The Los Angeles Angels are listening to offers for shortstop Zach Neto, but they're also making big requests.
The Los Angeles Angels want to be active in the trade market, but the question now is whether they’ll price themselves out. They’re making big asks, especially the one they’ve made with the Boston Red Sox in a prospective trade proposal that would have shortstop Zach Neto going to the Red Sox in return for a package built around premiere prospect Franklin Arias.
The proposal was reported on by Anthony Franco of MLBTradeRumors.com, who referenced reporting from Tim Healey of the Boston Globe along with multiple other sources.
Arias isn’t just a premiere prospect at short — he’s one of the top prospects in the game. Depending on the list, he’s consider among the top 3-5 prospects right now, and he’s been “destroying” Double-A pitching, Franco added, with a slash line of .318/.407/.587 with 19 home runs.
Arias was recently promoted to Triple-A, and he’s seen as Boston’s shortstop of the future and the kind of foundational piece that teams rarely trade, according to Franco.
But Neto is no slouch. He would transform the future into the present for Boston, as he’s already been doing a lot of what Arias is expected to do. He’s on track for his third season with at least 20 home runs, which is third at his position behind CJ Abrams and Colson Montgomery.
Neto’s walk rate is up, but that’s because pitchers are giving him far less to hit, which is part of why his chase rate is up. His strikeout rate is high, too, as he has 155 for the year, which trails only Kyle Schwarber.
The shortstop’s defense has definitely taken a hit this season. He’s tied for third in MLB for the most errors with 15, with many of them coming on ordinary plays. His range over the middle isn’t great, but it’s hard to tell if a lot of this is happening because he’s playing for a bad team that’s going nowhere.
Boston’s shortstop situation, meanwhile, is complicated. They still have another year left on Trevor Story’s deal, with runs through the end of 2027 at $20 million a year. Marcelo Mayer was being billed as Boston’s shortstop of the future as recently as a year ago, but Mayer hasn’t hit left-handers at all, plus he’s currently out with a stress fracture in his left arm. This probably isn’t a deal the Red Sox will want to do, but it’s a fascinating source of speculation.
