Just shy of 10 years ago, the Angels made one of the more impactful trades in team history. On November 12, 2015, Billy Eppler christened his general manager status by sending out Sean Newcomb, fan-favorite Erick Aybar, and Christ Ellis to the Atlanta Braves. In return, the Angels received José Briceño and Andrelton Simmons. Here in 2025, only one of those players is still playing in affiliated ball and that’s Sean Newcomb. He just signed a minor league contract with the Boston Red Sox.
Newcomb, at the time, was the Angels no. 1 prospect and the 17th overall prospect in baseball. While always being able to spin balls North-South well, he was never really able to limit hard contact. He also struggled with walks throughout his career, despite not throwing the hardest fastball. Newcomb is now 31-years-old and the Red Sox are going to take a flier in case Newcomb continues to pitch well out of the bullpen.
Little did Billy Eppler know that he was laying the groundwork for future Angels GM, Perry Minasian. The Angels and Braves will go on to have an incredible amount of overlap in terms of player personnel, including just an insane amount of trades. The Newcomb trade package for Simmons certainly was a win for the Angels, and one of their best. After this move, the Angels would not surpass the value added in this trade again. This was, in some ways, the beginning of the end for the Angels as contenders.
Andrelton Simmons was already league-renowned for his defense, but his offense took off once he was added to the Halos’ lineup. After a solid first season with the Angels in 2016, Simmons absolutely tore it up at the plate in 2017 and 2018. Andrelton posted a .752 OPS in 2017 and a .754 OPS in 2018, the two best marks of his career. In 2017, Simmons ended up finishing eighth in the American League MVP race, just four spots below Mike Trout. In 2018, he finished fifteenth in the AL MVP voting, 13 spots below Trout. Unfortunately for the Angels, when Shohei Ohtani got his first MVP votes/first MVP award in 2021, Simmons was washed up and playing for the Minnesota Twins.
Simmons is an Angels legend now, and Newcomb will look to revive his career in Boston.
