The Los Angeles Angels have not made their position on the Ohtani trade clear as the trade deadline approaches at 7 a.m. ET on Aug. 2.

General manager Perry Minassian said in mid-June, “I don’t think it needs to be explained, given where we are right now,” when asked about trading Ohtani. The question is, does it make sense to trade Ohtani when you’re in playoff contention? At the time, the Angels were bouncing back and forth between second and third place in the AL West and the second wild-card spot, with fall baseball hopes high.

But then the Angels lost three straight, four straight, and five straight to end the first half, dropping their winning percentage below .500. During the All-Star break, the issue of trading Ohtani came to the forefront. But in the second half, the Angels have been on an upward curve again. After a 7-5 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 24 for their second straight sweep, the Angels are 51-49, good for third place in the division and the sixth wild-card spot, and still within four games of the third wild-card spot, the Toronto Blue Jays.

However, the “position” that Minasian refers to remains nebulous this late in the season. Making the playoffs remains a tall order for the Angels. Fangraphs gives the Angels a 13.6% chance of making the playoffs. That’s close to impossible.

However, it would be rash to give up on the Angels with 60+ games to go and a win percentage in the high 5s. This is why it’s hard for the Angels to make a public statement about trading Ohtani. Whether they make a trade or not will depend on the situation. However, internally, the Angels are ready to listen to trade offers from other teams. The “no-trade” theory has long since been abandoned.

ESPN provided an update on the Ohtani situation in its “2023 MLB Trade Deadline Tracker” segment on Friday, writing, “With nine days left before the trade deadline, there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Ohtani trade. The trade market was very quiet this past weekend, according to sources across the league. They say it’s hard to believe that owner Art Moreno will trade Ohtani at this point 메이저사이트.

No other team has approached the Angels with trade talks. We don’t know if this means there were no contacts, or that the Angels ignored the offers, but there was no surface movement on a trade.

As ESPN notes, “But the Angels haven’t even publicly stated that Ohtani will stay. Because of this, other teams are preparing for the possibility that the Angels could put Ohtani on the market.” “They should be prepared to act. They have to be ready to act, because it takes a lot to land a big player.

However, it seems increasingly unlikely that the Angels will trade Ohtani. It’s worth noting that the Angels have been on a roll in the early part of the second half even though their lineup isn’t at full strength. This is due to the fact that their top two hitters, Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon, are on the disabled list. According to ESPN, “The Angels are staying alive in the playoff race without Trout and Rendon.

Trout was placed on the disabled list after suffering a fractured metacarpal bone in his left hand while swinging at a pitch against the San Diego Padres on April 4, while Rendon suffered bruising and bleeding after being hit in the left shin by his own foul ball in San Diego on April 5.

Trout could return as early as mid-August and Rendon could return in early August. This is after the trade deadline. The Angels have some positives to build on going forward. The return of the two players to fill out the three and four spots could give Ohtani and the entire lineup a boost. They can’t afford to give up on the playoffs.