In A Not So Shocking Turn Of Events, The Los Angeles Angels' Decision To Buy At The Deadline Is Backfiring

Stop me if you've heard this before, but the Los Angeles Angels are reeling. Most people probably knew that the Angels' decision to go all out at the trade deadline wouldn't work. At best, it would end with them sneaking into the playoffs and getting exposed, but I don't know if anyone predicted things would go sideways this fast. The Angels have now lost six in a row. They've fallen below .500 and are seven games back of the final wildcard spot in the American League. And for anyone who thinks this might've just been a bad stretch of baseball, it won't get any easier. The schedule for the rest of August features teams like the Giants, Astros, Rangers, Rays, and Reds. Unless they find some magic, they will be buried in the standings by the end of the month. 

Knowing that they would lose Shohei Ohtani in free agency, the Angels' decision to go all out at the deadline was remarkably shortsighted and irresponsible. Even if they make the playoffs, they're setting their organization back several years by unloading every good asset in their farm system. But the Los Angeles Angels of 2023 are the first team to both do too much at the trade deadline while also not doing enough. 

If you're going to go all out, you need to be hitting home runs with every trade. Getting lost in the Angels' decision to buy at the deadline is that the players they bought aren't that special. Do Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, C.J. Cron, and Randal Grichuk make the Los Angeles Angels a better roster? Yes, they do, but none of these guys are world-beaters. Giolito is closer to being an afterthought that he is a number one ace pitcher. Guys like Cron and Grichuk have had fine careers, but inserting them into the middle of the Angels lineup doesn't exactly make them one of the scariest in baseball. 

I think the Angels also failed to realize that other teams would be doing similar shit. I understand the division is out of reach, but the Rangers and Astros had vastly superior deadlines to what the Angels had. If the Angels had done with the Rangers, I might be more inclined to pick them as a postseason contender. 

I figured the Angels' decision to put their nuts on the table at the trade deadline would at least make them more interesting. Like, they might play meaningful baseball in September. But we're coming to a point where that might not even be a thing. The Angels did the number one thing a mediocre team should never do. They got slightly hot before the deadline and became delusional enough to think they could contend. It was one final attempt to save face and make the playoffs with Shohei Ohtani still on the roster. Right now, it looks like that is not going to work. 

If you believe in baseball, karma, get your popcorn ready because the next few years of Los Angeles Angels baseball will be brutal. Ohtani will leave, Mike Trout has a chronic back problem, and their farm system is completely dead. At this point next season, this may be a team that's well on its way to 100 losses. At some point, I could see the Angels giving Mike Trout something about thank you trade in which they agreed to pay for 90% of his deal and ship them off to a team that knows what they're doing. 

I'm a Detroit Tigers fan. That is a miserable existence. My team has not made the playoffs in nine years, and they haven't been relevant and seven. With that said, I'd rather be a Tigers fan right now than an Angels fan. The Tigers will find a way to screw this up, but at least there's some semblance of hope. There's something of a spark. Once Ohtani walks in free agency, not only will the Angels be remembered as a team that failed to make the playoffs with the two best players of a generation, but they will have nothing to fall back on. This is going to get worse before it gets better.