Angels mailbag: What’s left this season?

Hey, Angels fans. The team is 51-55 right now, five games out of an American League wild-card spot, twice as far as last week. They struggled some in Cleveland and Toronto. Multiple walk-off grand slams were involved.

At Monday’s trade deadline, they did little. Let’s get to some questions about that, and the team. As always, you can submit what’s on your mind through my Twitter handle or email address, which are both listed below.

I’m not sure why you assume they did not push to make more impactful moves. Do you think only the teams that made impactful moves pushed to make them? Obviously, that is not the case. A minute fraction of trades discussed actually happen.

The Angels are not calling it a year. They are also not really going for it. It’s like 12:30 at the party. Some of their friends already went home. Others are getting involved. They are just sitting there, letting it flow around them, not taking any big chances, hoping they’ll run into some luck.

They did not have the assets to really reap pronounced benefits if they called it a night at midnight.

Of course, I received angry tweets about the Angels trading David Hernandez, and angry tweets about the Angels not trading Bud Norris, two 32-year-old relievers they acquired earlier this year for nothing. The simplest way to respond, I suppose, is this: Very likely, it won’t matter either way. Not in, like, a grand-scheme-of-the-universe scope. Like, to the Angels.

Luis Madero, their return for Hernandez, is unlikely to succeed in the major leagues. And I say that confidently, having never seen him pitch. Based solely on his age, current affiliate, and his exclusion from all Diamondbacks’ top prospects lists, he is a long shot to reach the majors.

And it’s not as if they passed up a better return elsewhere. Ex-Angel Joe Smith owns an impressive track record of consistency, as he is the only reliever in the sport to log a sub-4.00 ERA in each of the last 11 seasons. And he netted Toronto two prospects of similar stature to Madero.

You can look at the market for rental relievers this year: Good prospects were not traded to acquire them. Even good prospects are gambles. Not-good prospects are like lottery tickets, and lottery tickets are generally a waste.

By trading one of their veteran relievers and not the others, the Angels hedged a bit. If they somehow mount a real run for the playoffs, their bullpen won’t be decimated. And they still received one lottery ticket, in exchange for a guy they bought from Atlanta in April.

There has always been a threat that Trout would choose to go elsewhere come free agency. That is the point of free agency. How these years have directly affected that likelihood is difficult to say. Also, the Angels are playing essentially exactly how projections foretold, with another significant spate of injuries, so I don’t think they’re necessarily underperforming in 2017.

I would expect the Angels to make a high-profile move or two this winter, yes. Again, to correct the record a bit, two years ago they did swing a pretty prominent trade that has proved massive to their long-term hopes. They traded for shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who is under contract through 2020 at a rate far, far below his market value. Simmons is a tremendous defender, and, over the past calendar year, he has hit .295 with a .349 on-base percentage and .432 slugging percentage.

That is, essentially, a superstar. By fangraphs.com’s Wins Above Replacement calculations, Simmons is tied with Nolan Arenado and Bryce Harper over the last year. All three men have been worth 5.9 WAR.

The list of the 12 men who have been worth more is a who’s who of the best position players alive.

Tyler Skaggs is now on schedule to start Saturday, whether in triple-A or Anaheim. If it’s in triple-A and it goes well, it should be the last of his outings there. Andrew Heaney will pitch Tuesday and should require a few more starts before he is activated. Sometime in August looks likely.

Of course it will be helpful if all the Angels’ pitchers are healthy, but pitching injuries are always going to happen. It’s rare across the sport for a team’s 10 or 12 best starting pitchers to all be healthy at the same time. It’s also rare for five of them to be hurt at once. Angels executives are always evaluating their own club. It’s not like they have no idea what to expect if the injured pitchers get healthy.

Mike Scioscia does. As the manager of the team, he makes the lineup. I understand that Albert Pujols is not having a good season and should not be hitting third at his current clip, but it’s not as if the Angels have some big bopper hitting sixth and losing out on chances. Also, batting-order position just doesn’t matter that much. Furthermore, Pujols has still been better than the average major-league hitter at getting baserunners home. As I wrote in June, that may be because he alters his approach in such situations.

I interpret this question as asking if he is responsible for the club’s current standing, four games below .500, with only a small chance at playoff qualification. My answer to that is no. I can certainly think of questionable decisions he’s made this season, but it’s not as if the team has an incredible mass of talent on the roster. He’s not the primary reason the Angels are under .500. I’m sure I’ve written it in this space many times before: I see no evidence that managers have massive impacts on major league seasons.

The qualifying offer is going to be something like $18 million next season, which would represent a doubling of Cameron Maybin’s 2017 salary. That is an extremely steep raise. That’s probably not going to happen.

Check back each in-season Monday for new mailbags.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura