The Los Angeles Angels didn’t do much of note in 2023 on the field. They finished 73-89 — fourth place in the American League West and a mile’s distance from playoff contention.
It’s how they got there that is noteworthy, even newsworthy a year later.
The Angels were 56-51 at the end of July and loaded up at the trade deadline. They acquired pitchers Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Dominic Leone, outfielder Randal Grichuk, first baseman/designated hitter C.J. Cron, and infielders Mike Moustakas and Eduardo Escobar in separate trades.
The trades had the opposite of the desired effect. The Angels went on a seven-game losing streak to begin the month of August. By Aug. 11, they had fallen below .500, never to recover. Their dream of reaching the postseason with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani at last was over.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Once their fate was all but mathematically sealed, the Angels engaged in a massive, unprecedented salary dump. Giolito, Lopez, Leone, pitcher Matt Moore, and outfielder Hunter Renfroe were all placed on waivers and eventually claimed by contending teams. Other players were placed on waivers but went unclaimed.
It was not a good look for the Angels, as their fans were forced to slog through an uninspiring September so soon after their playoff hopes were raised. At least the salary dump achieved its desired effect: the Angels were able to avoid paying a luxury tax, something that has become a priority during Arte Moreno’s tenure as the team’s owner.
Flash forward, and the Texas Rangers find themselves in an eerily similar situation. At 56-66, their chances of defending their World Series title are all but nil. They acquired pitcher Andrew Chafin and catcher Carson Kelly from the Detroit Tigers ahead of the July 30 deadline but did little else.
Now, the veterans on their roster have a better chance of reaching the postseason with at least a dozen other teams. Starter Andrew Heaney, as well as Chafin, Kelly, and closer Kirby Yates, might not mind a change of scenery, and the Rangers might not mind saving luxury-tax money from shedding their contracts. But will they?
Recent comments by general manager Chris Young suggest they won’t.
“We are going to play to win the rest of the year,” Young told the Dallas Morning News before the Rangers’ 3-2 loss to Minnesota to open a seven-game homestand. “I will have an expectation for every game we play that we show up with a mentality that we’re going to win that game and find a way to win that game. And I do believe that the momentum created the rest of this season will carry forward into the off season and into 2025. That’s why it is really important that we finish strong.”
Young’s aversion to a fire sale could prevent a rule change that Major League Baseball had discussed internally after the Angels’ 2023 selloff. The issue was discussed at the GM meetings in November, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney, but MLB decided “more data was needed — at least another season of evidence, to determine whether the Angels’ salary dump was precedent for more of the same by other teams, or if the Angels’ waiver choices in 2023 were a one-off event.”
For now, it remains a one-off event.
