Let's Make A Deal! What Players Can The Cubs Acquire From The Angels?

[Brian Kelder]

As the Cubs are reeling in the National League Central, the Angels are flailing in the dark. What Angels players would help the Cubs right the ship in 2024?

Image courtesy of © Jonathan Hui-USA TODAY Sports

The trade deadline is traditionally when good teams pillage the bad ones and take all their good players.  Of course, we are assuming the Cubs are a good team (TBD) and that they will be in a position to add to their squad (of course they are). 

The Los Angeles Angels are not contenders by any metric or statistic.  They are bad.  Count your blessings, Cub fans; it could always be worse.  At least they have the benefit of a stacked farm system, right?  After a quick check of the Google machine, it seems as if they have the worst farm system with exactly zero top 100 guys.  If there were ever a team that needed to sell and reset like I do in The Show when I’m down 10, it’s this team.

The Cubs, of course, have a top 5 farm system everywhere, so if I were the Angels, I would target guys who may be blocked.  If I were the Cubs, I would also be looking to trade some of the same guys.  A brief list of guys I would be willing to part with to make prospect people mad is below.  This is even in order of my preference to deal.  I’m sure the comments will be kind, right?

1. Kevin Alcantara
2. James Triantos
3. Alexander Canario

There are top 100 guys here, but all of them are blocked for the next several years.  The Angels should be looking for guys with this profile, and the Cubs are loaded with guys like this.  The issue is that only one of the guys mentioned after this is worth any of these guys. 

Logan O’Hoppe is my favorite trade target from the Angels.  He’s 24 and still in his pre-arbitration years.  Jed loves himself some team-controlled years.  O’Hoppe would make Jed happy to add for the cheap, nondecline years.

Oh, silly me, burying the lead.  O’Hoppe is a catcher, and we all know the Cubs desperately need a solution at that position.  We’re not talking about a superstar here, but he is a controllable and cheap talent with an upside and a high floor.  Currently, he’s sporting a 102 WRC+ and on pace for 2 WAR.  If I were the Angels, I would look to the Cubs for some high-upside prospects and cash in on Logan O’Hoppe.  The Cubs could easily deal 1 or 2 of their upside guys and come out ahead. 

Keep in mind that I think the Angels should tear things down to the bare foundation.  Luis Rengifo is another target for the Cubs.  He’s 27 and still has next year in his arbitration years.  Rengifo is the solution to the Nick Madrigals and Miles Mastrobuonis, possibly better than Christopher Morel (ducks). 

One thing that the Cubs seem to lack is speed and baserunning savvy.  Rengifo is known for his stolen base prowess.  Statcast likes him as at least a neutral base runner.  Couple that with a .327 batting average, .843 OPS, and 137 OPS+, and you have four excellent stats.

He would cost one top 100 guy and maybe some young prospects with upside I’ve never heard of.  This guy would be a huge difference-maker, though, and Cub fans would love the excitement he’d bring to Wrigley.  The Cubs would also benefit from the upgrade offensively and on the basepaths, not to mention his utility around the diamond on defense.

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[Geographyhater8888]

How does their farm system look?

 

[Rex Buckingham]

Their farm sucks. We have plenty of guys they should be interested in that are probably not going to be Cubs regulars. Rengifo looks like a guy worth adding for this year, assuming he can play solid 3B and give Morel the DH role full time.

[Geographyhater8888]

1 hour ago, Rex Buckingham said:

Their farm sucks. We have plenty of guys they should be interested in that are probably not going to be Cubs regulars. Rengifo looks like a guy worth adding for this year, assuming he can play solid 3B and give Morel the DH role full time.

If the asking price is cash considerations or a career AAAA player there’s nothing to lose. That’s all I’d be willing to give up for a team that’s many pieces away and playing at .37 win clip since may.

Edited June 9, 2024 by Geographyhater8888

[Brock Beauchamp]

3 hours ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

How does their farm system look?

Absolute garbage. 

[Bertz]

Yeah I believe in a writeup of the Arraez trade a couple weeks ago Eric Longenhagen said something to the extent of "the only reason the Marlins don't have the worst farm in the league is because the Angels exist.  Either would easily be worst most years."

That's always a plus with a seller, because it makes it more likely that they take a quantity over quality deal, like to bring this closer to home think the Yu Darvish trade.

The other thing with the Angels is that they're very late to the pitching development revolution happening.  So if you were for instance wondering if Reid Detmers is fixable the answer is probably "yes, and fairly easily too."

Speaking of Detmers, that would be part of my ideal move.  The obvious prize from Anaheim is Logan O'Hoppe.  He would command quite a haul, I'd guess one of our MLB ready pitchers and one of our bats in the upper minors and then some filler.  The problem with a move like that is we need that MLB ready pitching depth ourselves.  But if you did something like O'Hoppe and Detmers for Wicks and Alcantara and change?  That feels more doable mid-season from a pitching depth standpoint.