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Poll: Should The Angels Consider Trading Mike Trout?

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The Angels entered the season with some uncertainty surrounding their roster, and though we’re only a week into May, the 13-18 Halos may be facing an uphill battle to get back into contention.  Injuries have ravaged the pitching staff, and the loss of ace Garrett Richards to Tommy John surgery is a particularly crushing blow that will hurt the Angels both this season and next, as Richards likely won’t return until late in the 2017 campaign.  With closer Huston Street also on the DL and the lineup producing middling numbers in most offensive categories,

Compounding the problem for Anaheim is that the club is spending a lot of money (an Opening Day payroll of roughly $164.67MM) for this underwhelming performance, and the Angels’ farm system is widely considered to be by far the weakest in baseball.  Some payroll relief will come when C.J. Wilson and Jered Weaver are off the books this winter as free agents, though the minor league system is in such dire straits that the Angels will realistically need a few years of strong drafts to replenish their stock of prospects.

The rumor mill is already beginning to swirl around the Angels as a possible trade deadline seller, and perhaps inevitably, there has been speculation that the Halos could completely shake things up by dealing Mike Trout.  Needless to say, a Trout trade would be a milestone transaction for baseball as a whole, there’s almost no limit to what the Angels could demand in return for a player whose early-career exploits have put him alongside some of baseball’s all-time greats.

Trout would fetch, at minimum, a multi-player package of several blue chip prospects and slightly more developed talents who are close to the big leagues.  A deal could also includes one or more established Major Leaguers.  Could the Angels even look to move Albert Pujols’ increasingly-burdensome contract by attaching it to Trout’s services?  That last scenario may be perhaps a bit too far-fetched, though it’s hard to really gauge what a Trout market would look like given how rare it is for a superstar player in his prime to be shopped.

Angels owner Arte Moreno and GM Billy Eppler, unsurprisingly, have both flatly denied that the Angels have any inclination of dealing Trout.  Even if this season goes completely off the rails for Anaheim, you would think that it would take another rough year in 2017 for the Angels to even begin considering a Trout trade given his importance to the franchise…and even then, the Angels are free of Josh Hamilton’s contract after 2017 so they’d have even more available funds for a reload rather than a rebuild.  Furthermore, Trout’s six-year, $144.5MM deal that runs through the 2020 season contains a full no-trade clause, so the superstar would have the final say on whether or not he left for another team.

Even the vague idea of Trout being swapped has inspired quite a bit of debate amongst pundits.  Sports On Earth’s Brian Kenny and ESPN’s Buster Olney argue that the Angels would be foolish to deal such a once-in-a-generation talent, with Olney adding the caveat that the club might reconsider if Trout were to tell the Angels that he wasn’t going to re-sign after his current contract is up.  Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron and ESPN’s David Schoenfield, on the other hand, think the idea isn’t completely absurd given how dire Cameron feels the Angels’ long-term situation is and (as Schoenfield illustrates) the incredible potential trade packages Anaheim could command.

While trading Trout is a complex question, let’s boil it down to a simple yes or no question.  Is Trout the definition of an untouchable player, or are the Angels’ problems severe enough that they need a drastic move like a Trout deal to reinvigorate the franchise?  (MLBTR app users can weigh in here)

Should The Angels Consider Trading Mike Trout?
Yes 53.87% (9,838 votes)
No 46.13% (8,425 votes)
Total Votes: 18,263

AL East Notes: Price, E-Rod, Rays, Posey, Blue Jays

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Here’s the latest from around the AL East…

