Poll: Will The Angels Sell This Summer?

The Angels have been mired in mediocrity for more than a decade now, despite employing both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani at the peak of their powers in that time. It’s been tough to be an Angels fan for a very long time, but this year has offered the Anaheim faithful at least some hope. The team, while two games under .500, is still at least nominally in the Wild Card race as they sit just four games back of a playoff spot in the expanded postseason field.

It wouldn’t be the first time the club has been aggressive in spite of long postseason odds. They bought aggressively at the 2023 trade deadline, adding a group of players headlined by Lucas Giolito as they fought to make the playoffs during Ohtani’s final year under club control despite Fangraphs giving the club just a 19.5% chance at the postseason on July 31 of that year. The Angels find themselves in a situation with at least some parallels to that season now.

While Trout remains under club control for quite some time, he has a chance to finish this season healthier than he’s been at any point in his thirties and has looked very much like the player he was throughout the 2010s since returning from his latest IL stint at the end of May. In 45 games since being activated, Trout has hit a robust .279/.424/.468 (147 wRC+) and tied Juan Soto for the highest walk rate in all of baseball. His .397 xwOBA this season is the eleventh-highest figure in the sport among qualified hitters, suggesting even better days could be ahead if he can just stay on the field. For a team that hasn’t made the postseason since Trout was 22 years old, any opportunity to get their franchise face and future Hall of Famer onto the sport’s biggest stage is one that the Angels should take seriously.

On the other hand, Trout’s continued health is obviously far from a guarantee. It’s already unknown when he’ll be ready to do more than DH. And after the past half decade, no one should be surprised if another injury were to sideline him down the stretch. What’s more, the Angels are simply not in the same position they found themselves in back in 2023. They’re four games out of a playoff spot entering play today, compared to just half a game out on July 31 of 2023. Only five teams in all of baseball have a lower run differential than Anaheim, which has allowed 61 more runs than it’s scored this year, and Fangraphs gives the Halos just a 4.8% chance of the postseason entering play today.

Perhaps the course of action for the Angels is simply to stand pat. Luis Rengifo is in the midst of a brutal season, leaving the player who would otherwise be their top trade chip unlikely to bring much value to the table. Kyle Hendricks, Yoan Moncada, and other rentals on the club have not done much to position themselves as top-of-the-line trade pieces, meaning closer Kenley Jansen could be the only rental piece on the roster with a substantial market. Trading longer-term pieces like Yusei Kikuchi and Reid Detmers could bring back more value, but would signal a willingness to forgo mid-term competitiveness despite the fact that Trout is already in his age-33 season. That would be something of a shock for Angels ownership to sign off on, given their previous tendencies.

How do MLBTR readers think the Angels will approach this coming deadline? Will they engage in a proper selloff, or could they instead stand pat in hopes of making a postseason run—or perhaps even do some light buying? Have your say in the poll below: