The Angels are a bottom 5 team in both pitching and offense. They only had 3 SP last year that any other team in baseball would have any interest in. They are a really bad team and won’t be turning it around soon. Frankly, I’m still blown away they got Suzuki to agree to a 1 year deal to manage this dumpster fire. So the logic for this trade is to add players with more control in return for players who will be gone in 1-2 years. The Angels trade the right handed bat of Ward, who is in his last year of control, to the Rays, who desperately need a big bat (or at least a bigger bat) in their outfield. In return, the Angels get Martin, a sneaky good SP prospect who has produced mid 3s for FIP/xFIP (or better) every year in the minors, and a jack of all trades utility man in Palacios, who can play both infield and outfield and has a better than average lefty bat. Palacios comes with 4 years of control too. Angels get a little worse in 2026, a year they won’t be competitive, in return for getting better in the future. The Angels probably won’t do anything like this though, with their manager and GM on 1 year deals and Trout another year closer to irrelevancy, it seems more likely they will make another misguided “all-in” effort.