The Angels Should Trade Mike Trout The First Chance They Get
Sometimes I hate being right. I predicted several years ago that the end of the Mike Trout era in Los Angeles was going to be ugly. I think it would've been best for both parties if they would've entertained trading him years ago, but that's in the past. The Los Angeles Angels are going nowhere. I figured that they weren't going anywhere. They haven't had a relevant season since 2014. But they have gone from a team that was trying for something to one of the most spectacular failures that baseball has seen in a long time.
The Angels are about to lose Shohei Ohtani in free agency this offseason. Anthony Rendon cannot stay healthy. Their pitching staff is consistently underwhelming, and their trade and free agency track record is thoroughly embarrassing. Mike Trout could retire tomorrow and be a first-ballot Hall Of Famer. But his durability is seriously in question. He cannot stay on the field and has a chronic back problem. When he plays, he is still a top 15 to 20 player in the entire sport. With that said, the Angels must entertain the idea of trading Mike Trout.
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This organization is very much at a crossroads. The Trout and Ohtani tandem is about to go kaput. That leaves you with just Trout, a spectacular future Hall of Famer, who is dealing with a lot of injury issues. If the Angels hold onto Mike Trout, he'll continue to waste whatever semblance of good baseball he has left on an organization that will be scraping the bottom of the barrel for the next several years. If they trade Mike Trout, they will have to eat a whole lot of that salary. That is inevitable. But if someone within the Angels organization can pull off what the Mets did this year at the deadline and eat most of Mike Trout's deal, you could at least pay for some good prospects.
The Angels farm system is pretty bare because of their buffoonish decision to buy at the deadline. Whatever talent they might have in the system still makes me very skeptical. Outside of developing Trout, this organization has shown a severe lack of ability to develop talent. They're still waiting on Jo Adell.
Regardless of what happens, the Angels are going to take a hit. If I felt like this team was close to competing, even with an injured Mike Trout, I wouldn't be shouting about how they need to trade him. But this team is so far away from even being mediocre. The Astros, Rangers, and Mariners aren't going anywhere, and that's just the teams in their own division.
I think one of the saddest things to watch would be a late 30s Mike Trout playing his final games in an empty Ballpark in Anaheim. It's a delicate situation because Trout is currently injured. But the second they can prop him up, and he's ready to resume baseball activities, you have to entertain the possibility of trading him. It won't work with him on the roster, and that's no fault of his own.