The Los Angeles Angels are sitting right around .500 at the midway mark of the season, but the American League Wild Card race is wide open for the taking. If the Angels can make the right moves in the coming weeks, they could quietly slide into the postseason race.
If the Angels are going to hit the trade market, they need to hit it aggressively.
Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller recently proposed an “outrageous” trade that would send Arizona Diamondbacks infielders Eugenio Suárez and Josh Naylor to the Angels in exchange for prospect Caden Dana.
“Even though both corner infielders would be two-month rentals, the collective upgrade would be massive for a team that has almost the worst on-base percentage in baseball,” Miller wrote. “In fact, Suárez and Naylor would immediately become the two team leaders in OPS, sitting at .893 and .834, respectively.
“Suárez would take over at the hot corner, where the Angels have a .677 OPS for the year. And if Naylor can still play corner outfield like he did from 2019-21, right field has been just as dire for the Halos with a .660 OPS.”
The only issue with this idea is the Angels adding two expiring infielders. Los Angeles would likely need to work on contract extensions for this deal to be worth doing.
If the Angels can land a deal for two sluggers like this, it’s hard to overlook them in the wild card race anymore.
The loss of Dana would sting, but it’s the cost of doing business as a buyer in baseball these days.
The Diamondbacks are likely going to trade Suárez and Naylor this season. If they can package them together and land a top prospect like Dana, it seems like a no-brainer.
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