After Another Signing Suggests Angels Are Serious Offseason Players, Cody Bellinger Trade Seems Like a Fit

Monday morning began with surprising news from Orange County, as the Angels agreed to a three-year deal worth $63 million with left-handed starter Yusei Kikuchi. It's their fifth notable move of the young offseason, already, after they traded for Jorge Soler immediately following the World Series and signed Travis d'Arnaud, Kevin Newman, and Kyle Hendricks earlier this month. Late in another lost season, the team let it be known that they intended to increase payroll and compete for the AL West crown in 2025. That seems a far-fetched goal, but with the Astros, Rangers and Mariners in varying stages of confusion and likely payroll reduction, it isn't quite impossible. In just a few weeks, the team has demonstrated (at least) that they were serious, and that they want to be better than they have been for the last several years.

Without another, bigger, better move than any of these smallish ones, though, they won't be able to make good on those desires. At the moment, their hopes for actually contending next season rest far too much on miraculously healthy seasons from the dramatically injury-prone Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon, plus a smooth recovery and undiminished performance from the currently injured Zach Neto. They've also made themselves extremely right-handed across the outfield, with Trout, Taylor Ward, Soler, and Jo Adell figuring as the main options. Mickey Moniak was their main left-handed outfield bat last year, and is the closest thing in the bunch to a viable defensive center fielder, but he had an 81 OPS+ last season—and a .266 OBP that made him downright devastating when the team had a potential rally going.

There's still significant room between the Angels' projected payroll for 2025 and the first threshold for the competitive-balance tax, though. The Cubs are, reportedly, at least passingly interested in trading Cody Bellinger, the better to allocate the $30 million they owe him this year to upgrades elsewhere on the roster. Is there a fit here?

To some extent, this depends on whether the Angels are among the handful of teams who still view Bellinger as a viable center fielder. He's losing that status, in the eyes of many teams throughout the league, but few consider him totally untenable out there. If Los Angeles thought they could pencil him in even half the time there, giving Trout more days either in a corner or at DH, he'd have immense value for them. There is, just out of reach at the moment but starting to shimmer as a possibility on the horizon, an Angels lineup that could be pretty dangerous, with Bellinger as the left-handed counterweight to the aforementioned righties; Nolan Schanuel and Luis Rengifo as nice complementary bats; and a defensive alignment that actually makes some sense.

Of course, in all likelihood, no Bellinger-for-prospects deal with the Angels would make any sense. To give him up, the Cubs would surely want to get either Logan O'Hoppe—the talented but (so far) inconsistent catcher whom they targeted in talks before the trade deadline—or Ward. If it be O'Hoppe, the Cubs would have to kick something else in along with Bellinger, but they might regard that as worthwhile, since that would represent a long-term solution at a position of need that is often hard to fill. If Ward were the target, it would probably be something closer to a straight-up swap, with the Cubs gaining about $20 million in new payroll flexibility (Ward is projected to make about $9 million via arbitration this winter) and the Angels getting Bellinger as a centerpiece of their lineup. Some money might be involved, but no big prospect would have to accompany Bellinger on the trip west.

As I wrote last week, Bellinger won't be traded in a pure salary dump, unless it be because the team knows they have a big countervailing acquisition lined up. This would be a Bellinger trade that made the team (if not better) a bit better-constructed, though, while also giving them the added flexibility they're looking for. If the Angels are believers in Bellinger's glove and legs, there might be a perfect match here, now that the Halos are pot-committed in the poker game around the hot stove.