The Angels swung a late-night trade for Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López from the White Sox. Now, prospects Edgar Quero and Ky Bush are going back to Chicago.
Los Angeles formally took Shohei Ohtani off the trade market, surrendering two of their top prospects for the top rental starter available and an upgrade.
Giolito has developed into the more valuable of the duo. After a disastrous 2018 season, he blossomed into an upper mid-rotation starter, posting a sub-4.00 ERA in four of the past five years, including a 3.79 mark through 121 frames this season.
He’s striking out 25.8% of opponents against an 8.3% walk rate and generating swinging strikes on 11.9% of his offerings. It’s a third consecutive season in which he’s been above-average across the board.
The addition of López helps the bullpen in a more straightforward way. The 29-year-old righty moved by the start of the 2022 season. He had great performance in that role last year, pitching to a 2.76 ERA across 65 1/3 frames.
López has punched out a career-best 29.2% of batters faced. He’s picking up swinging strikes on 13.4% of his offerings while averaging 98.3 MPH on his heater and 87.9 MPH on the slider.
Both Giolito and López are firmly win-now pieces. Each is an impending free agent. A midseason deal, while not unexpected, is a nice boost to Giolito’s eventual earning power.
For the moment, the Angels are all-in and this will probably be their biggest move of deadline season.
