Minimal Moves, Minimal Impact: Angels’ 2025 Deadline Review
August 13, 2025 - Written by Jas Singh
Photo Credit: @Angels - X
To say the deadline was a disappointment at this point is an understatement. This fanbase as whole can come to a conclusion that they have zero faith in ownership, but surely was expecting the team to pick a side this deadline. But, the Angels franchise did what they do best, kick diehard fans to the curb. The team made two significant moves, but failed to buy or sell amid big deals happening in all of baseball. Once again, the blame cannot fall on GM Perry Minasian who likely had his hands tied by our cheap ownership. Arte Moreno, by any means, is not just the worst owner in baseball, but in my opinion major league sports. It is sad to see a fanbase spend money on tickets, merchandise, and food at the ballpark while constantly seeing mediocrity every single year for the last decade. The situation is worse for Angels fans littered all over Los Angeles and Orange County as the team down the 5 freeway is enriched with such talent amongst its own ginormous fanbase. Now a week past the deadline, I feel like finally reflect upon the good and bad of this blunder of a deadline.
THE GOOD:
It is hard to find good, when this team did absolutely nothing at the deadline that would help them retool for next year or try to stay afloat the rigid AL WildCard race. Let’s start off with the moves that were made. The first being, the deal that sent Jake Eder plus Sam Brown to the Nationals for Andrew Chafin and Luis Garcia. This first move was a slow indicator that the ballclub might be buying, but that was far from the truth. Now Chafin since being traded has been excellent. He is a veteran who has great splits against lefties holding them to a .147 batting average, while also displaying good numbers across the season with a 2.70 ERA in 26 appearances. Garcia, who was dealt to Boston in a great haul for the Angels last year, has been stellar for the Nationals after his rough time with the Dodgers. Even with Boston last year Garcia struggled, but has picked it up recently garnering a 0.90 ERA in his last 10 appearances. I watched Garcia closely today in his one inning of work versus the Tigers and he shut down a great top half of the Detroit lineup. This move does aid a bullpen that is 22nd in ERA and lacks guys that can be setup men or placed in high leverage situations. A combination of Burke, Brogdon, Garcia, and Chafin give the Angels a nice bolster when they have those 3+ run leads. Eder, on the other hand, was getting shelled in Triple A with a 6.11 ERA and held a 4.98 ERA in 8 appearances in the big leagues. Sam Brown, was doing good in Double-A OBP wise, but is limited in power.
The next move, the Angels were handed former Yankees top prospect, Oswaldo Peraza for international pool money. You know those items like couches that people throw at the end of the curb for free but have a lot of potential if you just clean and tidy them up? That's how I see this deal. A strange trade that I love. The deal with Peraza is clear: his infield defense is heavenly, but his bat is abysmal. Peraza is a true utility infielder that can play third, second, or shortstop. It could be a mental thing with the young infielder or he truly needs to change his approach at the plate. I believe with a change of scenery and retooling his stance, this could be a special project down the line. His 92 grade speed and control through 2029, only helps us fans see the vision management had with this deal.
These next moves weren’t related to the deadline, but definitely gave me some hope. With the Peraza deal the Angels DFA’d Kevin Newman. Newman has spurts of good swings, but is an aging veteran that isn’t part of this future and can’t truly impact games like Peraza can. Pereza’s base speed and defense can outweigh Newman’s overall effect in games. Next, the team called up Bryce Tedoisio and DFA’d Lamonte Wade Jr. Tedoisio, can immediately make an impact defensively in center allowing Adell to move back to his gold glove spot in left. It also allows Trout to not even have to think about trying to play defense again this season. The undrafted signee has 96 grade speed and his bat started to show in the Rays series. It also might be the first time all year, the Angels have a threat on the base paths and a guy to make hustle plays. Wade Jr. on the other hand has fallen off a cliff since his stellar 2021 year. He obviously wasn’t expected to hit homers in Anaheim, but failed to even get on base and spark some offense off the bench.
