Angels Rumors: Insider Proposes 6 Player Trade with Padres for Shohei Ohtani
When you look around the league at potential suitors that could make an offer enticing enough to get the Angels to possibly move two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, the list seems a bit short. After all, the team is going to ask for a king’s ransom for their superstar and he is scheduled to be a free agent at the end of the season.
So how many teams are realistically going to trade the farm for a potential rental? That shortens the number of players in this market. Teams that will look to trade for Ohtani better be ready to hand him a contract of at least $500 million this winter. It would be a hard sell to trade top prospects to only get Ohtani for two months.
One team that could possibly trade for Ohtani, and then back up the financial aspect of things is the San Diego Padres. The Friars still have some talent left in their farm system, even after it was depleted in their deal for outfielder Juan Soto last trade deadline. They have underperformed to this point this season, so General Manager AJ Preller could look to make another splash.
MLB.com put together a trade package for the Padres to get Ohtani, and it has them giving up six prospects to get the superstar.
“Padres get: Shohei Ohtani, Angels get: SS Jackson Merrill (Padres No. 1 prospect, No. 9 overall), RHP Dylan Lesko (Padres No. 3 prospect, No. 64 overall), Adam Mazur (Padres No. 6 prospect), RHP Alek Jacob (Padres No. 26 prospect), LHP Ryan Weathers”
San Diego has been known to take the big swing, even if it doesn’t always work out. So would they be willing to move more prospects to land Ohtani, even if it meant he could leave a few months later? That remains to be seen, but Preller is a fan of shiny objects and Ohtani is the brightest star in the game today.
“It might not be a tenable strategy to trade for Ohtani when they could merely pursue him in free agency. Even if it were, this package might not be enough to pry him away from the Angels. Still, if we’ve learned one lesson about the Padres it’s this one: Never rule them out for a big name.”
The Padres would be better suited to go after Ohtani this winter when he becomes a free agent. I wouldn’t count them out if Ohtani does become available this summer, but it’s a much smarter decision to wait to just outright sign him.
