The Angels still havent picked a firm lane with the trade deadline just over 48 hours away, but theyre getting significant interest in outfielders and , . Both outfielders are controlled beyond the current season, meaning the Angels would seek a notable return even if they do opt to trade either slugger. Adell, 26, was the No. 10 overall pick in the 2017 draft. Hes never fully delivered on his longtime top prospect status but is in the midst of a career-best season at the plate, hitting .233/.303/.463 with 21 homers and 14 doubles. Hes in the midst of a roughly weeklong slump but has generally swung the bat well following a rough first month or so. Since May 6, hes taken 275 plate appearances and turned in a more robust .254/.332/.539 batting line with 19 of his 21 home runs coming in that time. In that stretch of nearly three months, Adell has been 37% better than average at the plate, by measure of wRC+. The Angels control Adell for another two seasons beyond the current year. Hes earning $2.1MM in his first season of arbitration eligibility, making him highly affordable for any club looking to add some right-handed thump to its outfield mix. He has very similar batting average and on-base percentage marks against righties and lefties alike, but Adell has shown far more power against southpaws. Speculatively speaking, teams like the Reds, Padres and Giants all make varying degrees of sense. The Reds badly need help against lefties and have outfield reps available. The Giants are in a similar boat. The Padres have limited financial resources at their disposal and have gotten no production from left field this season. Adell has spent the bulk of his time in center field this year, but hes miscast in that role. The Halos have moved to a right field/designated hitter timeshare alongside and have Ward entrenched in left, so Adell has given his best effort to hold things down in center. It hasnt been pretty. Statcast pegs him at six outs below average, while Defensive Runs Saved has graded him even more harshly (-10). In nearly 1500 right field innings acro s the past four-plus seasons, Statcast grades Adell as a scratch defender, while DRS credits him as a strong defender (+9). As for the 31-year-old Ward, hes the more established and more expensive option of the two. Hes controlled one le s year, through the end of the 2026 season, and is earning $7.825MM Julius Randle Jersey in 2025. Another former first-rounder (No. 25 in 2015), Ward has been a steadily productive corner outfield bat since his 2022 breakout. Hes batting .232/.308/.491 on the season (117 wRC+) but, like Adell, has really turned things on after a sluggish start. Ward hit just .172/.215/.352 through his first 130 plate appearances. His turnaround coincides almost perfectly with that of Adell. In Wards past 324 plate appearances (dating back to May 4), hes broken out with a .258/.346/.552 batting line (144 wRC+). Ward played plenty of right field earlier in his big league tenure but has been locked in as the Halos primary left fielder since 2023. Both DRS and Statcast feel hes been at least average with the glove each year since 23, though Statcast grades him a bit more favorably on the whole (combined 9 OAA in that time). It bears emphasizing that neither Adell nor Ward is a lock to be traded. The Angels are buried by eight games in the AL West but sit a more manageable 4.5 games back in the AL Wild Card hunt albeit with four teams to leapfrog if they hope to secure a spot. Angels owner Arte Moreno is generally loath to sell particularly when it comes to players who are controlled for multiple seasons, as both Adell and Ward are. That said, the Angels are perilously thin on pitching talent and could look at a rotating carousel of four outfielders who are best-suited for corner/DH work (Ward, Adell, Trout, Soler) and opportunistically look to flip Ward or Adell for a younger arm (or arms). Moving Adell would create a gap in center field, but as already outlined, hes not a strong option there anyhow. The Angels could deal Ward or Taylor for pitching and/or prospects, play the other in left, and still look to backfill center field with a trade for someone like , or (to name just a few options). The Angels havent reached the postseason since 2014 the longest active drought in the sport. Its understandable if that gives Moreno and general manager Perry Minasian some extra incentive to make a push for October, even with FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus both placing their playoff odds at under five percent. Moving Adell or Ward doesnt nece sarily need to equate to waving the proverbial white flag on 2025, however. Given the glut of corner options, lack of pitching depth and lack of a true center fielder, theres a compelling argument that they should deal one of the two even if theyre striving to remain competitive. Angels outfielders rank 29th in the majors in DRS and 27th in OAA, so shuffling up the outfield mix and using some of their corner depth to addre s the pitching depth could leave them in a better spot when all is said and done. Nickeil Alexander-Walker Jersey