Not buying at the deadline, might allow this team to try and make deals for guys like Ward, Jansen, and Rengifo. Ward continues to shine, walking it off against the Sox, then being a single short of the cycle against the Tigers on the 10th. Rengifo, similar to Ward, has been on a tear lately making some clutch plays defensively while hitting .303 with a homer and 3 RBI’s in his last 10 games. Jansen, was the AL reliever of the month for July and has been nothing short of incredible. In July alone, Jansen did not give up a run or walk while going 11.1 innings across 11 appearances with a 0.00 ERA. He is currently 20 of 21 in save opportunities marking an incredible season for the veteran. Not giving away Jansen, might allow the Angels to offer him a cheaper deal to return to the ballclub next year and team up with a recovering Ben Joyce. Jansen has voiced his pleasure with the team and its management since signing with them last winter, while vouching why he wanted to stay among trade deadline talks.
THE BAD:
I honestly tried my best to remain optimistic, when discussing the good because the bad in fact is very disheartening. While each team in the AL West improved and gained some kind of consensus towards their future, the Angels just put their chair up and called it a day. There is zero direction where this franchise is at this point. We have some amazing young stars that continue to grow in the majors and some studs in the farm like Caden Dana, Nelson Rada, George Klassen, Sam Aldegeri, Ryan Johnson, and Denzer Guzman to name a few. But, then we have a once in a generation talent in Mike Trout, who just celebrated his 34th birthday waiting another year to hopefully squeak into the playoffs. Now like many fans and probably Perry if not for Arte, we saw this team selling its aging veterans and retooling to restore a depleted farm. While also making some waves in winter when free agency hits. But, this ownership is cheap and for some reason held us from adding to this young core. Fine, the management didn’t want to sell and wanted to see if we could make a run similar to the Tigers last year. But, we didn’t try to explore that either. Opportunities presented themselves all across the league and this team couldn’t get the ball rolling minus a minor move for some aging relievers? They didn’t even try to put some duct tape over the leak, instead they said let's run up our water bill and leave the leak as is.
It just gets worse as teams like the Mariners, Astros, and Rangers just inched closer to being overall better ballclubs while also preparing for the future. The Astros went big adding back Carlos Correa and guys like Jesús Sánchez (outfield) and Ramón Urías (utility infielder), enhancing lineup versatility. The Rangers got a World Series starter in Merrill Kelly while also acquiring bullpen depth with Phil Maton. The Mariners wanted to kick start their offense some more by adding Josh Naylor and home run king Eugenio Suarez. This gives them some straight power with the recent assurgence of guys like Arozorena and Rodriguez. The Athletics, who similar to us have a great young core in guys like Butler, Soderstrom, Kurtz, and Wilson, added to it by taking a solid risk. They dealt star closer Mason Miller for the 3rd ranked prospect in all of baseball, shortstop Leo De Vries. Along with top Padres pitching prospect right hander Braden Nett, RHP Henry Báez, and RHP Eduarniel Núñez.
The Angels stood put and watched all this happen. Minasian would later call this team "competitive" and detail how they wanted to keep these guys together. This so-called competitive team got 1 hit by the White Sox and just lost a series to the falling Rays. The reputation of this team has become a laughing stock amongst the league. It has simply become a place where aging vets who have become misfit toys come after their primes are a thing of the past. While, fans across the league, ridicule us for wasting a generational talent in Mike Trout, who at this point might be closer to retirement then sniffing a playoff berth. The farm is still bottom three in the league. With acquiring no talent at the deadline, we can’t even hold hope for free agency as Arte is a well known cheap fraud.
The franchise and its fans are left to lean on its young core of Moore, Adell, Neto, and Schanuel to push us to the next level. The rotation can hopefully be in full swing with the addition of another quality starter next year. The bullpen on the other hand will be likely disregarded as always and be fixed with some Scotch tape.
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