Angels go all in, keeping Shohei Ohtani while adding Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López
Shohei Ohtani will not be traded. That was the first vote of confidence the Angels made.
Angels trade for starting pitcher Lucas Giolito and reliever Reynaldo López from the Chicago White Sox. That was the second signal.
With the names involved and the moves that were made, the front office and team ownership sent a clear message: These Angels are all in.
“Big news laying in the hotel room,” Mike Trout said with a big grin before the Angels swept a doubleheader against the Tigers Thursday. “All the speculation with Shohei, I kind of knew he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Been saying it since the beginning of the year, the front office wants to win,” Trout said. “You see [Angels general manager Perry Minasian’s] working some magic there and [owner] Arte [Moreno] is agreeing with it. That’s a good message for the guys. The message has been the same all year: We’re in it until we’re not. So just gonna keep pushing forward and see how it goes.”
The team took two-way star Ohtani off the trade market on Wednesday. Not long after the news of that decision came out, first reported by Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci, the Angels then acquired Giolito and López for minor league pitcher Ky Bush and catcher Edgar Quero.
The Angels refused to trade Shohei Ohtani, instead acquiring talent they hope can fuel a deep playoff run as they push to re-sign the two-way star.
The trade, announced late Wednesday, plugged major holes in the team’s starting rotation and bullpen. Giolito and López have contracts that expire at the end of this season, but Bush and Quero ultimately were not part of the Angels’ long-term plans. Nevertheless, they were tough to part with, Minasian said before the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader with the Tigers.
“I think this team deserves a chance to win,” Minasian said, “and to acquire two pitchers, we think that will really help. … If you want to be aggressive and go and get the [players] you want, I think you’ve gotta move early and it’s going to cost.”
The Angels made a strong effort to change their fortunes in the first half despite early and significant injuries to key starters. They lost nine out of 10 before the All-Star break as those injuries mounted, including a wrist fracture for Trout.
But it appeared the Angels quickly turned a corner, going 6-3 during their first homestand coming out of the break and playing themselves back into playoff contention before sweeping a three-game series in Detroit against the Tigers — which included Ohtani’s first MLB complete-game effort in a 6-0 victory and two homers by Ohtani in an 11-4 win on Thursday.
Shohei Ohtani throws a complete game, one-hit shutout in Game 1, then hits two home runs in Game 2 of a doubleheader sweep over the Detroit Tigers.
“I’ve been under the assumption that I’d play here until the end [of the season],” Ohtani said in Japanese after his start Thursday. “But considering what the voices around me were saying, it allowed me to enter the game feeling refreshed. From here on, I’d like to do my best to aim for the playoffs.”
The Angels, who moved to within three games of the final wild-card spot in the American League, will next play in Toronto and Atlanta during this crucial trip.
“It’s exciting. I think there’s a different buzz in the room today,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said Thursday. “If you would have told me in spring training we’d be in a position to be adding at the deadline and acquire players of the caliber that we have, yeah, of course you’re gonna feel great about it.
“There’s people that trust us with this,” Nevin continued. “The players feel that, the coaches feel that, I certainly do.”
Giolito, 29, is from Santa Monica and starred at Studio City Harvard-Westlake. He was among the top pitchers on the market after making it clear he did not intend to remain with the White Sox. He is 6-6 with a 3.79 ERA in 21 starts. He threw a no-hitter in 2020 and was an All-Star in 2019.
He should add stability to the rotation that has been inconsistent outside of Ohtani. Giolito could start this weekend in Toronto, a key series for the Angels as they chase a playoff spot.
López, 29, is 2-5 with a 4.29 ERA and four saves in 43 appearances. He’s a veteran expected to bolster the struggling bullpen.
Angels general manager Perry Minasian discusses decision to move forward with Shohei Ohtani on the roster and trade for pitcher Lucas Giolito.
The trades, Minasian explained, were made in advance of the deadline to help the Angels continue to rack up as many wins as they can sooner rather than later.
As far as that last bit of speculation that remained of an Ohtani trade prior to Wednesday’s news, it had seemed unlikely from the beginning that the Angels were going to part with their star who is in the middle of another most-valuable-player-worthy campaign.
“I think I made it pretty clear the last time we talked that he wasn’t going anywhere. I don’t know if anybody believed me,” Minasian said lightheartedly. “I think it’s not somebody we wanted to move. But this is a special player having a unique season with a team that has a chance to win.
“To me that’s grounds for trying to improve the club,” Minasian continued. “And that’s something that whether it works or whether it doesn’t, I can go to bed at night and say: ‘You know what? We did this for the right reasons and we’re giving ourselves a chance.’ And I’m excited to see how we play.”
Ohtani leads MLB with 38 home runs, the last two of which he hit after pitching his first complete game. But the excitement over his heroics dampened slightly when he started grabbing at his side and lower back while running the bases after hitting his second home run. He was pulled before his at-bat in the sixth inning for what the team initially called cramping. Michael Stefanic pinch-hit for Ohtani with the Angels leading by six runs.
The team said after the game that Ohtani is fine and they’re expecting him back at designated hitter Friday against Toronto.
“He just cramped up. I mean, really a lot of volume today for him,” Nevin said.
Entering Thursday, Ohtani also had an MLB-leading .668 slugging rate and a 1.066 on-base-plus-slugging rate. He also is tied for first with seven triples. He has 77 runs batted in (tied for third) and a .299 batting average (tied for 10th).
As a pitcher, he is 9-5 with a 3.43 ERA in 120⅔ innings over 20 starts after going the distance against the Tigers on Thursday, holding them to one hit while striking out eight.
Ohtani said after his last start in Anaheim that he wanted to see this season through with the Angels, who have never been so close to playoff contention at this point of the season since he joined the team in 2018.
Arte Moreno and the Angels are destroying their chances of challenging for a title any time soon because they’ll probably lose Shohei Ohtani in free agency.
“Previously, we were always in situations in which we were sellers,” Ohtani added in Japanese on Thursday. “This is a first-time experience. I’d like to do my best while establishing solid communication with the new players.
“The GM did his job last year,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “With the team in a bad situation, he did his best. He did what he had to do. But last year is last year. Everyone was doing their best.”
Ohtani, whose priority is to win and be with a team that can win, will need to be convinced by more than just money of whether the Angels or any team that wants him can deliver that.
Trout was in a similar situation in the years closing in on his free agency eligibility, also needing to be convinced. He ended up re-signing with the Angels two years before he would have become a free agent.
Whether he thinks the current state of the Angels presents Ohtani with similar positive signs to the ones he saw before signing his extension, Trout said: “I mean, look what we just did. I mean, I think the whole talk was leading up to what we’re gonna do at the deadline. We’re gonna trade him, we’re not gonna trade him. You see what the front office and Arte wants to do.”
The Angels will face a fierce bidding battle for Ohtani’s services at the end of the season as the star enters free agency. By declining to trade him for a collection of players, the Angels risk losing Ohtani to another team while receiving nothing in return.
It adds to the pressure on the Angels to shrug off injuries and make a playoff run to enhance their chances of keeping Ohtani.
Ohtani is making $30 million this season, earning the third-highest salary among Angels players. He trails Trout, who’s making more than $37 million, and Anthony Rendon, who’s making more than $38 million.
As for Ohtani’s long-term outlook of this team after all the latest news?
“We’re in the middle of the season, so I try to not think too much about things like that,” he said in Japanese. “I like to do my best in each and every game. I’ve played with the team up to this point and I really like it, including the fans. I want to do my best with this team until the end of the season and try to reach the playoffs.”
Times columnist Dylan Hernández contributed to this report.
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