The Los Angeles Angels are about to do something they never do at the trade deadline.
Sell.
According to MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez, the Angels are expected to make both Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano available before the August 3 deadline. This is a major shift for an organization that has historically hoarded talent, resisted rebuilding, and lost 90 games a year in the process.
Perry Minasian must be reading the room.
The Angels are 42-58. They are 14 games back in the AL West. Their playoff odds are functionally zero. Mike Trout, as always, is either injured or heading in that direction. And there is no realistic scenario in which this team wakes up in September playing meaningful baseball.
Detmers is the more interesting name. The 27-year-old lefty is under team control through 2027. He is having a bounce-back year with a 3.65 ERA and 129 strikeouts in 108 innings after a rough 2024. He throws four pitches for strikes, misses bats, and would slot cleanly into any contender’s rotation as a mid-rotation starter or a swingman.
Every contender should be interested. The Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, and Blue Jays could all use another lefty starter. Detmers would fetch a legit prospect return, likely in the range of a top-10 organizational bat plus a mid-tier arm.
Soriano is the higher-upside piece. The 26-year-old righty throws 99 with a slider that has grown into one of the best in the American League. He has been closer, setup man, and starter for the Angels at various points, and different teams are going to see him differently. A contender that wants a plug-and-play bullpen arm might value him more than one that wants to convert him back into a starter.
His control is the wild card. Soriano has walked 42 batters in 68 innings this year. That is a huge red flag for a guy who is being marketed as a high-leverage arm. But when he throws strikes, he is unhittable.
The teams making calls on the Angels are already lined up. Cincinnati, Baltimore, and San Francisco have all been linked to Detmers. The Yankees, Braves, and Phillies have been connected to Soriano.
The bigger picture question is what this means for the Angels’ broader direction. Are they finally rebuilding? Are they going to trade Mike Trout? Are they going to move Anthony Rendon (impossible given his contract, but you have to ask)? Nobody knows yet.
Detmers and Soriano being available is a good first step. But the Angels have been in this spot before. They have talked about selling. Then they have talked themselves out of it. And then they have shown up in April with the same 78-84 roster and gotten shocked to lose again.
Give Minasian a real deadline haul, and the Angels finally have the foundation of a rebuild. Anything less and it is just another summer of missed opportunity in Anaheim.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
