{"id":309892,"date":"2025-11-24T00:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T00:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/309892\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T00:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T00:52:07","slug":"angels-notes-ward-rodriguez-bellinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/309892\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels Notes: Ward, Rodriguez, Bellinger"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Angels\u2019 trade of outfielder Taylor Ward<\/a> for right-hander Grayson Rodriguez<\/a> stands as one of the most notable and most surprising deals of the young offseason. The swap caught Ward himself off guard, as he told Sam Blum of The Athletic<\/a>, but the outfielder expressed gratitude to the Halos and had nothing but good things to say about his experience with the organization. Ward is a free agent after the season, and he noted to Blum that he\u2019d be open to re-signing in Anaheim if the team shows interest next winter \u2014 though obviously a lot can happen between now and then. Said Ward:<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a wonderful time being in Anaheim, playing in Anaheim, getting to know the guys and getting to play next to Hall of Fame players too. I\u2019m just very thankful for that time period, and it\u2019s something I\u2019ll cherish for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

General manager Perry Minasian said after the trade that he couldn\u2019t pass up the opportunity to add four years of a viable rotation arm in exchange for one year of Ward, even if there\u2019s severe injury risk with Rodriguez, who hasn\u2019t pitched since July 2024. Via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register<\/a>, Minasian called Rodriguez \u201ca gamble worth taking\u201d and noted that when healthy, the former first-round pick and top prospect \u201ccan beat anybody on any given night.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the 2026 season, Rodriguez will surely be on some form of innings limit. Between that and the general uncertainty behind Yusei Kikuchi<\/a> and Jose Soriano<\/a> in the rotation, the Angels remain in the market for further starting pitching upgrades. They\u2019re also known to be on the hunt for help at third base and in center field. Whatever additions are (or aren\u2019t) made in the outfield will impact any chances of the return referenced by Ward. Jorge Soler<\/a> is a free agent next offseason. Jo Adell<\/a> is under club control through 2027.<\/p>\n

The free agent market is thin on center fielders, but Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports<\/a> that the Angels have at least checked in on the top name available: Cody Bellinger<\/a>. Given the Halos\u2019 need in center, it\u2019s only natural that they\u2019d perform some due diligence. (It\u2019d almost be more noteworthy to hear that they weren\u2019t planning to at least gauge the price on Bellinger.) Heyman notes that a match between the two parties is viewed as a long shot, which shouldn\u2019t come as a great surprise. Bellinger figures to finally command a nine-figure deal in free agency, likely for five or even six years.<\/p>\n

While the Angels have the payroll capacity to make that type of addition \u2014 Mike Trout<\/a> is the only player guaranteed anything beyond the 2027 season \u2014 it\u2019s an open question as to whether Bellinger can truly be considered an everyday center fielder anymore. He hasn\u2019t played the position on a full-time basis since 2022 and logged only 306 innings there with the Yankees in 2025.<\/p>\n

Bellinger\u2019s sprint speed hasn\u2019t really dipped since that time, but Bellinger still has drawn negative grades from Defensive Runs Saved (-4) and Statcast (-1 OAA) in just over 700 innings of center field work across the past two seasons. He\u2019d certainly be better there than Adell was when forced into the position in \u201925 (-13 DRS, -8 OAA), but Bellinger will draw significant interest from contenders who are a cleaner fit \u2014 the Yankees certainly among them. After playing on teams with clear postseason aspirations throughout his entire career, he may also be skeptical of joining an Angels club that\u2019s a long shot to contend.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Angels\u2019 trade of outfielder Taylor Ward for right-hander Grayson Rodriguez stands as one of the most notable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[4711,101896,363,99,79459],"class_list":["post-309892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-grayson-rodriguez","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-taylor-ward"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}