Angels Rumors: Could the Halos Trade Shohei Ohtani This Season?

There are going to be rumblings all year long.

The Angels are going to be at the center of the baseball world for the next few months. As the team heads into the final year with Shohei Ohtani under contract, all eyes will be focused on their performance. If the Angels get off to a good start, all Ohtani trade talk will disappear. But if the Angels struggle early on, and realize sooner rather than later that they're unlikely to contend for a postseason spot, every rival general manager will be calling with trade offers.

MLB.com's Will Leitch wrote an article about the biggest questions surrounding the American League West, and wonders how long the Angels will stand firm on holding onto Ohtani:

"The minute the Angels admit they’d pick up the phone if anyone calls about Ohtani would open up a trade feeding frenzy that’d make the Juan Soto sweepstakes look like a Pokemon swap.

The Angels still want to re-sign him. But no player potentially on the market next offseason would bring back more than Ohtani, considering he is, essentially, two players. The Angels have a ton of questions facing them after this year. Trading Ohtani might be the only way to answer at least some of them."

It's hard to predict what kind of package the Angels would get for Ohtani, especially if they wait until the deadline to move him. A team would be trading for a few months of Ohtani, with no guarantee he signs long term in the offseason. If they could get that guarantee, they would be much more willing to send the Angels the farm for the two-way superstar. But they're unlikely to know what his plan will be, which could make them hesitant to deplete their farm system for a few months of a rental.

On the flip side, however, if the Angels know they aren't going to contend in 2023, then Ohtani is likely to walk at the end of the season no matter what. So unless they have a vote of confidence from Ohtani that he wants to stay in Anaheim long term, they would be much better off getting something for him, as opposed to losing him for nothing a few months later.

This is going to be a long year of rumors surrounding Ohtani, but the best thing the Angels can do to silence them all is win baseball games.