Let's Make a Deal: Which Angels Players Could Help the Brewers?

There are few teams in baseball looking as dismal as the Angels. In a final, desperate bid to increase their chances of extending Shohei Ohtani, they bet it all on their 2023 season, selling off their entire farm system to acquire bits and pieces of major-league talent at the trade deadline. This resulted in a tragic 28-43 second-half record and a wide miss on a playoff berth. 

In 2024, the situation is somehow worse. Shohei Ohtani has been raking for the team’s cross-town rival, Mike Trout is on the injured list after having surgery to repair a torn meniscus, and they are already 11.5 games back in the division and 9.5 games from a Wild Card spot. FanGraphs gives them just a 0.6% chance to make the playoffs, and that feels a little high. To make matters even worse, since they traded their top prospects last year, their farm system is arguably the worst in baseball. With Nolan Schanuel’s graduation, they have no prospects in the top 100. 

Long story short: they’re cooked, at the very least for the next few years. However, this means they’ll more than likely be sellers at the trade deadline, so what can the Brewers get from them--and what might they have to surrender in return?

Tyler Anderson
Currently leading the team in rWAR with an impressive 3.3, Anderson is having a great bounce-back season after an abysmal 2023. His current ERA of 2.63 and WHIP of 1.15 are significantly better than the 5.43 and 1.49 numbers he posted last year. An intriguing lefty, he’s a crafty contact pitcher who somehow manages to get by with a fastball averaging 89.2 mph. His changeup is arguably his best pitch, boasting a strikeout rate of 23.5% and a whiff rate of 36.8%. His cutter is a close second, though, and despite it averaging an unimpressive 83.8 mph, batters are averaging just .176 against it. 

Anderson could be a great Band-Aid solution for the team’s current starting pitcher injury pandemic. With Wade Miley out for the season, Robert Gasser trending the same way, and DL Hall still without a clear timetable to return, the Brewers could use a lefty starter, especially one with the experience of Anderson. Furthermore, his pitch-to-contact style synergizes well with Milwaukee’s specialty: defense. For Anderson, specifically, his 32.0% fly-ball rate is 8.1% higher than the MLB average, which should go well with the Brewers outfield. They lead MLB in OAA (24) by outfielders.

One consideration to keep in mind is his contract. Anderson signed for $39 million over three years prior to 2023, so he'll be on an eight-figure salary for 2025. It’s a hefty salary to pay (for Milwaukee, at least), and that could make clearing the acquisition with ownership tricky. He’s having a great season this year, and could help with a deep postseason run, but what about next year? With Brandon Woodruff returning and prospects like Gasser and Jacob Misiorowski potentially becoming big-league mainstays, will Anderson be needed beyond 2024? It's hard to say.

José Soriano
Another starter option, he's got a 3.64 ERA and a WHIP of 1.21 over 64 ⅓ innings. He profiles similarly to Tyler Anderson in some ways, and immensely differently in others. Like Anderson, he has a below-average strikeout rate and relies on soft contact. However, instead of fly balls, his ground-ball rate of 60.3% is in the 96th percentile of qualified pitchers. Also unlike Anderson, Soriano has excellent fastball velocity, averaging 97.7 mph on his sinker and 98.9 mph on his four-seam fastball. His sinker has been especially good at limiting hard contact, with opposing batters slugging just .277 against the pitch.

Soriano would be a longer-term option for the Brewers, as he’s got a total of just 106 ⅓ major league innings under his belt. He could become arbitration-eligible after this season or after next, depending on where the cutoff for Super Two status lands, and will be a free agent after 2028. Milwaukee would have multiple years of team control with him, but that may also make the Angels more hesitant to part with him. They may be expecting him to hold down the rotation for the remainder of the decade, and without a ton of other young options, he might be off-limits. 

Luis Rengifo
Offensively, it’s hard to see how a team with the sixth-best OPS in MLB (.738) can get better, especially with how well-rounded Milwaukee is. While that may be the case now, this could be an opportunity to look at the medium-term future. Most fans doubt that Willy Adames will choose to stay once he hits free agency. As a result, the team will need to replace him. Luckily, rookie shortstop Joey Ortiz has made an excellent case to take over. He’s been primarily playing third base this year, but that’s a roster construction thing, not personal player preference. In the minors, Ortiz had nearly 2,100 innings at shortstop, 1,700 more than at any other position.

Assuming Ortiz moves to shortstop and Brice Turang holds down second, then, Rengifo could be a great hot-corner option. His hitting has gradually improved over his past three seasons, and he’s currently slashing .316/.367/.448 with nine doubles and four home runs. He’s great at avoiding strikeouts (14.3%) and has been crushing four-seam fastballs this year, averaging .429 against them. Sure, he’s a fringy defender and doesn’t hit the ball particularly hard, but no one’s perfect, and the Brewers thrive on small ball, anyway. 

Rengifo is currently on a one-year, $4.4 million contract, with free agency approaching after next season, so he may be another short- or medium-term rental for the team, but it doesn’t seem like he’ll be too expensive.

What can Milwaukee offer?
The Crew has one of the best farm systems in baseball, boasting three top-100 prospects: No. 22 Jacob Misiorowski, No. 24 Jeferson Quero, and No. 34 Tyler Black. Because the Angels are so far from any serious contention, it may take them a few years to rebuild, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they had their eyes on younger prospects over those that are just a year or two out. 

Obviously, the return package would depend on whom the front office ends up pursuing, but a few of the team’s great outfield prospects in the lower levels of the minors would make sense. Luis Lara (No. 7-ranked Brewers prospect, 2026 ETA), Yophery Rodriguez (No. 9, 2027 ETA), or even Pedro Ibarguen (No. 27, 2028 ETA) could be enticing pieces that wouldn’t be too damaging to Milwaukee, since they have a plethora of outfield talent in the big leagues who will be around for several more years. 

If the Angels want help in the shorter term, there’s a bit of corner infield saturation, with names like Mike Boeve and Luke Adams covering the same bases, and they’re both estimated to debut in 2026, which could be a reasonable timeline to build a more competitive team around them.

At this point, watching Angels baseball is like watching the last season of The Office. It’s pretty disappointing overall but there are still a few names that may catch your interest--and potentially Matt Arnold’s.