The Los Angeles Angels moved two important players to the Texas Rangers for a third-base prospect.
Changes are coming in Anaheim, and interim GM John Mozeliak got his temporary stint with the Los Angeles Angels off to a resounding start with a big trade that sent catcher Logan O’Hoppe and reliever Chase Silseth to the Texas Rangers for third base prospect Angel Arredondo.
“We decided to get things moving today,” Mozeliak said in an article written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “As we enter this trading period, one of the things we are focused on is understanding change. Clearly, where the Angels are at right now, we need to do some things differently.
“We are trying to balance how to focus on the future, short-term and long-term, but this deal here allows us to free up some spots on our active roster, change some of the playing time and then also adding a young player to our system that we're excited about.”
The first player to arrive is the 19-year old Arredondo, who has slashed 247/.372/.397 with eight homers, 15 doubles and 47 RBIs in 87 games with Single-A Hickory this season. He’s 6’ 190 pounds with experience at both middle infield spots, but he profiles as a third baseman right now.
“He’s really good with the defensive side of the ball, and has plus ball-to-bat skill,” Mozeliak said. “He was just a good baseball player, and I think adding those types of players is good. And so, in our system, he's probably in the Top 10 in prospects. He wasn't getting a lot of third-party recognition, but I do think he's a better player than he's getting mentioned for.”
Perhaps the most telling part of the GM’s comments is about the prospect rating, i.e., the Angels’ farm system is so thin and poor right now that a prospect who wasn’t a Top 30 prospect in Texas becomes a Top 10 minor leaguer with the Angels.
As for the departing players, the Halos have been waiting for O’Hoppe to arrive as for some time now. He was projected to be a 30-home run candidate coming into the season, but his stats and slash line .209/.271/.295 with four homers, eight doubles and 23 RBIs in 75 games this year speak for themselves.
“I thought, in his case, the best thing for him would be a change of scenery,” Mozeliak said of O’Hoppe. “When you think about catchers, you focus on two things, right? The ability to catch, throw, call a game from an actual defensive standpoint, and then the offensive skill set.
“And I think he was really struggling, putting a lot of pressure on both sides of the ball, and I think that's just really tough to balance. And trying to get him playing time for us was difficult.”
The part about finding playing time is a head-scratcher given that the team's current catching prospects are years away from the big leagues. The Angels also activated catcher Travis d’Arnaud before last night’s game against the Astros, so they’ll probably go with the two veterans unless they acquire a big league-ready catcher in the coming days.
Silseth was the big asset in this deal, as he’s having an excellent season, plus he’s one of the few reliable relievers the Angels have. His numbers this year include a 2.72 ERA with 48 strikeouts and 22 walks in 39 2/3 innings, but his career ERA was 4.12 coming into this year, so this is a sell-high move even though he’s under team control through 2030.
“Not an easy decision,” Mozeliak said. “Moving controllable players is going to be the challenge in this whole exercise, because that's mostly what we have. But we're just going to try to pick and choose our spots where we can create that change, create a different trajectory for the organization.”
