{"id":141395,"date":"2026-01-20T10:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T10:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/141395\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T10:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T10:52:22","slug":"grayson-rodriguezs-post-trade-reaction-is-peak-comedy-for-angels-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/141395\/","title":{"rendered":"Grayson Rodriguez\u2019s post-trade reaction is peak comedy for Angels fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grayson Rodriguez is the marquee name the Los Angeles Angels have added<\/a> to the fold this offseason, and the 26-year-old right-hander sure seems excited about making the trip from the East Coast to southern California.<\/p>\n

Appearing on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM<\/a>, Rodriguez gave an interview explaining how the trade went down, including his heightened emotions in the moment.<\/p>\n

“I’m stoked, I’m pumped up,” Rodriguez said of his initial reaction to the trade. “I was calling my family, [except] my parents didn’t answer. I called them like five or six times, and they wouldn’t answer… It was [still] exciting, it was a really, really cool moment for me.”<\/p>\n

For what it’s worth, Rodriguez did explain that his parents were at his younger brother’s basketball game. As far as excuses go, that’s a solid one, though surely the right-hander would’ve preferred they picked up to help him calm some nerves.<\/p>\n

Grayson Rodriguez enthusiastic to join Angels, who need him to be healthy<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, who was acquired for longtime Halos outfielder Taylor Ward early in the winter, comes with a lot of hype. His injuries \u2014\u00a0including multiple lat strains, shoulder troubles, and an elbow surgery, have been well-documented<\/a>, but he also offers perhaps as much upside as anyone in the team’s rotation.<\/p>\n

Once a consensus top-10 prospect in baseball, Rodriguez has only managed to throw 238\u2154 innings in the majors, though he’s been efficient on the mound<\/a>. His 4.11 career ERA undersells his effectiveness, especially if you trust the returns on his above-average chase, whiff, and strikeout rates. By any measure, his 3.96 expected ERA and 3.80 FIP do a better job of telling the story of his potential.<\/p>\n

You’d think mom and dad would pick up the phone for a pitcher of that caliber. Alas.<\/p>\n

He’s only 26 and still has four years of team control remaining, which is a huge boon for the Angels if he can come anywhere close to realizing his full potential. Los Angeles is still a ways away from the bridging the gap to the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros atop the AL West, but a starting five featuring Rodriguez, Yusei Kikuchi, Jos\u00e9 Soriano, Reid Detmers, and reclamation project Alex Manoah<\/a> has as much upside as the fanbase has seen in a long time.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez is pumped up about joining the franchise, and that’s a positive sign for a the team hasn’t eclipsed a .500 record in more than a decade. If their new ace (or, at least, pitcher with ace-like upside) can set the tone for the rest of the pitching staff, that streak may finally come to an end in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grayson Rodriguez is the marquee name the Los Angeles Angels have added to the fold this offseason, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-141395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}