  • David Price insists that his seven-year, $217MM contract with the Red Sox isn’t playing any part in his struggles this season, the star lefty told reporters (including the Boston Herald’s Evan Drellich).  “Every 14 or 15 days when we get paid, I don’t know what my paycheck looks like,” Price said. “I’m not going to ask my agent. I’m not going to sit down and do the math. I don’t spend money. I don’t live a lavish lifestyle….I’m the same guy. I’m not going to let my struggles affect me. The amount of money that I make, I’m not going to change.”  Price’s Red Sox career is off to a rough beginning, though he feels he may have discovered a mechanical reason for his problems thanks to a tip from Dustin Pedroia.
  • Boston manager John Farrell said it’s possible Eduardo Rodriguez’s next outing could be with the Red Sox, Stephen Hewitt of the Boston Herald writes.  Rodriguez is still working his way back from a knee injury that sidelined him for around a month during Spring Training and greatly set back his offseason training.  The southpaw tossed his third rehab start in the minors today, and Farrell said the club will speak to Rodriguez tomorrow to gauge whether he’s ready to escape the DL.
  • Catcher has been an area of need for the Rays throughout virtually their entire franchise history, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes in a look at how the Rays have tried many methods of acquiring or developing a solid everyday catcher with little success.  While Tampa is far from the only team who has struggled to find consistent help behind the plate, the Rays’ decision to take Tim Beckham ahead of Buster Posey in the 2008 draft looms as perhaps the franchise’s biggest what-if scenario.  “To me, there’s no draft miss like the Posey miss in the last decade….Anyway, no one with the Rays ever has admitted it, but it feels like the organization has been trying to make up for it ever since,” Baseball America editor-in-chief John Manuel tells Topkin.
  • The Blue Jays suffered another late-game breakdown today, and bullpen help could soon become a need for the club unless the relief corps improves, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith writes.  Drew Storen and Brett Cecil, expected to be Toronto’s chief setup men, have instead struggled badly — Storen has an even 9.00 ERA over 11 innings after allowing two runs today, while Cecil has a 5.59 ERA over 9 2/3 frames.

Tim Lincecum’s Showcase Set For Friday

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MAY 2: The Athletics will also be in attendance, tweets John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group. Meanwhile, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post (Twitter link) and Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link) report that the Rockies and Mets, respectively, will not be in attendance. Puma notes that the Mets are already comfortable with their pitching depth, and as Saunders notes, it’s highly unlikely that the Rockies would be able to convince Lincecum to attempt to revitalize his career at Coors Field.

MAY 1: Tim Lincecum will hold a long-awaited throwing showcase for scouts on Friday in Scottsdale, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter links).  As many as 20 teams are expected to attend, including representatives from the Orioles, Padres and the Giants, Lincecum’s former team.

As of February, a return to the Giants was still Lincecum’s preference, as the right-hander told at least one person while visiting his old teammates during Spring Training, CSNBayArea.com’s Alex Pavlovic reports.  The Giants have long said that they would be interested in a reunion with Lincecum if “the Freak” was willing to take on a bullpen role, and Pavlovic reports that this relief-only stance hasn’t necessarily changed even though the club’s rotation has had some early struggles.

Lincecum, for his part, wants to return as a starter and has been working out all winter in order to rebuild his durability and velocity following hip surgery that shortened his 2015 season.  He reportedly wanted to be in top form before officially throwing for scouts, which is why the showcase (rumored to be imminent for four months) is only taking place this week.  There is no small amount of mystery surrounding Lincecum’s condition as scouts have been kept away from his workouts, though recent reports have him throwing 70 pitches on an every-five-days basis and throwing in the 90 mph range off of flat ground.

If Lincecum looks good in his showcase, he would likely be able to find a starting job with one of the many interested teams, though it might be on a minor league contract given his health history.  San Diego and Baltimore have both been connected to Lincecum all offseason, with both clubs perhaps in more need of starting pitching depth now due to injuries and ineffectiveness within their current rotations.  The Orioles just added some veteran depth earlier this week by signing Wandy Rodriguez to a minors deal.

