A thought: we need to add a RH outfield bat to the lineup, ideally a better defender than Yoshida. People are talking about Ohtani, but the likely-departing Angels superstar who fits our team needs better (assuming he can pass a physical) would be... Mike Trout. The Angels say they'll trade him if he requests a trade, and frankly they should. They just went all in at the deadline and trashed their already terrible farm, and then immediately fell apart. There's basically no future over there, Trout's deal is expensive and probably somewhat underwater, and they should be considering a
deep rebuild.
Trout is 31, and posted a .858 OPS in 82 games this last season. He has 7 years and about $250m remaining on his 12/$427m deal, ~$35m AAV. He is signed through 2030, when he will be 38. These next 7 seasons are clearly not worth what he'll be paid, but he's still a very good player
when healthy. Health is an issue, as he's had trouble staying on the field the last few seasons; that said, it's been a combined .968 OPS across those seasons, so he hasn't fallen off much with the bat, if at all. He's still right around average defensively
in CF, too. He has no-trade protection. But if we're looking for a RHH corner outfielder with the defensive chops for Fenway's RF, top-of-the-order OBP, and middle-of-the-order SLG, we could do a lot worse. Dude can still light up
statcast.
If and only if Trout can pass a physical, I would gladly send the Angels a decent-to-good prospect package (we'd pitch Duran as the headliner; they'd ask for Bleis...) for Trout and, I dunno, ~$125m.
I mean:
RH Rafaela CF
LH Devers 3B
RH Trout RF
LH Casas 1B
RH Duvall LF
LH Yoshida DH
RH Story SS
LH Valdez 2B
RH Wong C
Thoughts? Is this crazy? I'm genuinely not sure.