MLB trade candidate: Los Angeles Angels DH/SP Shohei Ohtani
There’s no denying that, right now, Shohei Ohtani is the best baseball player on the planet. That’s why the Angels will have a huge decision to make here soon.
Ohtani, who turns 29 in July, is a free agent at the end of the season and the Angels aren’t anywhere near contention. Angels owner Arte Moreno wants to sell the team but decided to re-list the team next offseason. There were rumors that Ohtani could be traded last offseason but Moreno said that he would not allow for him to be traded.
Now, the Angels have to decide whether or not they want to try to extend him long-term, keep him for the season and get the compensatory draft picks for him via free agency, or trade him.
From a selling perspective for Moreno, he could decide to do what Jeffrey Loria did with the Marlins and Giancarlo Stanton. He signed Stanton to the largest ever free agent deal at that point (13 years and $325 million) … and then he sold the team, leaving his contract to new ownership, who traded him to the Yankees.
Since Ohtani is both one of the best pitchers in baseball (fourth in AL Cy Young voting last year) and one of the best hitters in baseball (he’s averaged 40 homers and 98 RBI in each of the last two seasons), Moreno could sign him to a deal worth half a billion dollars … or more.
If he trades him, he still could very easily get a huge trade return, despite the acquiring team only getting him for two or three months.
The process of what the Angels decide to do with Shohei Ohtani very well could be the biggest storyline of the first few months of the season.