Could Mike Trout be playing in pinstripes in 2017?
The New York Yankees loaded up on prospects at this season’s trade deadline, sending away top relievers Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller, starter Ivan Nova and outfielder Carlos Beltran. The Yanks’ farm system now is one of the best in Major League Baseball, but many assume they’ll use it to trade for a star.
And one scout believes that star could be Trout.
“You don’t accumulate all those prospects with the intent of keeping them all,” an anonymous scout recently told WFAN’s Sweeney Murti. “They have value, and it makes complete sense to spin off four of five of them for Trout. … It’s very much a Yankees kind of move and makes too much sense for them.”
It does make a lot of sense for the Yankees, but not as much for the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels do have the worst farm system in baseball, but their major league team floundered in 2016, going 78-88. Trout essentially is the only guy the Halos have, and Los Angeles most likely doesn’t want to be the team that traded a 25-year-old who probably is the best ballplayer on the planet with four years left on his contract.
One MLB general manager confirmed as much to Murti, too.
“Nobody wants to trade that guy,” the GM said. “(Angels general manager) Billy (Eppler) can’t be the guy who traded Mike Trout. (Angels owner) Arte Moreno can’t be that guy. It would be like the Bulls trading Michael Jordan in his prime. The only thing that team has going right now is Mike Trout. Without him, they’d be a Triple-A team.”
It wouldn’t be surprising if Yankees GM Brian Cashman tries to take Trout from the Angels. But chances are, the Angels will hold on tight.
Thumbnail photo via Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports Images
