Angels Unlikely to Trade $10 Million All-Star to Dodgers in Major Update

The Los Angeles Dodgers had a trade in place to acquire utility player Luis Rengifo from the Angels five years ago. The deal was nixed at the insistence of owner Arte Moreno, for reasons that included his own impatience with the process.

Joc Pederson, Ross Stripling and — fortunately for the Dodgers — Andy Pages remained in Los Angeles. Rengifo remained in Anaheim. Now, five years later, the Angels and the Dodgers line up well on another potential trade.

More news: Angels Add Top Reliever to Bullpen, Transfer $39 Million Reliever to 60-Day IL

Is there any chance Kenley Jansen returns to the team that signed him as a catcher out of Curaçao in 2004?

"I feel like it is more likely that hell freezes over than Arte Moreno deals with the Dodgers," Robert Murray of FanSided.com said on The Baseball Insiders Monday. "I can’t see him doing it."

While Murray added that he could be wrong, he notes that the Angels' players on expiring contracts "are for sure there to be had” by other teams as the trade deadline approaches. Trades of major league players must be completed by Thursday at 3 p.m. PT.

More news: Angels' Mike Trout Sets 2 Insane MLB Records

The Dodgers aren't the only team looking for relief help this week. Jansen, who signed a one-year, $10 million contract with the Angels in February, is an attractive "rental player" for contending teams around MLB. Few teams in playoff position today, if any, would turn down the chance for relief help at the right price.

Jansen, 37, has been an effective closer in his 16th major league season. He has a 5.30 ERA and 1.286 WHIP in non-save situations (22 games) and a 0.95 ERA and 0.895 WHIP in save situations (19 games). He's only blown one save, giving him 465 for his career. Only three men (Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman and Lee Smith) have more.

Kenley Jansen was all smiles after striking out his former Dodgers teammate Kiké Hernández 😅

Definitely going to take some getting used to seeing Kenley on the Angels.

Via @SportsNetLA pic.twitter.com/EYwc23ulZC
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) March 5, 2025

Recently, Jansen told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times he would be OK working in a non-closer's role if he is traded — even if that jeopardizes his chances of becoming the third player in MLB history to record 500 saves.

“If I have to go throw the sixth, seventh, eighth, I would do it," Jansen told Shaikin. "I’m a professional. I would do what I do best, and that is pitch.”

The Jansen-Dodgers speculation evokes plenty of sentiment. Jansen saved a franchise-record 350 games in Los Angeles from 2010-21. He's bounced from Atlanta to Boston to Anaheim in four seasons since, but has never been traded.

That could change this week.

For more Angels news, head over to Angels on SI.