mike Trout and the most singularly talented asset this side of Babe Ruth in Shohei Ohtani, yet couldn't build a team around them that was capable of mustering a single playoff appearance.

The Halos have the longest active playoff drought in the majors. One would think that would light a fire under them to make a change. A ranking of their top three offseason moves by Bleacher Report shows how wrong that line of thinking actually is, though.

Ranking of Angels' offseason moves shows just how directionless the franchise really is

The top three moves, as presented by Bleacher Report, include the exchange of Taylor Ward for Grayson Rodriguez, the signing of Alek Manoah, and the deal that swapped Brock Burke for Josh Lowe. In a vacuum, you could defend each maneuver, but together they show just how much the Angels are circling the abyss.

Los Angeles needed starting rotation help. Yusei Kikuchi and Jose Soriano are solid mid-rotation pieces. Reid Detmers is an intriguing piece after his resurgent 2025 coming out of the pen. More was needed, with bookends at the top and the bottom being just what the doctor ordered.

Maybe Rodriguez can be the ace they're hoping for, but first he needs to prove he can stay healthy over a full season. With 20 starts over the past two seasons, he'll need to get through an entire regular season before we even begin to address how un-ace-like his 4.11 career ERA is.

As for Manoah, he's 100% a reclamation project. He last pitched in the bigs in 2024, and his 38.2-inning stint last year in Toronto's minor league system was uneven. The 3.96 ERA seems decent, but the 5.86 FIP he posted tells a different story. Starters like Rodriguez and Manoah are fine side dishes, but without an entree (a true top-of-the-rotation arm), they leave you wanting more.

Lowe is the most head-scratching move of them all. A left-handed bat to balance out the lineup was desperately needed, but one who has been a replacement-level player in two of his four big league seasons is underwhelming, especially when the cost was a useful lefty reliever in Brock Burke. The Angels could have signed a similar player for minimal money in JJ Bleday (who ironically is Burke's teammate with the Cincinnati Reds) and saved the trade capital.

Finally, Lowe doesn't solve the biggest outfield need, a true center fielder. With minus-eight outs above average over 724 innings last season, Jo Adell proved he couldn't handle the position. Lowe, however, is a corner outfielder, so he's no help there, and now we're staring down the barrel of Mike Trout returning to center at the peril of his health.

Perhaps the most stunning issue with the offseason is the culmination of asset mismanagement. Taylor Ward could have fetched far more at the trade deadline the previous two seasons than what the Angels got for him in Rodriguez this winter. Monetarily, they did virtually nothing with their Anthony Rendon savings.

Most importantly, we're left asking what the lane is here? Are the Halos planning on contending? Because if so, these additions are woefully inadequate for a team that finished last place two years running. Are they rebuilding? Because there has been little in the way of injecting high-end young talent into the system during the offseason.

Maybe Angels fans don't care about winning because they've been so conditioned to accept losing? Perhaps Moreno should consider the torment he's subjected the fan base to over the last decade plus, which has created the baseball equivalent of Stockholm syndrome. The Angels faithful have become so conditioned to subpar baseball that they'll accept anything that occurs in a big league stadium.