Quick Hits: Span, Arrieta, Friedman, Translators

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Such notables as Marcus Stroman, Scooter Gennett and Ray Searage celebrate birthdays today, though one of the most famous fictional ballplayers of all time was also “born” on May 1.  Former Red Sox reliever Sam “Mayday” Malone was “born” on this day in 1948, and he posted a 4.01 ERA over 312 2/3 innings for the Red Sox bullpen from 1972-78, as chronicled in a 1993 profile by Sports Illustrated’s Steve Rushin.  That’s rather a strong ERA for Malone given his very mediocre career K/BB rate (40 K’s to 109 walks) and, as Rushin notes, his tendency to give up gigantic home runs.  Here’s some more from around the real-life baseball world…

  • “It was an easy decision” for Denard Span to sign a three-year, $31MM deal with the Giants during the offseason, the outfielder told Bill Ladson of MLB.com.  Not only did Span want to play for a contender, the Giants also showed the most interest in his services.  Other teams were only offering one- or two-year contracts, with the Nationals among the clubs that wanted to give him only a single-year pact, Span said.  The 32-year-old spent 2013-15 with the Nats and accounted for 8.8 fWAR while batting .292/.345/.404.  Span entered today’s action hitting a somewhat underwhelming .256/.358/.344 in his first 107 plate appearances as a Giant, but the contact specialist has continued to show great control of the zone with 14 walks against seven strikeouts.  Also as part of the Q&A piece, Span tells Ladson that he regrets coming back too quickly from the DL last season, as he wished he’d taken a few more weeks to be fully healthy before returning to action.
  • The Astros turned down a trade offer from the Orioles in 2013 that would’ve brought Jake Arrieta to Houston, Peter Gammons of GammonsDaily.com reports.  It’s unknown what the O’s wanted back in the deal, though given how Arrieta has emerged as arguably the game’s best pitcher, the Astros may well be kicking themselves over not accepting the deal.  The Padres, Twins and Nationals were among the other teams also known to have been interested back when Baltimore was shopping the talented but erratic young righty, and the list is probably a lot longer given how Arrieta was widely known to have excellent stuff.  The O’s ended up swapping Arrieta and Pedro Strop to the Cubs in July 2013 for Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger.
  • The Dodgers face the Rays in a rare interleague matchup this week, with Andrew Friedman returning to Tampa for the first time since leaving the franchise after the 2014 season.  Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times looks back at the five best and five worst moves of Friedman’s nine-year tenure, though Friedman’s overall contribution to the franchise was enormously positive, helping turn the Rays from perennial doormat to regular contender.  “Andrew was one of the cornerstones who helped move the organization to where it is today….His impact will be felt here for decades going forward,” Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said.
  • It wasn’t until this past offseason that the league required all 30 teams to hire a full-time Spanish translator, a move that struck many around baseball as long overdue given the number of Spanish-speaking players in the game, Maria Guardado of NJ Advance Media writes.  While players previously relied on teammates, coaches or team PR personnel to translate for them, a full-time translator is a boon to players who know little or no English in their adjustment to big league life.

Injury Updates: Hardy, Britton, Hamilton, Alvarez, Kelly

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Here’s the latest on some injury situations around baseball…

  • J.J. Hardy fouled a ball off his left foot today, leaving behind an injury that is being termed as just a contusion for now since x-rays were negative.  The Orioles shortstop will undergo a CT scan on Monday to check for any further damage, manager Buck Showalter told reporters (including MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko).  Hardy was plagued by injuries last season and already missed some time this season with calf and shoulder issues.  Hardy is hitting .244/.291/.410 with two homers in 86 plate appearances.
  • In other Orioles injury news, closer Zach Britton will undergo an MRI on his left ankle on Monday.  X-rays were negative on Britton’s ankle, which he sprained during Saturday’s game.  Showalter hinted that the O’s will use a closer-by-committee based on situations, though if Britton has to miss a significant amount of a time, you would think ideally a single reliever may emerge as the top replacement closer.  Be sure to follow @CloserNews (MLBTR’s sister Twitter site) for more on Britton’s status and news about all ninth-inning situations around baseball.
  • Josh Hamilton felt soreness in his left knee while running the bases in a rehab game today, as Rangers GM Jon Daniels told reporters (including Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram).  Hamilton was pulled from the game and given a cortisone shot, with an eye towards getting back on the field next week.  Hamilton’s bothersome left knee has undergone two operations within the last eight months and this latest setback is another ominous sign for the former AL MVP.
  • Henderson Alvarez looked good in a rehab start on Saturday, and Athletics manager Bob Melvin told reporters (including MLB.com’s Willie Bans) that the righty could be ready to make his A’s debut during a mid-May homestand.  Alvarez missed most of 2015 due to shoulder problems that required required last July, and after the Marlins non-tendered him, the A’s inked Alvarez to a one-year deal worth $4MM in guaranteed money.
  • Joe Kelly tells WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford that his right shoulder is feeling much better after he began strengthening exercises targeting the muscles around his labrum.  The Red Sox righty is hopeful that these new exercises will get him back from the DL in due course and also help solve what has been a long-term nagging injury for Kelly over his career.

