This former Angels top prospect's trade value has reached an all-time high

After years and years of waiting for a breakout, the Los Angeles Angels are finally beginning to see what they wanted to see from former top prospect Jo Adell. The question the club is arriving at as the deadline approaches is, "Now what?"

Adell reached the peak of his prospect hype back in 2020, when he was ranked as the sixth-best prospect in baseball by MLB.com. At that point in time, the Halos could have dealt him as the headliner in a package for nearly any star player in the sport.

However, they held, hoping that the athletic freak would reach his superstar potential. Adell, unfortunately, only played sporadically over the five years that followed, finally topping 88 games in a single season just last year when he appeared in 130 contests, as injuries and inconsistency kept him from regular playing time.

For most of that time, he looked lost, unable to tap into his raw power and athletic gifts, appearing to be more "athlete" than baseball player. There were brief flashes, but those flickers of optimism were often extinguished by yet another prolonged slump or injury.

Now, in 2025, the Adell the Angels hoped for has begun to arrive. Well, sort of. The hope of him being a superstar has likely set sail, but instead, he's become a productive power bat capable of manning both center and right field. And this development has dramatically increased his value on the trade market, now reaching its highest point since his prospect luster wore off.

Angels center fielder Jo Adell's trade value is at an all-time high thanks to his breakout performance and a dearth of options on the trade market

Through 68 games, Adell is slashing .222/.295/.481, which is good for a 115 wRC+. If you take out his first month of action when he was clearly still tinkering with his swing after an ice-cold spring training, his performance has been even better.

Adell began the year with a .190/.236/.310 line while walking just 4.5% of the time and running a 27.0% strikeout rate through April 30. Since May 1, his slash line has improved to .244/.336/.588 with 14 dingers over a 42 game stretch. During that time, his walk rate improved to 7.3% and he cut his strikeouts down slightly coming in at 23.3%.

The underlying metrics support Adell's offensive awakening as well. His bat speed is in the 99th percentile at 77.3 miles per hour. His barrel percentage of 14.7% comes in at the 90th percentile, and his hard hit rate of 47.4% is a 76th percentile performance. Yes, he still chases and whiffs too much, but he's seemingly found a way to make it work and become one of the better power bats in the game.

After so many years of waiting for a breakout, why would the Halos trade him now that they're finally getting what they've wished for for so long? The answer is to capitalize on the market.

There are only two real options on the center field trade market, Baltimore's Cedric Mullins and Chicago's Luis Robert Jr., and both of them have their flaws. Mullins has been a steady performer for years, but he's just a rental who is experiencing a power surge that recalls his 2021 season, which was an outlier in his career.

Robert Jr., once looked like a future star, crushing 38 long balls in 2023 to go along with a .264/.315/.542 line, but has fallen off a cliff since. Last year, his OPS plummeted to just .657, and so far this season, the decline has continued with a .585 mark through 68 games. He also has a complicated contract situation as he can be a free agent at the end of the year, but also has club options for 2026 and 2027 at $20 million a piece, a hefty price to pay for the uncertainty he brings.

Meanwhile, a number of contenders are clamoring for center field help. The New York Mets have the glove-first Tyrone Taylor manning center, a player best suited for a fourth outfielder role. The Detroit Tigers haven't gotten what they wanted out of Parker Meadows whose battled injuries and ineffectiveness throughout his young career. A few other teams could be in the mix as well depending on what happens in the coming weeks.

Unlike Robert Jr. and Mullins, Adell is under team control through the 2027 season, and with an affordable salary, he should rank head and shoulders above the others on the trade market.

If Adell is moved, the Halos could turn over the job to Matthew Lugo, who mostly impressed during his brief stint in the majors this season. Defensively, Lugo is more of a corner outfielder, but with time, top prospect Nelson Rada may prove to be the long-term answer in center as the diminutive 19-year-old speedster is impressing with a .291/.401/.336 line for the Double-A Trash Pandas.

There's an argument made for keeping Adell as we're still a couple of years away from having to decide on his future, but with the way he's performing and the state of the market, the Angels might never get another shot to get this much value out of him. At this point, Adell's value might never be any higher, and it may behoove the Angels to strike while the iron is hot.

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