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The Oakland Telegraph
7 July 2028
Beane fleeces struggling Angels with trade for infield depth
By U. Wallies, inexplicable computer AI trades correspondent
Oakland have traded away struggling 28-year-old relief pitcher Eric Wright and veteran infield backup Richard Urena to the Los Angeles Angels. The generous package coming back to Oakland in return comprises 25-year-old second baseman Toyokazu Watanabe and 24-year-old first base player Javier Villaneuva.
Both Wright and Urena's contracts were up at the end of this year and were unlikely to be renewed by Oakland. Despite racking up a fair number of saves, Wright was disappointing last season, going 2-11 with a 4.62 ERA and 4.15 FIP. And he has failed to bounce back this term, putting up a 5.53 ERA. He seems to have lost the knack of pitching groundballs towards Oakland's strong infield defense, and had been relegated from the closer roll by Roy Ellis. The trade deadline is approaching and scouts still rate Wright as a 5* reliever so he had trade value. The evidence all added up to a big flashing sign in Beane's head saying "TRADE NOW".
Watanabe takes over as infield reserve and starting third baseman against lefties from the increasingly unfortunate Rich Weaver, who once again returns to the minors. Weaver must have offended Beane in a past life or something, because he simply cannot cement down a spot on the active roster. Watanabe was drafted out of college by the Angels in round one of the 2026 draft. Villaneuva goes to the minor league roster, where coach Ron Washington-Deecy will attempt to develop him into a position to compete with starlet Liam Brown as successor at first base to veteran Matt Olson, who is having an inconsistent season and seems unlikely to be offered a contract extension by the A's beyond this year. Ramon Mendoza takes Wright's bullpen spot.
While the A's stand at an encouraging 46-34, the poor old Angels are having a right old time of it. Veteran Hall of Fame certainty Mike Trout can barely pick up a bat these days, let alone hit anything with it, and the Angels are 29-53, the worst record in the entire American League despite somehow winning their latest five games. The last thing they needed was to losing promising talent to a divisional rival, but Beane has unashamedly taken them to the cleaners. "Stupid muppets, I've no sympathy", was his only comment on the situation.
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