Perry Minasian did not go all-in at the trade deadline. The Angels’ general manager instead walked right past the poker table and deposited his money into a low-interest savings account.
Rather than gambling that new prospects would help in the future or that new major leaguers would help in the present, Minasian is banking on the current roster reaping a subtle benefit from what he hopes is at least two months of meaningful baseball.
After completing one minor trade for utility infielder Oswald Peraza just before Thursday’s trade deadline, Minasian said he didn’t want to rip apart the clubhouse for the final two months.
“Being competitive in August and September is really, really important for this group, not only for the now, but for the future,” Minasian said. “Playing meaningful games, understanding there’s an expectation to win, showing up to the ballpark every day, feeling like you have a chance to win over a six-month period, it’s hard to quantify. But I felt like it was very, very important for this group to go through that and to see what playing in August and what playing in September is like with the amount of want-to and the experience around them. We’ll only benefit going forward.”
Even though the Angels (53-56) currently have about a 3% chance at making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs, they are nonetheless only four games out of a playoff spot. That’s close enough for the players to feel the importance of the games.
Aside from the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the Angels haven’t been anywhere near contention in September since 2017. The Angels haven’t finished with a winning record since 2015, and they haven’t made the playoffs since 2014.
The Angels were buyers at the 2023 deadline, but the team collapsed in August and was playing out the string by September.
Obviously, a similar fall this year would be disappointing, but at least it wouldn’t be as costly. This time the Angels didn’t risk a step backward by giving up any significant prospects.
The best of the three prospects they moved in the two deals was left-hander Jake Eder, who Baseball America ranked No. 24 in the organization. The other two were not ranked in the top 30.
The minor roster upgrades started with relievers Luis Garcia and Andrew Chafin coming from the Washington Nationals on Wednesday and continued with a deal with the New York Yankees for Peraza on Thursday.
The deal that seemed the most likely was to trade veteran closer Kenley Jansen, who is a free agent at the end of the season.
When pressed on whether he could have traded Jansen to add some young talent while still maintaining a competitive roster, Minasian gushed over the impact Jansen has on the roster.
“He’s somebody that affects everybody, not only our pitchers in the bullpen, but our young rotation, our young position players,” Minasian said. “His pedigree, his desire to win games, I think, is more than welcomed, obviously, in this place and in this clubhouse. So looking at that relative to what was discussed, we felt like it was the right thing to do to keep him.”
Minasian said they “discussed a lot of different possibilities,” both of trading away their current big leaguers and shipping out prospects to improve the major league roster.
Ultimately, they came up with just two trades. The Peraza deal was finalized within the last hour before the deadline.
“It’s a classic change-of-scenery guy,” Minasian said.
Peraza, 25, was once a top 100 prospect, but he’s struggled in his brief big league time with the Yankees. Peraza has hit .190 with a .548 OPS in 145 major league games.
A right-handed hitter, Peraza can play second base, third and shortstop.
“We felt like it was an outstanding opportunity to take a chance on a guy that has talent,” Minasian said. “We’ll see how it plays out.”
The Angels designated veteran infielder Kevin Newman for assignment to open a spot for Peraza, who will join the team on Friday.
The Angels sent the Yankees 18-year-old outfielder Wilberson De Peña, who was not listed among their top 30 prospects, according to Baseball America. De Peña has hit .218 in 57 games over the past two years in the Dominican Summer League.
The Angels also transferred the remaining $73,766 of their 2025 international bonus pool space to the Yankees. Minasian indicated that the Angels were done signing players in the 2025 class, so the extra space was not meaningful to them. The Angels will have their full bonus pool allotment when the 2026 signing period starts in January.
