Angels Must Trade Trout: Top Five Trade Suitors
The Los Angeles Angels are an incredibly mediocre ball club with a bad farm system and only one superstar player. It’s time to trade Mike Trout.
In sports, teams with just one superstar never go anywhere. They become stuck in mediocrity and even though that one player puts rear-ends in seats and sells jerseys, the team itself does absolutely nothing.
Take the Chicago Bulls with Jimmy Butler or the Indiana Pacers with Paul George; two top-tier basketball players who are incredibly marketable. But they were the only high-ranking players in their respective locker rooms and for those teams to win a championship, both the Bulls and the Pacers realized they needed to turn their star players into future assets.
So they traded both of them for more players who will help lead the team to better success down the road.
In Major League Baseball, the Chicago White Sox realized they also needed to turn their star players into better, future assets. They traded Chris Sale for their current top two prospects in their system, Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech. They traded Todd Frazier. And David Robertson. And Jose Quintana.
All to help solidify the farm system so that they can go for baseball’s top prize in the next five to seven years.
The Los Angeles Angels are a similar case to the White Sox, except they only have one attractive player to trade, and it’s the best player in baseball. He’s incredibly marketable, puts people in the stands, and is on MLB’s Instagram page at least once a night.
His name is Mike Trout and the Angels have to trade him.
It’s preposterous to think of trading the game’s best player away for a bunch of top prospects who may or may not pan out. But it’s what the Angels have to do within the next two years.
For one, the Angels have nobody around him. Trout is the only superstar with that ball club. Yes, there’s Andrelton Simmons, C.J. Cron and Albert Pujols. But those guys aren’t winning the Angels anything.
When building a team or building around a star, there are typically two options: Bring guys in through free agency or breed them in the farm system.
This is where the Angels are caught at a dead-end.
They could try attracting big-name free agents to Anaheim, but they already tried that. Remember how that one worked out? Josh Hamilton, Pujols, and C.J. Wilson? They got the biggest players money could buy at the time and Hamilton ended up falling back into his addictions while Wilson and Pujols watched their careers slip away from their grasp.
Yeah, not too impressive.
They also can’t build through their farm system. According to Bleacher Report’s post-draft farm system ranking, the Angels’ ranks 29th among all 30 teams. They don’t have much to work with down on the farm, which would make it difficult to develop these players to play around Trout.
Trout is the only player on the Angels who could yield a return great enough to rebuild the franchise. Teams that could afford Trout would give up anything for him because as stated earlier, he’s the game’s best player. He has everything any team could possibly want.
And if the Angels ever want to compete with the Houston Astros for the division title in the AL West, they’re going to need to trade Trout.
Here are the top five teams that would be best suited for a Trout trade.
5) Chicago Cubs
Of course the Cubs are on this list! The Cubs seem to be in on every player who could possibly be available, and for good reason. They have a solid farm system, loads of talent and potential on the field, and a top-notch front office.
And that’s exactly why Trout to the Cubs would make a lot of sense. Both sides would benefit immensely from a swap of talent.
Bleacher Report’s post-draft farm system ranking had the Cubs at number 15. That’s very respectable for a team that’s had a lot of its best players in the farm system graduate to the big leagues over the past few years. And they’ll be losing another top prospect in second baseman Ian Happ to the big leagues, so they will probably be a lower-ranking farm system soon enough.
After the trade deadline, the Cubs lost even more of their top prospects such as outfielder Eloy Jimenez, right-hander Dylan Cease and third baseman Jeimer Candelario. It’s obvious the Cubs are going for it and are willing to part with their top prizes down on the farm.
The Cubs have lots of pitching in the minors that the Angels could go after. If the Angels got to pick two or three of their top prospects as well as one or two big leaguers, the Angels would most likely be satisfied with that.
It sounds like a haul for Trout but hey, he’s the best player in Major League Baseball.
Also, the Cubs don’t have a ton of outfield talent. Trout would be able to head right into center field at Wrigley without any real problem. This year, the Cubs are proving that consistency is hard to maintain. By bringing in Trout, who consistently leads the league in almost everything, the Cubs would know that they have a generational talent.
4) Cincinnati Reds
The Reds are one of the league’s worst teams and going for Trout would be a really large gamble due to the fact that it doesn’t help their biggest need, which is their pitching staff.
