Angels interim general manager John Mozeliak met with the media before the Halos welcomed his former team, the Cardinals, to Angel Stadium on Monday. The veteran executive will oversee some kind of deadline sale off the American League\u2019s worst roster.<\/p>\n
How aggressive that\u2019ll be remains to be seen. Mozeliak didn\u2019t tip his hand beyond broadly indicating he\u2019ll be open-minded. \u201cUnderstanding the market and where that\u2019s going, that\u2019s \u2026 my biggest thing,\u201d he told reporters (links via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com<\/a> and Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register<\/a>). \u201cWe can talk about X, Y, and Z, but if we don\u2019t understand what the ROI should look like, we\u2019re not quite there yet. We also don\u2019t know what people are really willing to give up. So over the next two weeks, that is 100% our focus.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s little doubt the Angels will look to move impending free agents like\u00a0Kirby Yates<\/a> and\u00a0Brent Suter<\/a>, but those modest prospect returns aren\u2019t going to change the franchise outlook. The much bigger question is whether they\u2019d listen on controllable trade assets. Starting pitchers Reid Detmers<\/a> and Jos\u00e9 Soriano<\/a> are their two biggest potential trade chips, assuming they don\u2019t have any interest in moving shortstop Zach Neto<\/a>.<\/p>\n Detmers and Soriano are each under arbitration control through 2028. Neto is controllable through the \u201929 season. They\u2019re the kind of players the Angels have refused to trade in previous seasons as they resist a full rebuild. Mozeliak has already said<\/a> he doesn\u2019t believe a complete rebuild is necessary, though he didn\u2019t rule out listening to offers on controllable players.<\/p>\n [Related: Angels Deadline Outlook<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cPossibly,\u201d he replied when asked broadly about the idea of making a bigger move. \u201cBut the real answer is what are we getting in returns, right? We could be presented with lots of deals that we just do not feel are in the best interest of this franchise. But my responsibility is to really understand what that looks like. Once we get there, I think we have to do what\u2019s best for the franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n Mozeliak\u2019s own status is another wrinkle. He was hired last month when the Angels dismissed Perry Minasian. Mozeliak was officially brought in as a baseball operations consultant who\u2019ll oversee the hiring of a new GM. He\u2019s theoretically running the front office on an interim basis and only under contract through the end of the year. Angels owner Arte Moreno has a history of intervening in baseball decisions under previous full-time GMs \u2014 most famously pulling Shohei Ohtani<\/a> off the trade market in 2022 and \u201923.<\/p>\n A Detmers or Soriano trade wouldn\u2019t be that kind of blockbuster, but they\u2019re two of the organization\u2019s most valuable players. Would Moreno allow an interim GM to handle a trade of that significance this summer? \u201cI definitely feel like Mr. Moreno is trusting me to get this right,\u201d Mozeliak replied when asked about his level of autonomy. \u201cAnd so, that\u2019s what I\u2019m certainly going to try to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of that depends on whether the Angels believe there\u2019s a path to competitiveness in 2027. They have the worst record in the AL. Baseball America ranked<\/a> their farm system 23rd earlier this month. (Those rankings were before the draft, in which the Angels selected high school two-way player Jared Gridlinger<\/a> with the #12 overall pick.) They\u2019re not going to lose much in free agency next offseason, but they don\u2019t have a ton of upper minors talent looming beyond center fielder\u00a0Nelson Rada<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a challenging task,\u201d Mozeliak replied when asked about getting to contention in 2027. \u201cCan I answer that like in a week and a half? I\u2019m working through some things to sort of understand how to get there, and I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s fair to say that he hasn\u2019t had much time to evaluate the organization. Mozeliak\u2019s hiring seemingly came together quickly, and the unconventional timing threw him right into the fire with the draft taking immediate precedence. Their internal projected window is significant. Detmers and Soriano are controllable beyond next year, but the risk of pitching injuries is high enough that it\u2019d behoove the Angels to move them this summer or in the offseason if they don\u2019t expect to compete in 2027.<\/p>\n The Halos have already said they\u2019re not trading\u00a0Mike Trout<\/a>. They could get modest interest in\u00a0Jo Adell<\/a>, who\u2019d be due a raise on his $5.2MM salary if he\u2019s tendered a contract for his final arbitration season. Adell has right-handed power and connected on 37 home runs as recently as last season, but his combination of low on-base marks and mediocre corner outfield defense limit the overall value. He\u2019s hitting .240\/.287\/.393 with 14 longballs this season.<\/p>\n Pre-arbitration reliever Ryan Zeferjahn<\/a> has big stuff and an excellent 32% strikeout rate across 46 innings. He\u2019ll get some attention, but his near-16% walk rate is going to keep contenders from plugging him into high-leverage spots. The Dodgers sent a pair of mid-level prospects<\/a> to the Rockies for hard-throwing reliever\u00a0Seth Halvorsen<\/a> this afternoon. The Angels should be able to get a similar return for the 28-year-old Zeferjahn if they wanted to cash him in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angels interim general manager John Mozeliak met with the media before the Halos welcomed his former team, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,53689,293338,591,251652,330904,85,91953],"class_list":["post-814000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jo-adell","tag-jose-soriano","tag-mlb","tag-reid-detmers","tag-ryan-zeferjahn","tag-sports","tag-zach-neto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}