In a wild trade at the beginning of the 2025-26 MLB offseason, the Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Orioles have made a trade swapping one player for another on their rosters. The Orioles traded right-handed starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez to the Angels, who in exchange dealt slugging left-fielder Taylor Ward to Baltimore. The move was made on Tue, Nov 18 and fills needs for both teams heading into 2026. Rodriguez hasn’t pitched since July 2024 at the big league level due to injured bone chips in his right elbow that required debridement surgery. He couldn’t pitch through the injury in spring training in 2025 and went ahead with the surgery. Rodriguez is still a young starting pitcher and at 26 years old, he has shown promising numbers in the innings that he pitched in for the Orioles over two seasons. As for Ward, he’s a homegrown player that the Halos had to part ways with due to inconsistencies in his offensive numbers and the trade value that he has acculturated over the past couple of seasons with improved power numbers. The trade might have a longer-term impact for the Angels as Rodriguez still has four years of team control left on his contract signed with Baltimore while Ward is set to be a free agent after the 2026 season.

In Rodriguez, the Halos are able to have something that they have been looking to develop for many years in their own farm system to no avail(although there are a few intriguing arms who could claim a permanent spot on the big league roster sooner rather than later). That something is a bonafide ace pitcher, something that they have not had solely on their roster in nearly a decade. This doesn’t count Shohei Ohtani, who was an offensive slugger at the top of the lineup as well as the top pitcher in the rotation for three straight seasons from 2021-23. Rodriguez has shown ace-level stuff with his fastball and off-speed pitches, holding a career record of 20-8 thus far and a 4.11 ERA along with 259 strikeouts over 238 2/3 innings pitched. It’s a small sample size, but it’s very encouraging for an Angels pitching staff that garnered the worst earned run average in the entire league last season at 4.89. Rodriguez is injury-prone and the Halos have seen good pitchers suffer debilitating arm injuries in recent years, but the front office is willing to take the risk to have a younger but more developed pitcher as the ace of the rotation. Being paired alongside José Soriano(career ERA of 3.89, 305 strikeouts over 51 career starts and a couple of relief appearances), Yusei Kikuchi(who has at least two more seasons left on his contract) and Reid Detmers(who could be making a transition back into the rotation after spending last season in the bullpen as an outstanding middle reliever), Rodriguez can be one of the better young pitchers in an AL West division filled with dangerous bats such as José Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez, Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Nick Kurtz, Shea Langeliers and others. Needing a potential fifth starter via free agency or one of their young pitching prospects, the Halos have one piece of their rotation puzzle filled with Grayson Rodriguez, who is expected to be ready for spring training in Tempe, Ariz in three months’ time when pitchers and catchers report.

Letting go of Taylor Ward isn’t easy, but he was an aging veteran whose batting numbers were improving but with a low career batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, Ward was expendable. Ward had a career-high 36 home runs and 103 RBIs in a season where he and Jo Adell made up for the bulk of offensive stats for the Halos, who also had good contributions from Zach Neto and Mike Trout. But his batting average was .228, his OBP was .317 and slugging percentage was a little under .500. Ward simply struck out too much and he also had low Wins Above Replacement numbers. At 31 years old(soon to be 32), Ward will fill an important need in left-field for Baltimore, which was in desperate need of better outfielder hitting after letting Anthony Santander go to the Toronto Blue Jays. Being on an O’s team that finished in last place in the AL East(which has a competitively balanced division) for at least one year before hitting the open market will be interesting for Ward, who was drafted as a catcher by the Angels in 2015 and then transitioned to being a third baseman before becoming a corner outfielder for Los Angeles. Ward had some good notable moments during his time as a Halo, including hitting a walk-off two-run home run in his rookie season in 2018 to conclude the final game managed by Mike Scioscia for the Angels. With some more unfortunate moments, such as collisions with outfield walls causing scary moments(such as near the end of this past season in Houston’s Daikin Park) and having a broken cheek bone on a hit-by-pitch in July 2023 in Toronto, Ward has endured much at the plate and in the field. But he thankfully still has the fortitude to be a good hitter and provide some offensive consistency to an Orioles team with a new manager in Craig Albernaz.

With Ward gone, the Angels will need to figure out their outfield alignment. Providing stability at left field for the past few seasons, Ward’s spot could be taken up by a potential prospect in the system such as Matthew Lugo, who has experience playing in all three outfield positions in the minor leagues. A potential veteran replacement could potentially fill in at left and so could Jo Adell, who has some defensive experience under his belt in that position. But right field seems to be where Adell feels most comfortable as he tried his best to be the center fielder in the outfield before being replaced mid-season by Bryce Teodosio, who provided some good defensive gems while having a less powerful bat. In right field, Adell is slated to be the main guy, even though Trout could make some starts in that position that he transitioned into before becoming the full-time DH after a knee injury in late April. Jorge Soler is still on the Angels’ roster and could serve as a potential platoon between the corner outfield spots and designated hitter. There is also the wild card of the next big prospect to debut soon for the Halos and that is none other than Nelson Rada, who has played a lot of his games out in center field for the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas and Triple-A Salt Lake Bees. Yet again, another potential free agent acquisition(a potential one-year deal) will have to be made to fill the CF hole and available names on the open market include Harrison Bader, Garrett Hampson, Jose Siri, and Leody Taveras. Big names such as Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger are likely to command big number contracts and even though the Angels front office has some extra money to spend after offloading Ward’s salary, lower expectations might have to be set, especially if the organization has to pay a massive cash sum to the family of Tyler Skaggs if a jury finds the franchise guilty of not preventing his drug-induced death sooner.

For now, Mike Maddux has a shiny new toy to work with in Grayson Rodriguez, who will look to be another great pitcher for Maddux to add to his list of hurlers worked with in his time as a pitching coach in MLB. Kurt Suzuki won’t have one of his old teammates on the roster in Ward, but he has a good pitcher to rely on taking the ball every five or six days during a long regular season. Health will be key for Rodriguez and all of the Angels’ pitchers with great potential. This trade is the first big move by the Angels and the official kickoff of free agency at the MLB Winter Meetings will greenlight any moves made by this team that has finished in last place in the AL West in the past two seasons.