Pending Free Agents Who Improved Their Stock In April

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While the usual “it’s still early” caveat goes without saying, a quick start can be a boon to players in their last year under contract, as it always helps to establish value as soon as possible.  Looking at the lists of position players and pitchers (big tip of the hat to Fangraphs) who are eligible to hit the open market after the 2016 season, some notable names have already done a lot to position themselves for big multi-year deals this winter.  This post won’t focus as much on the upper-tier players who may sit atop the free agent power rankings, but rather the lower- or middle-tier names coming into this season looking to greatly improve their stock.

Dexter Fowler, Cubs: Entering today’s play, Fowler led not just all pending free agents, but all hitters in baseball with 2.0 fWAR in April.  Fowler has only topped the 2.3 fWAR mark once in his career over a full season, which underscores his hot start.  While Fowler isn’t going to keep hitting .347/.474/.613 all year (not to mention a scorching .426 BABIP), a big season will surely put Fowler in much better position as a free agent this winter than last.  Fowler’s market last offseason was greatly impacted by the qualifying offer and teams were reluctant to give up a draft pick for his services, resulting in Fowler eventually re-signing with Chicago on a one-year, $8MM deal that contains a $5MM buyout of a $9MM mutual option for 2017.  It seems very likely that Fowler will decline his end of that mutual option and again look to score a big multi-year commitment.

Michael Saunders, Blue Jays: After tearing his meniscus in Spring Training and missing almost all of the 2015 season, Saunders has rebounded to hit .303/.376/.566 with four homers over 85 plate appearances.  Some regression is inevitable (Saunders has a .365 BABIP) but any stretch of consistent, healthy play is a boon for a player who has dealt with numerous injury woes over his career.  While it seems clear that Saunders’ knee has impacted his baserunning and fielding, his defensive metrics in left field have thus far been not bad (+1.5 UZR/150, -1 Defensive Run Saved) considering the scope of his injury and the long-term effects of having a meniscus actually removed.  Obviously, being a bat-only player entering his age-30 season would greatly hamper Saunders’ free agent stock, so he’ll need to keep displaying at least an average or only a slightly below-average glove to make future suitors comfortable with the idea of using him in the outfield.

Jhoulys Chacin, Braves: One of the few bright spots in a rough Braves season, Chacin has a 3.27 ERA, 9.41 K/9 and 5.75 K/BB rate through four starts and 22 innings.  Chacin signed a minor league deal with Atlanta in order to rebuild his stock following two injury-plagued seasons, so while the early returns have been impressive, he’ll need his shoulder to hold up over the coming weeks and months to really put himself in line for a nice free agent contract.  If Chacin keeps it up, the rebuilding Braves could move him at the trade deadline.

Rich Hill, Athletics:  It took Hill just 29 spectacular innings in 2015 to go from reclamation project to recipient of a one-year, $6MM deal from the A’s in free agency.  With 32 innings now in the books for his 2016 campaign, Hill is still looking good, posting a 2.53 ERA, 11.53 K/9 and 51.3% grounder rate for Oakland.  His BB/9, however, is 3.66 — that’s still a manageable number (particularly given all the strikeouts and grounders Hill is generating), though Hill has battled control problems throughout his career.  If teams are going to offer Hill a multi-year contract for his age-37 season to beyond, they’ll need certainty that Hill’s wildness is mostly behind him.

