ANAHEIM, Calif. — Now that the MLB All-Star game is over and the next big event for baseball is the trade deadline, many trade scenarios and hypothetical packages are being dreamt up by fans everywhere and most of them involve two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.
While not doing as well as they were earlier in the season, Ohtani’s Los Angeles Angels aren’t completely out of the playoff race yet. They’re also dealing with some injuries to important players like Mike Trout, who had surgery to repair a broken wrist and might not be back until mid-September if things progress slowly.
There was also an interview in The Athletic this past week in which Ohtani said, “Those feelings get stronger year by year…It sucks to lose. [I want] to win.”
On the latest episode of Locked On Sports Today, host Peter Bukowski was joined by Jon Frisch of the Locked On Angels podcast to discuss the Ohtani trade rumors.
Bukowski mentioned how this season hasn’t been as bad as Angels’ seasons of the recent past, then asked, “But what is the point at which the Angels say, ‘look, we don’t think we can pay him (Ohtani) $500 million so we have to figure out what’s next for us?’”
“You look at where they’re sitting in the standings,” Frisch replied. “They’d have to get 41-26 to get to 90 wins. That’s kind of the number that we’ve been aiming for, and 90 wins kind of gives you a spot in one of those three Wild Card positions.”
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Frisch added that the Angels needed the All-Star break and that they were falling apart at the end of the first half. Even Ohtani was affected by a blister on his finger.
As they discussed the scenario further, Frisch said people are likening the possible Ohtani trade to the Juan Soto trade with the Padres last year, but he added that with Ohtani, you’re getting two players. And not just two average players. Ohtani is above average both in the box and on the mound.
He’s batting .302/.387/.663 with 32 home runs and he’s 7-4 with a 3.32 ERA in 17 starts on the season. Any team that gets him is getting an important left-handed bat in the lineup and a number-one starter in the rotation.
All 30 teams should be in on Shohei Ohtani, even though many teams will take themselves out of the running. He’s a once-in-lifetime player who can make a huge difference with any team he goes to.
But does it happen in a trade or will it happen after the season in free agency?
Frisch said he wouldn’t mind if things went south for the Angels leading into the trade deadline and seeing Ohtani get traded away because he can see a scenario where the Angels offer him the most money in free agency, and he returns.
But he also had a caveat to that scenario. He wondered if it would be smart for the Angels to trade away Ohtani and make him uncomfortable. He stated that Ohtani has it pretty “cushy” in Anaheim with the media and with his schedule. Ohtani basically manages himself. He sets his own schedule because he knows how his body works and he’s doing something no other player is doing so Anaheim has catered to him, understandably.
Will the team he’s hypothetically traded to do the same?
The fan in Frisch thinks the Angels should hold onto Ohtani, wait to get some of the injured players back, and see if they can make a run for that final Wild Card spot.
Right now, the Angels are currently 45-46 and in fourth place in the American League West standings. They’re seven games behind the Texas Rangers in the division and only five games out of a Wild Card spot, so there is time for them to turn it on and make a push in August and September.
But if history has shown us anything, especially in the Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani era of the Angels, that third Wild Card spot might be an impossible dream and maybe the team would be better off getting some high-end players in exchange for Ohtani and try again in the winter.
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