The Los Angeles Angels may not have a better chance to capitalize on the value of their top two starting pitchers than this year's trade deadline.
The Los Angeles Angels are the worst team in Major League Baseball at 39-61 but have been reluctant to announce to other teams that they will be sellers at the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
Angels owner Arte Moreno has been firm regarding not trading his best players, but even he realizes this may be the best time to do so with how expensive it is to trade for quality starting pitchers, and he has two in right-hander Jose Soriano and lefty Reid Detmers.
While Soriano and Detmers are under team control through 2028, meaning the Angels don’t necessarily have to move them with fear of free agency around the corner, the state of the organization and the trade market being a dealer’s one suggests trading at least one of those guys is in the franchise’s best interest.
MLB Network insider Jon Heyman reported that the Angels are expected to make Soriano and Detmers available. And the interest in them around the league may be even higher now that the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox have caught fire over the past couple of weeks.
“As a result, the options for buyers looking to add a starter who can potentially start in the playoffs could be limited, giving the Angels a chance to capitalize if interim GM John Mozeliak can convince Moreno that trading Detmers and Soriano is the right move,” MLB.com wrote Monday.
The Angels have one of the worst farm systems in the league and should be chomping at the bit to add multiple top prospects to the organization, which makes this blockbuster trade proposal from Angels beat writer Jeff Fletcher an intriguing one.
Fletcher proposed a three-team trade between the Angels, Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers that would send one of Soriano or Detmers to the Tigers, left-handed ace Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers and multiple top prospects (outfielders Josue De Paula, Mike Sirota, etc.) from the Dodgers to the Angels.
The appeal for Detroit is that even though you lose one of the best pitchers in the world, he’s probably going to the Dodgers soon enough anyway and getting your choice of Angels starter allows the team to continue competing at a high level.
The Dodgers walk away with Skubal and go for the three-peat, likely re-signing him to an absurd contract in the offseason. Trading their No. 1 and/or No. 2 prospects could be an issue for them, but they will be a powerhouse with or without those players.
The Angels can start a proper rebuild and reap the benefits of it in a couple of years. It’s going to be hard to watch the team if they go through a full-on rebuild, but they’re already tough to watch and haven’t been to the playoffs in over a decade.
