There is one surefire reason for the Angels to buy at the MLB trade deadline

The 2024 Chicago White Sox were the laughingstock of baseball for far more reasons than one. The ChiSox were clear rebuilders who needed to invest heavily in their young talent given that the big league team was one of the worst teams ever assembled. However, they were not even eligible for a 1-through-9 draft selection in 2025 after finishing 41-121 last season due to new rules in the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the players union and the owners. "Large market teams" cannot pick in the lottery in consecutive years, so they are picking 10th on July 13th.

Well, things just became clear for the large market Los Angeles Angels, huh? Even if this season takes a major turn for the worst, they should gut it out knowing that they, too, will not make a top-nine selection in the 2026 MLB Draft.

There is one surefire reason for the Angels to buy at the MLB trade deadline

The Angels are selecting second in the 2025 MLB Draft after a major jump in the lottery, and it's a fact that they will be outside the top-nine next year anyway. The Angels are, in fact, a payor team like the White Sox. So, because they are picking second that makes their draft pick much worse next year even if they end up tanking, selling and finishing in the bottom-nine teams in baseball. The Halos are well outside the bottom-ten, but you never know with this organization. Remember 2023? They bought and tanked anyway.

So, we might as well go all-in this year no matter how things go the next month? Sure, Minasian can go ahead and trade away Tyler Anderson and Luis Rengifo for some payroll flexibility and to acquire a couple intriguing prospects back...but he ought to position the team to buy in a major way as well. Obviously, stay away from those 2023 type buys...do not approach the Red Sox about Lucas Giolito's availability! However, there are plenty of viable starting pitchers and position player reinforements they could get without bankrupting their already awful farm system.

Arte Moreno increased spending for the 2025 season by way of Perry Minasian going out and acquiring Yusei Kikuchi, Travis d'Arnaud, Jorge Soler, Yoán Moncada, Kyle Hendricks etc. That was done partly because they could not tank. That was a half measure, a full measure would be to buy players over the next month. Let's make that push!

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