Immediately after the end of the World Series, the Atlanta Braves decided to rid themselves of rental Jorge Soler. The Los Angeles Angels, who seem to be cursed every year, decided to acquire the Designated Hitter/Outfielder for Griffin Canning. But despite this being a predictable trade, as the Braves won’t likely need Soler in 2025, did the Angels pull off a great deal?
Angels Make a Great Trade For Jorge Soler
Can the Angels Break Out?
This is a hard question, but with Soler, the Angels could genuinely have a shot at doing this in 2025. It would be unreasonable to say that the Angels did not have a chance to do so. Rarely does a team with two MVPs, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, and another player who had an MVP season (Anthony Rendon), fail to have ONE winning season. The best record the Angels had with Ohtani was 80-82, and this was after a great start to their season.
In 2024, the Angels were 62-99, certainly not good at all. However, the Angels finally had some young talent on the team shine, and it became ever so clear that some players do not deserve to be on the team. Taylor Ward, Zach Neto, and Logan O’Hoppe all had productive offensive seasons. With Soler joining the club, the team gets to be more balanced offensively as now the team has a DH. Soler did not have a great 2024, but he is better than Willie Calhoun. It became clear that Rendon no longer deserves to be on the team, as he forgot how to use his bat. Thankfully, the Angels might get rid of Rendon and use free agency to get better, not worse.
Was This a Good Trade For Los Angeles?
This depends entirely on whether or not Soler will remain healthy for LA. He has had only three healthy seasons, in 2019, 2023, and 2024. Even then Soler wasn’t entirely healthy in the last two seasons. In 2019, he played 162 games and hit 48 homers in his first full season, showcasing his potential. After a bad 2021 campaign with the Royals, where he hit .192, Soler was traded by Kansas City to Atlanta, where he hit .269 with 14 home runs in 55 games. In 2022, it was the same old injury story for Soler, as he unfortunately played just half of the season. Then, in 2023, he broke out with a 36-bomb season in just 137 games, meaning he became a valuable player again. Soler became a San Francisco Giant to begin 2024 before being traded to Atlanta, where, again, he performed well. Unfortunately, Soler has not done well to stay healthy in his career.
He also didn’t do well offensively in 2024. However, in Soler’s career, he has averaged 30.6 homers every 162 games, meaning that a healthy 2025 could mean an excellent season for the Angels. If he can stay healthy, the Angels might pull off a great trade. Canning, the only player acquired by Atlanta in the trade, has had an abysmal 4.78 career ERA. His best season came in 2020 when he started 11 games and had a 3.99 ERA and just 56 strikeouts.
Overall, the Angels may have pulled a great trade that could see some success. Los Angeles has consistently shown unwillingness to give up even though they have been bad. Soler could give them a spark.
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