Is It Time For The Angels to Trade Mike Trout?

[RaychelSnr]

The Angels aren't off to a great start -- now thanks to news that Garrett Richards needs Tommy John surgery -- the news has just gotten worse.

The Angels rotation really isn't anything near what it could have been, should have been, or might have been. And to top that off, the lineup which looked so formidable for years to come just a couple of short years ago looks downright average now.

Quote:

"In other words: A team projected as mediocre is now 13-15 and looking worse, and that's with Mike Trout tearing things up with a .317/.400/.596 line. Did we mention the Angels have what is universally regarded as the worst farm system in the game? Which is why Dave Cameron of FanGraphs wrote this: And that reality prompts the obvious question: is it time to think about trading Mike Trout?

It may be unthinkable, but David Schoenfield at ESPN.com is suggesting the Angels should indeed think about trading Mike Trout.

Thanks to a horribly lackluster farm system, a bunch of heavy contracts for players not producing, and simply because the team just isn't that good: it may just be time for the whole experiment in Anaheim to be thrown to the wind.

But what do you think? Should the Angels look to trade Mike Trout and begin rebuilding the whole project? Sound off in the comments!

[tonybologna]

Absolutely not!

[Kelvarr]

Personally, yes I think they should. Not many teams will be able to afford his 2018 salary though.

[myghty]

If they do trade him the game is broken & needs a patch immediately....

[jkra0512]

At first, I thought, "Yes" because of the return you would get. However, the more I think about it, I don't think it's a good idea.

1 - The return you get for him won't nearly be what you'll get in return. You lose both short-term and long-term value.

2 - Prospects are lottery tickets, that's it, nothing more. I believe only the Dodgers would come close to giving the Angels any sort of value. (Think, Puig, Seager/Pedersen, Urias and maybe more)

3 - The Angels have TOOOOO many holes to fill that a trade of Trout couldn't fill in one trade. Not to mention one of the worst farm system in baseball.

4 - Bad contracts of Pujols (signed through 2021, has $189M left) which they backloaded, but do have CJ Wilson and Jered Weaver's contracts coming off the books this year. However, they are still paying Hamilton more than $50M to be on the DL for another team...

The Angels are just not in a good spot, and don't have much going for them in the near future. Trading Trout, in my opinion, isn't the answer.

[Tweeg]

Probably..

If they didn't have Albert on that tremendously bad deal, it would definitely be time to trade Trout for a huge haul. With Albert the Albatross, even a boat load of budding players might not help.

[misterkrabz]

No. Makes no sense to trade the best player in baseball, specially if you have him locked up until 2020..you would never get the same value in return. ..if it was 2019 and you thought you couldn't resign him, then yes...consider it.

[Scrapps]

Well, they aren't winning with him. And they have nothing in their farm system. Seems kinda obvious to me.