Angels should consider trading Shohei Ohtani if slide continues, John Smoltz says

What should the Los Angeles Angels do about Shohei Ohtani?

That is Major League Baseball’s current million-dollar question — actually several-million-dollar question, given Ohtani is making $30 million this year.

The Angels will probably keep Ohtani through the end of the season instead of attempting to deal him for what would certainly be one of the biggest trade packages in MLB history, and up until this past week, I agreed with that approach.

Even though “MLB on FOX” insider Ken Rosenthal told me on “Flippin’ Bats” last month that Ohtani likely won’t be re-signing with the Angels in free agency next winter, it made so much more sense to keep him back then when the Angels were squarely in the middle of the American League wild-card race.

But the Angels have fallen apart over the last few weeks, thanks in part to a string of injuries to key players such as Gio Urshela, Zach Neto, Anthony Rendon and, most importantly, Mike Trout, who is set to miss four to eight weeks after fracturing the hamate bone in his wrist July 1. Ohtani himself is dealing with a fingernail issue on his pitching hand that formed a blister that knocked him out of his last start and probably sidelines him from pitching in the 2023 MLB All-Star Game.

[Can injury-riddled Angels stay in playoff hunt without Mike Trout?]

The Angels were 41-33 and in the second AL wild-card spot as recently as June 19, but enter play Saturday at 45-45 and 4.5 games behind Toronto for the third wild-card spot with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners all ahead of them. They just got blown out by the crosstown rival Dodgers on Friday night and, adding insult to injury, a viral mid-game exchange between Ohtani and Dodgers star Mookie Betts prompted many on social media to speculate about Ohtani heading a few miles north to join Betts next season.

It’s why I came out and said earlier this week that the Angels should trade Ohtani to jump-start building their future team around Trout, who is under contract until 2030. But I wanted to see what lead “MLB on FOX” analyst and Baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz said about that, and his answer surprised me.

“This changes things for me,” Smoltz said. “With Mike Trout [healthy], don’t trade [Ohtani] at all. Ride it out, get to the end, see if you can push for the playoffs, and then who knows? Maybe there’s a chance you re-sign him. But given the facts today and where they are as a team and no Mike Trout for eight weeks, man, would I be flaunting that opportunity and changing my franchise if I could with some major impact talent.

“If you’re talking to the right team that has the opportunity to re-sign him, and you get major prospects along the way, you could change your franchise. Let’s just say all bets are off and the team that’s gonna trade for him is definitely gonna sign him or have the opportunity to sign him, you’re gonna get a boatload. You should get two impact, immediate players with two impact down-the-road prospects that are going to change the Angels in a way that could never be changed before.”

Smoltz did say that for the Angels to really entertain the possibility of trading Ohtani, a few more contributing factors need to take place, such as the team continuing to suffer a cold streak and fall further out of the playoff race. But if that happens, Smoltz believes the Angels front office would not be doing themselves justice without at least seriously entertaining the possibility of trading their two-way superstar.

Why the Angels should trade Shohei Ohtani

I thought about this a lot when Ohtani came out of that game with his blister Tuesday night. Without Trout, are the Angels a playoff team? Probably not. They’re already looking up at a wild-card spot before the All-Star break. If he’s not going to re-sign in Anaheim, you have to get something for him, especially now with the Trout news.

Now, do they switch course? If we see them lose four or five games in a row before the trade deadline, I think the Angels really have to consider it.

We talked about last year’s massive Juan Soto trade recently, but this could be the wildest trade deadline of all time. Even though it’s for a rental with Ohtani, we’re still talking major-leaguers, top prospects and an unprecedented trade.

Between now and the Aug. 1 trade deadline, we are in for quite the next month in terms of what the Angels are going to do. I can’t believe we’re at this point of, could Shohei Ohtani really be moved? And I think that answer has quickly become “yes.”