Angels News: Former Dodgers Reporter Predicts Shohei Ohtani Trade by All-Star Break

The Ohtani predictions have begun.

Well that did not take long at all! We are just 12 games into the 2023 regular season and already getting some predictions as to when people think the Los Angeles Angels will throw in the towel and trade their superstar.

Shohei Ohtani is off to a hot start as expected. He has on-base percentage of over .400 and has only allowed six hits and one run over 19 innings pitched. The Halos have blown some leads as a team thus far but still sit at 7-5 in the standings.

However, this has not been enough for former Dodgers reporter and current MLB Network host Alanna Rizzo. She joined Dodgers Nation for an exclusive interview and revealed that she believes Ohtani will be rocking a near uniform by All-Star break so the Halos can maximize his trade value.

"He wants to win, do I see him with the Angels? No," said Rizzo. "I don't know if I even see him with the Angels at the All-Star break because if Arte Moreno wants to get any sort of value, especially because we know that Arte Moreno has already put the team for sale and then took a step back, who's to say he's not going to put them up for sale before? Then you're going to get as much as you can for Shohei Ohtani."

(Via Dodgers Nation)

Rizzo does bring up an interesting point in that Ohtani's value is super high right now. He is coming off of a WBC national championship where he was crowned MVP and appears to be gunning for one in the MLB as well.

The trade packages to get him at the moment would be massive. Juan Soto was acquired by the Padres last season for a huge deal consisting of numerous young pitchers and prospects. Despite Ohtani being four years older, expect a potential deal to be much larger for him.

It's all going to come down to how the Angels play out this season and just how much of a difference there is in their win and loss columns.