Angels rage-quit, place five on waivers

The Anaheim Angels have put pitchers Lucas Giolito, Matt Moore and Reynaldo Lopez and outfielders Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk on waivers, per Jeff Passan on Twitter. Because the trade deadline has passed, none of these players can be traded — instead, they will each end up with the team with the worst record that puts in a waiver claim on them.

All five of these players are free agents at season’s end, and three of them — Giolito, Lopez and Grichuk — were acquired at the trade deadline, when the Angels made an aggressive push to try to win this year, before Shohei Ohtani hits free agency. The Angels are 7-18 in the month of August, having fallen out of the playoff race. In addition, Ohtani won’t pitch again this year deal to a damaged UCL, and Mike Trout was placed back on the injured list after playing one game.

The claiming teams will be taking on the contract, so this is a bid by the Angels to save some money. Renfroe is making $11.9 million this year, Grichuk $10.3 million, Moore $7.55 million, Giolito $10.4 million, and Lopez $3.63 million. My back of the envelope calculation is that, with about one-sixth of the season remaining, this will save the Angels about $8 million.

While I am sure the Rangers would put in claims on some or all of these players — particularly the pitchers — it is unlikely any of them make it to Texas. Waiver priority is based on record, with the teams with the worse records having higher priority. Texas currently is tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for the sixth best record in MLB, with a number of playoff contenders being ahead of them in waiver priority. That includes the Minnesota Twins, Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays in the A.L., with the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants among those teams with a higher priority in the N.L.