The Los Angeles Angels have placed Lucas Giolito, Matt Moore, Reynaldo Lopez, Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk on waivers, per Jeff Passan. This is a massive decision for the Angels, who just acquired Giolito, Lopez and Grichuk before the Aug. 1 trade deadline. The Angels are throwing in the towel on the 2023 season, and possibly admitting Shohei Ohtani will play in a different uniform next year.

The Angels took a risk by getting aggressive at the trade deadline. Making the playoffs would have been huge for the team's chances of securing Ohtani on a long-term contract. However, they went all in and it backfired terribly. It now looks like the Angels should have traded Ohtani when they could have received some compensation in return.

Any team can claim any of these players for free on Thursday, which could have major playoff implications. Any team that claims a player from waivers only owes that player the remainder of his 2023 salary. With only a month to go, that's well worth it for a playoff team looking to add depth.

For the Angels, this was the absolute worst-case scenario. They gave up multiple top prospects less than a month ago to get these exact players. Now, they've hit the panic button and waived them all just to save about $7 million in salary.

Los Angeles now has a depleted farm system that was already sub-par, they don't have the players went all-in for, and they aren't making the playoffs this season. Since the trade deadline, the Angels are tied for the worst record in baseball at 7-17. They're 11.5 games out of a playoff spot, and things are only getting worse. If they lose Shohei Ohtani in the offseason, this is a complete disaster and an egregious failure by the front office. It will go down as the worst trade deadline in franchise history, if not MLB history.