[TribeTown]

While continuing to play through with the Pirates, I decided to start a Angels rebuild. The Angels won just 73 games last season, lost Shohei Ohtani to the Dodgers in free agency, traded away a good chunk of their farm system at the trading deadline in a misguided attempt to make the playoffs, now have one of the worst farm systems in all of baseball, and have 2 large contracts (1 of which is mostly dead weight) that eat up much of their fairly large budget. My one goal is to make the World Series with Mike Trout on the roster. We will see if he can avoid injuries enough to do so.

PRESEASON MOVES

The Angels made three.major trades, two of them blockbusters.

Trade #1: Traded OF Taylor Ward, P Griffin Canning, OF Ben Joyce, and C Dario Laverde to Baltimore in exchange for OF Austin Hays, OF Enrique Bradford, Jr., P Cade Povich, INF Jordan Westburg, and P Alex Pham.

Ward was the best and most established position player on the roster not named Mike Trout. Trading him was not popular with the fan base. Hays will take his place in the OF. The other four players are prospects. Bradford was ranked #5 in the Baltimore farm system, Povich #9, Pham #24. Westburg is no longer a prospect technically after his call up to the Orioles in 2023. Previously, he was the Orioles #6 prospect.

Trade #2 --This was a 3-way trade with Boston and Pittsburgh:

Boston receives P Patrick Sandoval, P Chase Silseth, and OF Jo Adell from Los Angeles.

Pittsburgh receives OF Mickey Moniak from Los Angeles and P Tanner Houck from Boston.

Los Angeles receives P Brayan Bello from Boston and P Quinn Priester, OF Anthony Garcia, 2B Nick Gonzalez and INF/OF Conner Joe from Pittsburgh.

Bello went 12-11 with a 4.24 ERA last year for the Red Sox. The Angels believe the former Red Sox Minor League Pitcher of the Year is their future ace.
Priester is a former top prospect in the Pirates system and made 10 largely unsuccessful starts in 2023. Gonzalez is also close to losing prospect status. A former 1st round draft pick (#7 overall) in 2020, he has fallen in the prospect rankings as his hit tool has not met expectations. Garcia is not considered a top prospect. Joe will bring another veteran major league bat to the Angels lineup. His positional versatility will also be useful.

Trade #3: Traded Jake Marisnick to Miami in exchange for INF Xavier Edwards and INF Cody Morrisette.

Edwards was Miami's #4 prospect before being recalled in September 2023. Morrisette is also a good infield prospect. He ranked as Miami's #20 prospect in 2023.