The Angels made some nice little moves before the trade deadline. They were low-cost, low-risk moves that you can’t really be unhappy with, or so it would seem. It turns out that there are a lot of Angels fans that are upset with the moves because they weren’t BIGGER moves. Many Angels fans vocalized their displeasure that the Halos didn’t land a bigger name. The problem with that is the Angels don’t actually have the prospects to make a deal for a bigger name, but not everyone believes that. So, to see if that explanation holds up, I’m going to try and renegotiate all the trades the Angels didn’t make and see if I can’t use the meager Angels farm system to trump the offers that actually did get the deal done in the real world.
Ben Zobrist for LHP Sean Manaea and RHP Aaron Brooks
Zobrist was the bat the Angels missed out on that I’m the most upset about. He couldn’t possibly have been a better fit for what the Angels need. However, once you see what KC gave up to rent him, you come to understand why the Angels fell short. Manaea is one of the top left-handed starting pitcher prospects in baseball. He’s basically Sean Newcomb with injury issues, so he’s a rung below, but not that far below. As such, the Halos might’ve been able to trade Newcomb for Zobrist straight up in order to outbid the Royals, but that is a HUGE price to pay for a rental player. If the Angels held back on Newcomb, there is no viable package they could’ve offered that would’ve trumped what KC offered. That’s perfectly fine with me.
Brandon Moss for RHP Rob Kaminsky
Another personal preference of mine would’ve been to get Moss instead of Murphy since Moss has more power. He does, however, have major contact issues this year. He’s better than Murphy, but not by very much. Having said that, Moss fetched a much greater return than Murphy did. Kaminsky is a pitcher who is going to get consideration for Top 100 prospect lists this winter. That would mean the Angels would have to probably surrender someone like Chris Ellis and maybe a low-level relief prospect to match the price. That is a much larger cost than just giving up Eric Stamets and the difference between Moss and Murphy isn’t nearly large enough to offset that price difference.
Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers for OF Brett Phillips, OF Domingo Santana, LHP Josh Hader, RHP Adrian Houser
This is a tough comparison because the Angels wouldn’t have been interested in Fiers, but the real takeaway here is that there are two top 100 prospects here and a third who could make a case for inclusion on that list. The Angels have Newcomb and then a giant chasm before the next best prospect. I’m not even sure they have another prospect in the top 200. There is NO WAY the Angels could’ve beat this offer without trading off their big league roster and even then they’d still probably have to clone Newcomb to make it work.
Carlos Gomez for RHP Zack Wheeler and IF Wilmer Flores
This trade didn’t make sense, but it offers a more realistic comparison for what acquiring Gomez by himself would’ve been as this deal was agreed to but fell through due to money or health concerns on the part of the Mets. This actually is a deal the Angels could build an analogous package to. Tyler Skaggs best replicates Wheeler in that they are both coming off TJ surgery but had a solid big league resumé before their injury. Skaggs is closer to a return, so there is more healthy certainty there, but Wheeler has more upside. The tricky part, actually, is finding a Flores replacement. The Brewers wanted him to play third base, but also probably wanted him as Segura insurance. The best the Angels could do is offer up Kyle Kubitza or maybe Kaleb Cowart, but neither of those guys have the certainty or upside of Flores. That would mean the Angels would probably have to add another quality prospect to the deal like Tropeano or Ellis, or just replace Skaggs with Newcomb. If you love Gomez, that might be worth it, but seeing how he’d have to move him to left field where his defensive value would be somewhat wasted, that’s not a great use of limited resources for the Angels. Essentially, they’d pay a premium to acquire Gomez and then immediately begin using Gomez in a role where he can’t reach his optimal value.
Gerardo Parra for RHP Zach Davies
Davies isn’t a huge upside guy, but he is a guy who can slot into the back of a big league rotation right now. In other words, he’s Nick Tropeano. Would you trade Tropeano for Parra? Parra is definitely having a good season with his .875 OPS, but this is a rental player having a career year we are talking about. He has a career 99 OPS+ (which is less than Murphy, DeJesus and Victorino, by the way) and has largely been a platoon player and defensive specialist until this season. I’m sorry, but I’m not surrendering a big league ready starting pitching prospect for a rental player largely suceeding off of an inflated .367 BABIP who’d be leaving a hitter’s haven for the pitcher-friendly Big A. I’m taking a hard pass here.
Ben Revere for RHP Alberto Tirado and RHP Jimmy Cordero
The Angels negotiated for what feels like months over Revere but never got the Phillies to back off their sky high asking price. It looks like they finally gave in but only after the Angels took themselves out of the market. For the price they ultimately got for Revere, I can actually see the Angels making such a swap. Tirado is basically a flamethrowing pitcher who converted to relief and found success but might still be someone to consider as a starter. He’s almost a perfect avatar of Victor Alcantara. The harder part is Cordero, who’s also a flamethrower, but he’s a 23-year old Dominican who only just reached Double-A. He doesn’t offer much beside velocity, so there is pretty limited projection for him as a reliever. The Angels don’t really have a clone of him in their organization, but similarly valued arms would be guys like Nate Hyatt or Ronald Muck. I could talk myself into this deal, but if I have a deal on the table to get David DeJesus for one low minors starter that didn’t even make top 30 lists, I’m taking the DeJesus deal.
Yoenis Cespedes for RHP Michael Fulmer and RHP Luis Cessa
This is a tough one. Cespedes is the one big bat that actually got traded that you could make a case for the Angels to actually be able to afford him. Fulmer is a very good pitching prospects, but he’s not a stud prospect. That puts him firmly between Newcomb and Tropeano. The problem is that the Angels don’t really have a guy in between those two. That means either overpaying with Newcomb or building the package around Tropeano and building up the rest of the package. Nobody in their right mind would give up Newcomb for a rental, so that leaves us with the latter option. So do you give up Tropeano and Gatto? Tropeano and Ellis? Tropeano and Nate Smith? I also wonder if the Tigers might not be more interested in a package that includes Cam Bedrosian since their bullpen issues are so prolific. The shine is off Bedrock a bit, but the upside is still there. I think that if the Angels were going to put together a deal that definitely trumps the Mets offer, it would have to be Tropeano, Bedrosian and an interesting low minors arm like Alcantara.
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