Angels Appear to Throw in the Towel on Season, Place Multiple Players on Waivers

The Angels are officially waving the white flag.

The Angels' season and playoff hopes are officially over as the team placed multiple players on waivers on Tuesday afternoon. Headlining the group is pitcher Lucas Giolito, who the club got as a trade deadline acquisition less than a month ago. 

BREAKING: The Los Angeles Angels have placed starter Lucas Giolito, relievers Matt Moore and Reynaldo López, and outfielders Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk on waivers, sources tell ESPN. Huge potential playoff implications: All can be claimed by teams for free on Thursday.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 29, 2023

The Angels swung big at this year's trade deadline acquiring Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, Randal Grichuk, and many others in hopes of making a playoff push and proving to Shohei Ohtani that the ballclub can be competitive and win playoff baseball. Unfortunately, just a few weeks later, Ohtani injured his elbow and his season as a pitcher was shut down.

Arte Moreno has officially ended the Angels 2023 season with this move, trading away some of the team's future while also waiving the talent they traded it for.

The team traded away their no. 2 and 3 prospects to bring Giolito to Anaheim and unfortunately, his time with the ball club ends in just one short month.

After pitching to the tune of a 3.79 ERA with the Chicago White Sox this year, the Halos were looking to get an amazing starting arm to help Ohtani and the rotation win more games.

Unfortunately, Giolito fell apart in Southern California. In 6 starts Giolito owned a poor 6.89 ERA in 32.2 innings pitched. All while also walking 15 batters and only striking out 34. This poor stat line resulted in a negative 0.5 WAR for the Angels as he went 1-5 with the team.

The news today results in the fact that the Angels are tied for the worst record in the MLB at 7-17 since the trade deadline.

This puts the Halos at 63-69 and well out of the Wild Card race being 11.5 games behind the last spot.

Why Did the Angels Waive the White Flag Now?

The reason behind the move is a salary dump as the teams that claim these players will have to pay the rest of their salary for the season. This move is to save money in what is hopefully an impactful offseason as they will look to make Shohei Ohtani the highest-paid player in MLB history. But they will get no players in return and could ultimately hurt their chances to bring Ohtani back with the selloff.

For the Angels, this will be a pure salary dump. Because there are no longer any August trades, all they will get from the transactions is salary relief. Teams that claim the players will need only pay their salaries for the rest of the season.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 29, 2023

All five of these players will more than certainly be picked up by playoff teams looking to bolster their roster for October so the money side of things will pay off.

But for the Angels and the fans of the Halos, the 2023 season is officially over for the team.