The cursed Angels-Braves trade continues to unravel with Atlanta's latest roster move

The Los Angeles Angels and Atlanta Braves struck a bargain right before Opening Day in a move that seemed destined to fail from the second the news was broke to the media. José Suarez and Ian Anderson completely fell off the map in the eyes of their team's evaluators, and the trade immediately seemed like each team taking the other's mess as a favor to one another given the two sides' familiarity with one another.

Angels fans warned Braves fans about Suarez, and Braves fans told Angels fans not to get too attached to Anderson. Well, the trade immediately went from what felt like a lose-lose scenario to an absolute quagmire in just a span of seven days.

The cursed Angels-Braves trade continues to unravel with Atlanta's latest roster move

Let's try and put a timeline on all of this:

March 23rd: Angels trade José Suarez for Ian Anderson

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April 21st: Braves DFA Suarez in favor of Scott Blewett
April 23rd: Angels DFA Ian Anderson in favor of...take your pick of Carl Edwards Jr. or Víctor Mederos
April 24th: Suarez clears waivers, accepts assignment to Triple-A Gwinnett
April 27th: Braves claim Ian Anderson off waivers (they correspondingly DFA...Jesse Chavez!)
April 29th: Braves DFA Anderson in favor of AJ Smith-Shawver

Adding insult to injury for the former World Series champion, Ian Anderson did not appear in a game while he was on the Braves' 26-man roster for that 48-hour span. Unfortunately for Angels fans, he did appear several times for the Halos -- posting just an abysmal 11.57 ERA, 6.49 FIP, and 2.57 WHIP in 9.1 innings. On the other hand, Suarez appeared in 7.1 innings for Atlanta and posted a 5:7 K:BB (he's a former Angels pitcher, alright!) before the Braves gave up on him.

Both pitchers were out of minor league options when the trade happened in the first place, so they needed to pitch their way into job security on the big league team in order to avoid the inevitable DFA carousel. Suarez is off the carousel, which in some ways is a nice thing, but mostly means he is now relegated to Triple-A for the long term. We'll see what happens with Anderson -- he seems to have retained more value in the eyes of MLB evaluators (Angels fans initially thought they won the trade for sure), so it would be somewhat surprising to see him clear waivers and join Suarez in Gwinnett. That being said, the numbers speak for themselves.

The two organizations are completely intertwined (they are separated by a .5 game in the standings), and each side seems to be taking turns mimicking the other with their desperate roster moves. Knowing the parties involved, don't be surprised whatsoever if they strike another Hail Mary-type deal for failing assets as the season continues to unravel for both sides. The Angels will happily keep picking off players the Braves want to get rid of, but Atlanta really should reconsider given that these pitchers have their worst FIPs this season (ranked from worst to 4th worst): Jesse Chavez, Raisel Iglesias, Reynaldo López, and then Suarez. Notice a theme? Oh, and current Angel Héctor Neris is 5th worst in that ranking.

At least Davis Daniel and Michael Petersen have been solid for them...

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