Update On Ryan Braun’s No-Trade List

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The no-trade protection in Ryan Braun’s contract allows the star outfielder to block a deal to every team besides the Angels, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Giants, Marlins and Padres, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link).  Like most players with partial no-trade clauses, Braun has the ability to change the teams on his no-trade list each year; last season, the Angels, Dodgers, Marlins, Nationals and Rays were the only clubs that escaped Braun’s veto power.

Braun is in his first season of a five-year, $105MM extension that he signed way back in 2011, when he still had almost five full years remaining on his previous extension with the Brewers.  It’s been a roller-coaster for Braun and the Brewers ever since — superstar seasons in 2011 and 2012, a 65-game suspension in 2013 for his role in the Biogenesis scandal and some recurring injuries, particularly to his thumb.

Braun rebounded for a very productive year in 2015, though his future salary commitments have made him a possible trade chip now that the Brewers are rebuilding.  That same contract, as well as Braun’s age (32) and PED history, could also just as easily limit his trade market unless the Brewers ate some salary in a trade or took on another big contract.

There are any number of reasons why a player could include or omit a team on a no-trade list, though in Braun’s case, geography could be a factor.  Braun was born and raised in the Los Angeles suburbs and he went to school at the University of Miami, which could explain why the Angels, Dodgers and Marlins didn’t appear on either no-trade list.  The Dodgers and Marlins are rather unlikely trade partners, however, given that both teams are already set for corner outfielders.  The Angels have a big vacancy in left field, though they may not be a fit for Braun for a variety of other reasons, as Rosenthal explained yesterday.

Braun’s southern California roots may also explain why he wouldn’t block a trade to the relatively-nearby D’Backs, Padres or Giants.  It generally appears as though Braun would prefer to stay in the National League, as the Angels are the only AL team on his current veto list.

If the Brewers worked out a trade that would send Braun to a team on his no-trade list, of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean the former NL MVP would choose to remain in Milwaukee.  He could decide to join a contender rather than stick it out through the Brewers’ rebuilding process.  Like other players with no-trade protection, Braun could ask for more financial incentive in order to allow a deal to be consummated.  Braun’s deal contains a $15MM mutual option for the 2021 season that can be bought out for $4MM, so it’s possible he could ask to have that option year guaranteed to allow a trade to happen, though that would be a tough ask to give him another $11MM in his age-37 season.

Braves Have Tried To Trade Hector Olivera

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The Braves have tried to trade Hector Olivera since the outfielder’s arrest earlier this month on a charge of misdemeanor assault and battery, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reports.  Olivera is currently on paid administrative leave while Major League Baseball investigates the alleged incident under the league’s domestic violence policy, and a suspension is widely believed to be in his future.

With this disturbing charge hanging over Olivera, it’s no shock that Atlanta would be looking to move on from the 31-year-old outfielder, and it’s as equally unsurprising that rival teams aren’t jumping to make a deal.  Olivera’s trade value is so low that one executive whose club was approached by the Braves told Passan that he “can’t believe they even asked.”

Aroldis Chapman, of course, was traded from the Reds to the Yankees while facing a domestic violence investigation last winter, though obviously Chapman is a far more proven talent on the Major League stage.  Olivera has only 108 MLB plate appearances to his name and he’s produced just a .245/.296/.378 slash line.  Furthermore, Olivera is owed roughly $3.4MM remaining this season and $28.5MM from 2017-2020.  While a suspension under the domestic violence policy would erase any salary commitments owed under that timeframe of games, the Braves or any other team would still likely owe a significant chunk of money to a player with big question marks both on and off the field.

