Los Angeles Angels two-way superstar and living, breathing baseball miracle Shohei Ohtani is entering his walk year. Ohtani comes into the 2023 season having amassed a WAR of 18.6 over the last two seasons, thanks to his excellence at the plate and on the mound.
Last season, Ohtani followed up his 2022 AL MVP campaign by hitting 34 home runs as the Angels' primary DH and as a pitcher registering a 2.33 ERA with 219 strikeouts in 166 innings. To call Ohtani's two-year run an unexampled and singular achievement in baseball is to indulge in understatement. Add to all of it his status as the biggest baseball star in the world, and his next contract figures to be a historic one.
All of that brings us back to the Angels, Ohtani's current employer. Ohtani has on multiple occasions suggested that he wants to be a part of a winning team above all, and the Angels are quite lacking in that regard across recent history. They've finished below .500 for six straight seasons, haven't made the playoffs since 2014, and haven't won a postseason series (or even a postseason game) since 2014. That run of futility of course fully coincides with the legendary prime of Mike Trout.
As for Ohtani, the Angels have thus far been unwilling to trade him. Signing him to an extension remains a theoretical possibility, but any reading of the tea leaves suggests that Ohtani wants to test the market. So will the Halos reverse course and consider dealing him so as to get something in return before he becomes a free agent? Tom Verducci recently profiled owner Arte Moreno and his decision to back off plans to sell the franchise, and the matter of Ohtani predictably came up in their conversations. Verducci relays the following exchange with Moreno:
"I will say it on the record," Moreno says. "We will not trade Ohtani while we are contending for a playoff spot."
"Will you make the same promise if the team is not in contention?"
"I'm not going to answer that, and I'll tell you why," he says. "We expect to be a playoff contender. Everything in our plans putting this team together is about getting to the playoffs. So, I'm not going to sit here and wonder what happens in an outcome we're not planning for. That would be like a fighter going into the ring and thinking, 'What if I lose?' If he does that, he will lose."
This is a very obvious thing to say while also being illuminating. The Angels of course would not trade Ohtani while within range of a postseason berth, but Moreno passed on the opportunity to promise they won't trade him this season regardless of what the standings say. In other words, if the Angels are far removed from playoff position by the time the 2023 trade deadline comes into view, then it's possible they'll shop Ohtani.
It is, of course, possible too the Angels will achieve relevance in the first half of the season. In addition to Ohtani and Trout, Anthony Rendon hopes to be healthy, and new additions like Hunter Renfroe, Tyler Anderson, Brandon Drury, and Gio Urshela should help the cause. On the other hand, the American League West also houses the Astros and Mariners -- two playoff teams last year -- and the improving Rangers. As well, the AL East is loaded with contenders for those three wild-card spots. It'll be difficult for the Angels to reverse the grim fortunes that now span almost a decade.
As such, the Angels in 2023 should probably be of interest to fans and teams outside of the AL West. Moreno, by not issuing a pledge to keep Ohtani regardless of how the team fares in 2023, has ensured that will be the case.
