UTK Special 5/23/23

Angels on the Brink

The Los Angeles Angels have two months and a week to figure out the future. The key date of August 1, the trade deadline, and the ability to re-sign Shohei Ohtani is going to define the franchise for the next decade. How it goes will open up possibilities that simply haven’t been considered by baseball just yet. I want to take a look at some of those and how it will be decided, and by who.

First, Arte Moreno is going to have the final call on Shohei Ohtani. There’s already an expectation that this will be an exceptional contract. It won’t just be the biggest in baseball, but potentially the biggest in sports (at least for a while.) Moreno’s going to have to think of the number he’s comfortable with and if it doesn’t match up with Ohtani, he will be dealt. More on that in a bit.

Second, once the team decides whether or not to sign Ohtani, a lot of other things fall into place for the Angels. If Ohtani goes, Mike Trout is likely not far behind. Not signing Ohtani will signal to everyone in baseball that the Angels won’t spend to win and Trout won’t want to miss the playoffs again and again. His contract is tradable and the return from Trout will be much higher than the Ohtani return. It’s more likely the Trout deal would come over the off-season than in-season, but I wouldn’t rule out a full on fire sale.