It was just over a year ago that Olivera was one of the most sought-after players on the international market, as at least nine teams were reportedly interested in signing the Cuban star before the Dodgers landed him with a six-year, $62.5MM contract.  A signing bonus accounted for $28MM of the deal, and Los Angeles already paid that entire amount as part of the very complex three-team, 13-player trade that sent Olivera to the Braves last July.  The fact that the Dodgers parted ways with Olivera just months after signing him to a rich deal raised eyebrows in the first place, as Olivera had battled injuries in the minors and only showed flashes of his hitting potential.  Once Olivera joined the Braves, he faced another change over the winter as the Braves moved him into a primary left field role after he’d spent most of his career in Cuba at either second or third base.

Quick Hits: Gallardo, Gomez, Murphy, Arrieta

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Steven Souza celebrated his 27th birthday in spectacular fashion today, hitting two home runs during the Rays’ 8-1 win over the Yankees.  It was the second two-homer game of Souza’s career and his second in just a few weeks, as he also hit two long balls on April 6 against the Blue Jays.  Here’s some news from around baseball as we kick off a new week…

  • An MRI on Yovani Gallardo’s shoulder revealed no changes from his previous MRI in February, Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports (Twitter links).  Gallardo received a cortisone shot in his shoulder and is expected to be sidelined for roughly four weeks.  The Orioles righty was placed on the DL yesterday due to tendinitis in his bicep and right shoulder, the first time in Gallardo’s 10-year career that he has ever hit the DL due to an arm-related injury.
  • An AL scout tells John Perrotto of TodaysKnuckleball.com that Carlos Gomez’s slow start (and overall lackluster stint with the Astros) could indicate a decline rather than just a slump.  “He’s had a lot of leg injuries and I think it’s started to catch up with him,” the scout said. “He doesn’t steal many bases anymore and he doesn’t move as well as he used to in the outfield.  I’m not ready to totally write him off but he definitely slipped last year and he’s been worse this year.”  Gomez entered today’s play with only a .197/.222/.262 slash line through his first 63 plate appearances, and he’s still looking for his first homer of the season.  A down year could cost Gomez a fortune — MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes’ initial 2017 free agent power rankings tabbed Gomez as having the most earning potential of any position player hitting the open market.
  • David Murphy is hoping for another stint in the majors both this season and beyond, though the veteran outfielder tells Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that his longer-than-expected stint in free agency this winter has made him confront the idea of retiring.  “I realistically thought that it could be over.  I guess I’m to the point where I know that any day could be my last.  I need to enjoy every day,” Murphy said.  After settling for a minor league deal with the Red Sox during the offseason and then getting released, Murphy signed another minors deal with the Twins that contains a May 1 opt-out clause.
  • Orioles fans may want to avert their eyes for this one, as Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune recaps how the Cubs targeted and acquired Jake Arrieta from Baltimore as part of a four-player trade in July 2013.  Arrieta was disagreeing with Orioles coaches and struggling to harness his stuff, yet a trio of Cubs scouts convinced Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer that Arrieta was well worth the risk.  The rest has been history, as that trade (Arrieta and Pedro Strop for Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger) is looking like one of the most one-sided trades in recent memory.

Reds Release Ryan Mattheus

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The Reds have released right-hander Ryan Mattheus, the team announced (hat tip to Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer).  Mattheus was non-tendered by the Reds following last season and re-signed on a minor league contract.

As per the arbitration projections from MLBTR’s Matt Swartz, Mattheus was slated to earn $1.3MM in his first time through the arb process.  Despite that fairly modest sum and some offseason needs in the bullpen, the Reds chose to cut Mattheus loose, ultimately saving themselves some money since they were able to re-sign him anyway.

Mattheus, 32, came to Cincinnati after being claimed off waivers from the Angels last May.  The righty posted a 4.09 ERA, 5.7 K/9, 2.06 K/BB rate and 52.7% grounder rate over 55 innings with the Reds, a solid bounce-back campaign for Mattheus after a pair of ineffective, injury-plagued seasons in 2013-14 with the Nationals.  Mattheus held right-handed batters to a .256/.345/.301 slash line last season.

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