Shohei Ohtani: The Angels Owe it To Themselves and the Fans to Not Trade Superstar

I'll start this off with a disclaimer: If I wrote this three weeks ago, this would've been a different article entirely.

Three weeks ago, the Los Angeles Angels were staring MLB's August 1 trade deadline in the face, with a trip to the playoffs about as remote a possibility as winning that $1 billion Mega Millions lottery recently.

Well, admittedly, the odds weren't that long, but the chances of the Angels playing meaningful baseball in October were incredibly slim. Add in their future Hall of Famer center fielder Mike Trout going down with a broken hamate bone in the midst of a 1-9 stretch, and the chances of them reaching the glory of October were nearly impossible.

Another season with the white flag waving in August, personal retrospectives about what went wrong going through everyone's heads, and unfulfilled potential was surely their destiny.

And the Angels had the trade chip of all trade chips in an unprecedented talent -- with trade deadline just a few weeks away.

I don't need to tell you the story, but I will anyway. Shohei Ohtani was again doing things that the sport of baseball hadn't seen.

A sport that has been played for roughly 133 years had never laid its eyes on a talent like Ohtani. The dual Cy Young caliber pitcher and MVP-level power hitter was doing it again in 2023, leading the American League with 32 home runs by the All-Star break and holding MLB hitters to a paltry .189 batting average when he took the mound every few days.

But the Angels were once again not get any tangible results in the all-important win column with a generational player performing to the absolute peak of his powers.

That's a phrase that sounds all too familiar, eh?

Then the middling, underachieving, injury-riddled Angels made the impossible possible.

It took them a loooong time, but the Halos started... winning?

Sans Mike Trout, the Angels went on a tear when they so desperately needed it, and a stretch where they've won six of eight has completely changed the dynamic of a season once on the brink of failure.

In a season where they once faced a deficit of close to double digits in the race for the playoffs, they have cut that hole to just four games. In reality, another good week could see them on the brink of getting back into postseason position.

Which brings me back to the elephant in the room that Shohei Ohtani's been for the past month.

The Angels could very easily get an unprecedented trade package for their unprecedented talent. The fact that Ohtani will likely hit free agency in just over three months wouldn't matter. For the player that's defied all conventional wisdom since he came stateside in 2018, all conventional rules would go out the window in trade conversations for the one-of-a-kind player.

The Halos could demand an allotment of established major leaguers and top prospects, and they wouldn't be instantly rebuffed. In fact, teams around the league are ready and willing to discuss his trade market, so much so that the Angels are in a position to pick and choose who they'd want to bring in.

But just because they can doesn't mean they should.

Things can turn on a dime in sports, and that's what's happened at Angel Stadium.

The Angels have suddenly made a run to the postseason a distinct possibility, and there's no justifiable way that they should blow that chance up.

Yes, they'd get an incredible return, but not a return that would be able to make up for Ohtani's lost production over the last few months of the season.

Bidding Ohtani adieu would likely do the same to their now suddenly realistic postseason hopes and for a team with a solid enough core -- and one that should add Trout late next month -- doing that would be unacceptable, no matter the return.

And another piece of the puzzle in all of this.

Ohtani is a free agent at the end of the season, but if he was a part of a run into October, who's to say that he wouldn't want to return and try to run that magic back?

The Angels are a franchise that's rather infamous for cost-cutting, but for Ohtani they just may go against their usual strategy like all those teams around the league would.

And even if Ohtani leaves without the franchise getting anything for him, at least they can say that they gave it their best shot with him -- and maybe made it to the playoffs in the process. Afterward, they could move forward from there

Not trading Ohtani wouldn't be a death knell to their future, but dealing him to the highest bidder surely would be one in their fight for October, a fight that they're now very much a part of.

The Angels have to aim high, but they shouldn't do that by looking ahead while they have a chance in the here and now.

And for all the temptations they're sure to have over this week leading up, they should fall victim to that pitfall.

There are times when not making a move is the best move.

One of those times has arrived in Anaheim as they ponder how to handle a multi-talented player the likes of which none of us had ever seen before.

And it's just about time to see how the Angels answer that franchise-defining question.