But a trade for Trout would boost the Reds’ good offense to a great offense.
The Reds already have Joey Votto, Scooter Gennett, Adam Duvall and Zack Cozart to headline their offense. Imagine adding Trout to that mix. With five guys who can rake as they have been, that Reds lineup would be a killer.
In return, the Reds have highly-touted second overall pick Hunter Greene. They also have a great farm system even after Greene. In Bleacher Report’s post-draft farm system ranking, Greene helped propel them to the eighth-best minor league system.
If the Angels could get the multi-talented Greene as well as other top prospects, they would be set.
It would be a win-win for both sides if this trade went down.
3) Los Angeles Dodgers
Even though it sounds crazy, it would actually make sense if Trout crossed over to the other side of the freeway series.
The Dodgers should only go for Trout if they don’t at least make it to the World Series this year. The Dodgers have a tremendous team, but they just can never get over that playoff hump. By adding Trout, they would pretty much solidify themselves as the NL champion. It’s baseball and it’s hard to stay consistent. But with Trout being a guarantee to hit 30 homers and 100 RBI, the Dodgers would be a consistent team.
Right now, the Dodgers have Joc Pederson in center field. He could be a part of the trade. The Angels would also most likely be able to pick one other young, talented big leaguer.
With that, the Angels would probably get to pick another one or two top prospects. The Dodgers are in the top 15 of farm systems, so the Angels would just have to get it right with who they pick out of there.
Trout would lead the Dodgers offense to become baseball’s best and the Angels’ future would vastly improve with whoever they got to pick from the Dodgers.
And along with that, it would really ignite the rivalry between the Angels and Dodgers. Who doesn’t love that?
2) Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates are caught in the midst of baseball’s no man’s land: They aren’t bad, yet they aren’t that good. They have waited years for a breakthrough with Andrew McCutchen leading the way.
It just hasn’t happened yet.
The Pirates seem to be heading toward a rebuild and may end up trading McCutchen. But rather than that, it would be something to consider for the Pirates to trade for Trout.
The Pirates rank 29th in slugging percentage and home runs. To go along with that, they rank 26th in runs scored and 24th in batting average. It’s pretty simple to understand: Their offense is terrible.
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But with the addition of Trout, it wouldn’t be. Trout and McCutchen would headline the offense and the outfield. Also with the acquisition of Trout would come motivation for McCutchen to perform at the highest level he’s capable of.
In the mediocre NL Central, a move like this could really help the Pirates have a shot at winning the division.
Most importantly, this trade would help the Angels.
To get Trout, the Pirates would have to trade a good number of their top prospects. The Pirates’ farm system fell from number five to 16 on Bleacher Report’s farm system ranking just because Tyler Glasnow and Josh Bell went to the bigs. Nonetheless, there’s still a lot to pick from. Outfielder Austin Meadows is one name the Angels might be very attracted to.
This would greatly benefit the Angels while being a bit of a gamble for the Pirates. But there would still be a very good chance of it working out for Pittsburgh.
1) New York Yankees
Out of all five of these teams, the Yankees would be the perfect fit for Trout and the best trade suitor for the Angels.
The Yankees made a lot of smart moves over these past two seasons to put them as a top farm system in baseball. According to MLB.com’s latest farm system ranking, the Yankees rank fourth. They originally were at number two, but they did trade a few of their prospects away at the deadline.
The Yankees have five prospects in the top 100, and all could possibly be traded in exchange for Trout. Outfielder Clint Frazier and infielder Gleyber Torres would be primary targets for the Angels. Along with those, other prospects and big leaguers would be thrown in as well.
But those two would be the biggest targets for the Angels.
Trout would fit right into New York’s outfield. He’d be an obvious upgrade from Jacoby Ellsbury in center field.
The Yanks are going to be in a constant battle with the Boston Red Sox over the next 10 or so years, and to have Trout and Aaron Judge in their outfield would be something truly special.
The Yankees’ rebuild has gone much faster than they’d ever have thought. With that taken into account, selling the farm for the best player in baseball would make perfect sense.
Next: White Sox still have decisions to make
With the addition of Trout, the Yankees would reclaim their title as baseball’s center of the universe. Major League Baseball would benefit from that immensely.
All in all, the Yankees would be the best fit for Trout.