Italicized players who I think could lose their 40-man spot (DFA) and I think they would likely make it through waivers. Keep in mind that a player claimed off waivers has to be added to a team’s 40-man. Active players are listed in order by position on Spotrac. Minor leaguers are in the order they appear on our Fangraphs Depth Charts page.

Under contract

1. Anthony Rendon
2. Tyler Anderson

Arbitration (Arb Year/Max Arb Years)

1. Matt Thaiss (1/3)
2. Luis Rengifo (3/3)
3. Taylor Ward (3/4)
4. Luis Guillorme (3/3)
5. Jo Adell (1/3)
6. Mickey Moniak (1/3)
7. Griffin Canning (3/3)
8. Jose Quijada (2/3)

Pre-Arbitration

1. Logan O’Hoppe
2. Zach Neto
3. Nolan Schanuel
4. Michael Stefanic
5. Jose Soriano
6. Davis Daniel
7. Roansy Contreras
8. Ben Joyce
9. Hans Crouse
10. Jose Marte
11. Mike Baumann

Minor Leaguers

1. Charles Leblanc
2. Kyren Paris (was likely added to the 40-man to avoid getting Rule 5’d)
3. Jordyn Adams (was likely added to the 40-man to avoid getting Rule 5’d)
4. Reid Detmers
5. Sam Bachman
6. Zach Plesac
7. Kenny Rosenberg
8. Guillermo Zuniga
9. Jack Kochanowicz
10. Victor Mederos

Long-term injuries (these players have to be added back to the 40-man (or DFA’d) when the season ends)

1. Mike Trout
2. Patrick Sandoval (Arb)
3. Kelvin Caceres (Pre-Arb)
4. Robert Stephenson
5. Andrew Wantz (Arb)
6. Chase Silseth

The above are 37 players, with 13 players who I think could be DFA’d or traded if we need more room. Here are some candidates I think might end up on the 40-man, whether it’s because they’re ready, they’re already Rule 5 eligible, they will be Rule 5 eligible in December, or I think we’ll call them up to see what they can do.

40-man Candidates, most likely to be promoted to least

1. Christian Moore (our first round pick, because he’s been mashing and promoting him would be very Angels)
2. Samuel Aldegheri (Rule 5 eligible, acquired in the Carlos Estevez trade)
3. Matthew Lugo (Rule 5 eligible, acquired in the Luis Garcia trade)
4. Gustavo Campero (Rule 5 eligible, still has a 165 wRC+ in AA, Rule 5 drafted him off the Yankees in 2020)
5. Eric Wagaman (Rule 5 eligible, recently promoted to AAA, Rule 5 drafted him off the Yankees in 2023)
6. Niko Kavadas (December 2024 Rule 5 eligible, acquired in the Luis Garcia trade)
7. Eric Torres (December 2024 Rule 5 eligible)
8. Caden Dana (our best prospect by far, he should be 2025 ETA at earliest but you never know with our FO)

Honorable Mentions

1. Bryce Teodosio (December 2024 Rule 5 eligible, probably hasn’t shown enough yet to be on someone else’s 40-man)
2. Hayden Seig (December 2024 Rule 5 eligible)
3. Nick Jones (December 2024 Rule 5 eligible)
4. Ivan Armstrong (Rule 5 eligible)

Summary (TL;DR): I think we could viably DFA Zach Plesac, Victor Mederos, Charles Leblanc, Guillermo Zuniga, and Mike Baumann without losing any of them. That gives us 8 spots to work with, which I think go to the 8 players there. Obviously, the fewer players we choose to protect, the fewer players we would have to DFA. We got Zuniga and Baumann for cash considerations, so I could see us being reluctant to just DFA them outright. I could also see us being reluctant to DFA Mederos because he’s still pretty young, even if he’s been pretty bad at AA (just got demoted to A+).