Waiving Goodbye

 

...well the good news is that the Angels won yesterday.

Honestly, this Angels-Phillies game was the product of the type of team the Angels should have been this year. Battling back at all costs, having hero moments from Brandon Drury, Nolan Schanuel and Hunter Renfroe, and taking down one of the deadliest teams in the NL at home, on the day of Bryce Harper's 300th homer. In a better year this would be a defining, badass moment.

...but it comes at a time where one of the guys to have multiple RBIs yesterday is currently on waivers.

Yeah, the placement of Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Randal Grichuk, Matt Moore and Hunter Renfroe on waivers not even a month after three of them arrived in LA, in addition to Shohei Ohtani no longer being a viable starting option for the rest of the year and possibly needing surgery, Trout going back on the IL days after being activated, and Anthony Rendon missing time yet again, feels like some sick practical joke by this point. The Angels had so much going for them going into this year, and looked so good in the first half, but lost steam not just gradually but entirely. And even as someone relatively unbiased, it has been awful to see this team break apart piece by piece. It makes me sad to even think of what they're gonna look like next year. 

As a means of being optimistic, here are some people that have been working for the Angels recently:

-Griffin Canning, in the absence of Ohtani, has become one of the more consistent starters in Anaheim. He's 7-4 and he's given up 4 runs or less in his last 5 starts. The road to get him back to a healthy season was longer than anticipated but he's back and doing what he was supposed to.

-Nolan Schanuel has begun his MLB career, which was jumpstarted a month after being drafted, with a 10 game hitting streak and a .324 average, with 12 hits. Trey Cabbage is doing his best not to feel jaded after losing the 1st base spot to Schanuel, but I think there's a reason the Angels banked on Schanuel so early, and he'll be useful going forward if he keeps this up.

-Luis Rengifo, perpetually the Angels 'break in case of starter injury' remedy, is hitting .258 with 14 homers and 45 RBIs. It's a very nice season for Rengifo. I'm not sure if it'll be enough for the Angels to start him from the beginning of a season, but it's at least keeping him a reliable second half mainstay.

-Logan O'Hoppe is healthy again for the first time since April. He's not hitting near as well as he was, but he's a major upgrade behind the plate compared to Matt Thaiss.

-Shohei Ohtani is still finishing this season with an MVP, let's make that 100% clear. Even if he doesn't pitch in September, he's looking at a 50+ homer years and a 10+ WAR overall total. That is definitely going in his trophy case.

Again, this wasn't an ideal year for the Angels, and it probably spoiled a lot of the opportunities to compete down the line, but if you look hard enough you can find some dignified takeaways. I'm not sure if there'll be near as many next year, but at least you're getting somebody like Schanuel who'll be there for a while. 

Coming Tonight: He's played for a different team in each of the last few seasons, and he's actually pitched pretty well for all of them. The Padres are no exception.