LOS ANGELES _ The Angels continued to hoist the white flag on the 2018 season, trading veteran second baseman Ian Kinsler and cash to the Boston Red Sox on Monday night for minor league pitchers Williams Jerez and Ty Buttrey.
With last week's trade of catcher Martin Maldonado to the Houston Astros, the Angels have dealt two starting position players from an injury-ravaged 54-53 club that is 9 { games behind Seattle for the second American League wild-card spot going into Tuesday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Red Sox have a major league-best 75-33 record and are six games ahead of the New York Yankees in the AL East but felt they'd be better positioned for a World Series run if they could shore up a position that has been weakened by an injury to Dustin Pedroia.
Pedroia began the season on the disabled list after undergoing knee surgery after the 2017 season. He appeared in three games in May before heading back to the DL because of knee inflammation, and he hasn't played since.
Kinsler, 36, acquired in December from Detroit for two minor leaguers, struggled offensively for the first three months of 2018, but is a Gold Glove-caliber defender who should be a major defensive upgrade over Eduardo Nunez and Brock Holt, who have been filling in for Pedroia.
Kinsler, who will be a free agent after this season, hit .218 with a .669 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 11 home runs and 22 runs batted in through June. But he has been much more productive and consistent in July, batting .320 with an .860 OPS, two home runs and 10 RBIs in 21 games, raising his season average to .239.
The Angels are reportedly sending $1.8 million of the remaining $3.6 million on Kinsler's $11 million contract to the Red Sox to keep them below the maximum $237 million luxury-tax threshold, a figure that, if passed, would result in a team having to forfeit draft picks.
The prospects the Angels acquired in the deal were pitching out of the bullpen at triple-A Pawtucket.
Buttrey, 25, was Boston's 19th-best prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. The 6-foot-6, 230-pound right-hander was 1-1 with a 2.25 earned-run average in 32 games, striking out 64 batters and walking 14 in 44 innings, an average of 13.1 strikeouts per nine innings.
A fourth-round pick out of high school in North Carolina in 2012, Buttrey features a fastball that he throws from 91 to 95 mph. He was deemed by Baseball America as having the best changeup in the Red Sox system entering 2018.
MLB Pipeline rated Jerez, 25, the 23rd-best prospect in the Red Sox system. The 6-4, 200-pound left-hander was 2-1 with a 3.68 ERA and five saves in 3BN-3 games, striking out 67 and walking 24 in 51 1/3 innings. A native of the Dominican Republic, he was a second-round pick in 2011.
