Rumors of Shohei Ohtani either being traded or leaving the Angels in free agency have been rampant but Mike Trout isn’t going to let it happen easily.
The Los Angeles Angels currently have two generational talents on the roster that have been the talk of baseball, Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. Even that, however, hasn’t yielded positive results.
Ohtani and Trout have not played a postseason game together in the six years they’ve been teammates and the Angels haven’t been the playoffs overall since 2014. Moreover, at 31 years old, Trout has still not won a playoff game.
So it’s not hard to imagine why the Shohei Ohtani rumors have centered around the departure of the electric two-way Japanese superstar, whether that’s by way of trade or in free agency as his contract runs out after this season. But Trout isn’t about to let that happen without giving his best effort to keep the star duo together.
Shohei Ohtani rumors: Mike Trout not letting star leave Angels without a fight
Talking with MLB insider Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Trout made it clear said he was prepared to do “everything I can” to keep Ohtani on the Angels. And he laid out perhaps the most important part of being able to do that: Winning baseball games.
“Winning this year, to get into the playoffs, I think that will make a difference for sure, definitely putting it in the back of Shohei’s mind that we’re here to compete,” Trout said.
That will represent a stark turnaround from what the Angels have done recently, though. LA hasn’t finished better than third in the AL West since 2017 and the club hasn’t finished above .500 since 2015. Moreover, the team, despite efforts being made, didn’t have the splashiest of offseasons to improve upon a roster that went 73-89 last year, albeit with Trout missing time.
Winning does fix everything, though. But it’s clear that Trout doesn’t want to see his club lose its other superstar in Ohtani, through a trade or in free agency. If things do go awry for the Angels, though, given Trout’s stance on this situation, you have to wonder if he could be the next to look for a way out of Los Angeles.