The Angels have added another entry to an already wild relief market, as MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports that Los Angeles has made closer Raisel Iglesias available in trade negotiations.
It would be the second trade in eight months for Iglesias, who was somewhat surprisingly acquired by the Angels last December as Cincinnati was looking to unload the $9.15MM salary owed to the closer in the final year of his contract. In terms of both 2021 success and overall track record, Iglesias is quite possibly the best closer on the market now that Craig Kimbrel has been dealt, so teams who missed out on Kimbrel could now turn Anaheim’s way.
It isn’t yet clear that Iglesias will actually be moved, of course, and the Angels might just be doing their due diligence in seeing if they can score a big offer for the veteran right-hander. But just the fact that the Halos are listening on Iglesias represents some change of direction for the 51-51 Angels, who are six games out of a wild card spot and 11.5 games back of the AL West lead. With Jared Walsh now on the injured list and some continued uncertainty about when Mike Trout will be able to return from the IL, it could be that Los Angeles is already looking ahead to 2022.
If the Angels were indeed still planning to make a big push this year, it can be argued that with their overall shaky bullpen, Iglesias might be one of the last players they’d look to trade. Iglesias has enjoyed an outstanding season, with a 3.23 ERA and only a 1.95 SIERA over 47 1/3 innings, and his 38.6% strikeout rate and 4.3% walk rate are both among the league’s best. The 31-year-old is making a strong case for himself in free agency this winter, and he can add to that platform by perhaps helping a contender achieve some playoff success.
Yikes, so soon for Halos to give up
Nah. It’s highly unlikely they’ll be leap frogging 5 teams and 6 games for a one game play-in. They should absolutely sell off their uncontrolled assets to bolster a mediocre farm system or their rotation. They can always try to resign these guys in the offseason.
Don’t disagree. And it’s entirely possible they didn’t actually attempt to acquire Scherzer (or that they aren’t actually shopping Iglesias). But those are the only two rumors we’ve had, within a day of each other, and they’re completely different strategies.
If they’re trading Raisel, they should also make Jose and Cobb available. Raisel would bring the biggest haul, but all of those players could be useful on playoff teams and could give more lottery tickets to a team that needs them.
Not really early considering the uncertainty of Trout and Rendon’s return. Too many teams to pass, some of which have made some major upgrades already.
Drake meme: Acquire Scherzer? Nah. Trade away Iglesias? Yes!
What’s the issue? They are, at best, the best team in the division. It’s a shame Trout will waste his entire career there.
?
Cummon Braves! Go get him AA!
Max Fried for him. Angels make it happen!
Going for the fashionably late strategy
This team is sooo trash, disrespectful to the fan base that keeps supporting them year after year. It’s not that f***in hard to sign a few decent bullpen arms and remove the turds like Bundy and Quintana off your team. They threw out Bundy and Quintana last night against the team they HAVE to beat, in pivotal prove you can win game. Did they realistically think a playoff team would actually want to add that trash to help them win? Pathetic excuse.
I think locking up Trout long term is incredibly respectful to the fan base. And by the way, it is hard to sign decent bullpen arms.
bad to the fans? they locked up trout, rendon. Bundy and quintana gave up 3 runs to a playoff team, cant blame them for not scoring lol
Yeah, I didn’t get putting in Bundy and Quintana. I think Maddon has lost -all- his mojo.. I wasn’t exactly excited about him becoming manager, but I figured he couldn’t be worse than previous managers..
Because, when you rarely ever pick up any good relievers, it’s good to trade the one you have.
White Sox: here’s Madrigal for a one-inning reliver.
Angels: *gasp* WE HAVE RELIEVERS TOO YOU GUYS
Sell! Sell! Sell! Throw in Cobb to.
Iglesias, Heaney, and Cobb should be traded. Hopefully, we can get a serviceable bullpen arm.
Totally agree, get all the trade assets you can for some off season moves.
How does a team go from buyer(scherzer)yesterday to seller today. No new injuries from last nights game. Scherzer rumor was fake news obviously. Angels bullpen is horrific besides Iglesias. If they trade him will be worst bullpen in history of MLB. Madden you always talk about 2002 Angels. Talk about 1970s baseball when pitchers completed 90% of their games. Bring CG back to MLB. Pure baseball fans want to see that anyways.
Wow if Inglesias if considered good then the LAA have a REALLY bad bullpen.
It’s atrocious. Cishek is the setup man who apparently only likes to pitch with baserunners on.
@Rumy’s Ghost The Angels do have a really bad bullpen, but Iglesias has been pretty good, particularly in save situations.
Blown saves and butt puckerers in Cincinnati would like to have a word with you.
The angels have the best record in baseball when leading after 8. The only team that has a perfect record. they also have the 2nd best record in 1 run games and all that reflects well on Iglesias.
Different GM same pitching woes. Let’s stay around 500 miss they playoffs and lack assets, and never go for it.
That says more about Moreno than it does about the Angels GMs… They did draft like 20 pitchers this last draft, so we’ll see how any of them turn out..
Less is more, right?
As an angel fan sadly this is what we expect. This is the same situation we are in every year around this time. Underachieving team, Crowded injury list, pitching issues, only this year we’ve also had defense issues and a stale offense against contending teams. So yes sell off the team and let’s just start fresh again and again and again until something clicks.I’d rather see anything besides this horrible brand of baseball that we are forced to watch on a nightly basis. Time to face reality. We are not contenders we are a joke
Lux for Rasiel. Lezzzzz go
Jay’s should get him
Then Charlie could Hand Iglesias the ninth!
Just the guy for the Mets!
Iglesias Heaney and Cobb to the Giants for Will Wilson
Hate it, but need to be in full fire sale mode. Once again we will hope for pitching to actually be a priority next year with the payroll space.
Please, oh please, don’t think the rookie SPs are enough. I can hear it now – Ohtani, Sandoval, Canning, Detmers, Rodriquez. We are set, let’s sign a 20M shortstop instead!
Sign 1-2 SPs plus some BP arms!
I would only let Iglesias go for a couple of solid AAA relievers who are about ready to come up. We need to make moves for 2022 with all of the payroll that gets freed up.
Iglesias is the most valuable piece on our entire pitching staff. If we can’t get a solid return we need to extend him. Outside the first 10 appearances, this guy’s been lights out