Editorial

End Of An Era? Angels Put Mike Trout On IL For 4-8 Weeks, Which Could Potentially See Them Trade Away Shohei Ohtani

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Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Angels is congratulated in the dugout by his teammates after driving in a run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field on June 12, 2023 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tim Heitman/Getty Images)

(Photo by Tim Heitman/Getty Images)

Andrew Powell Sports and Entertainment Blogger
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We have some major developments coming out of Anaheim.

During Monday night’s game against the San Diego Padres (SD 10, LA 3), Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout fractured his left hand’s hamate bone, according to a Tuesday announcement from the Angels.

Trout suffered the injury in the seventh inning after hitting a foul ball off a 0-1 pitch from Nick Martinez. A hamate fracture usually requires surgery, which Trout will likely undergo. The recovery time is 4-8 weeks.

Coming into Wednesday, the Angels sit barely above .500 with a 45-43 record, which has them clinging on to third place in the AL West — just one game over the Seattle Mariners. They trail the division-leading Texas Rangers by seven games, and are four games back from the last AL wild card spot. To make the playoffs, Los Angeles has a low chance at 12.5%, according to Sportsline.

Here’s the play of Trout getting injured if you happened to miss it:

This totally creates an “elephant in the room” scenario for the Angels.

The circumstances being what they are with Los Angeles most likely not making the postseason this year, and Mike Trout now being out until at least (if I had to guess) mid-August to the beginning of September, you have to think it’s time to trade Shohei Ohtani, right?

As we all know, Ohtani is hitting free agency when we get to the offseason, and you know every rich franchise is going to be after him when that happens — the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, San Diego Padres — yeah, this is going to create a bidding war. A bidding war the Angels just can’t compete with. (RELATED: Woah! Mets Fan Crashes Onto Field After Scary Fall (And It’s The Perfect Representation Of New York’s Horrible Season)

So, what do you do if you’re the Angels? Lose him in free agency and get no value whatsoever for him? Or go ahead, bite the bullet, and trade him away now to get a crap-ton of value back (because you know Los Angeles will)?

You’re going to have that bullet on your dinner plate sooner or later, so you might as well take the poker chips and move on while you can.

At this point, you have to pull the trigger if you’re the Angels.