Mike Trout is everything for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. If they do part ways with him before the MLB trade deadline, here are five landing spots.
He hasn’t played for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in nearly two months, but yes, outfielder Mike Trout is still an All-Star for the sixth straight time. The fans voted him in as a starter for the American League team, but he sadly will not participate in the game.
He is almost back from his thumb injury he suffered in Miami in late May. No need for him to go back to his house of horrors for a glorified exhibition. Trout has games to win for the Angels down the stretch, or not.
While the Angels are only two games below .500 at the All-Star Break, they have no shot of winning the AL West. The Angels are a whopping 16.5 games back of the first-place Houston Astros. They are also 3.5 games back of the Tampa Bay Rays of the second AL Wild Card spot at the break.
Trading Trout would be extremely painful for Angels fans, but this team is clearly stuck in the awful middle of the MLB. If the Angels shockingly part ways with their superstar outfielder, here are the five teams that could be in line to land him before the July 31 deadline.
The Arizona Diamondbacks are 53-36 at the All-Star Break. While they have the second best record in the National League, that’s only good enough for them to be in second place in the NL West, as the Diamondbacks play in the same division with the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers.
Unless Arizona or the Colorado Rockies cool off considerably, the NL West will get both NL Wild Card teams this fall. Do you really think the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Cubs or the St. Louis Cardinals can catch them? That being said, it feels very much like an arm’s race to jockey for position in the NL West. The winner of that division could wind up winning the pennant.
Arizona has great players across the diamond and is getting an MVP-level season out of first basemen Paul Goldschmidt. However, the Diamondbacks could use an added boost in their outfield. Seeing that Ender Inciarte is becoming quite the player for the Braves as essentially a throwaway player in the Shelby Miller deal has to hurt.
Adding a table setter with some serious pop at the dish in Trout might make the Diamondbacks the team to beat in the NL West down the stretch. He would at least help close the gap on the Dodgers. Trout would be playing in a hitter-friendly park in Chase Field for the foreseeable. With Trout, Arizona is a World Series contender every year for the rest of the decade.