The Eyes That Fell Upon Anaheim

 

The latest ESPN headline to concern the Angels was this: 'Ohtani Homers in Last Angels Home Game Before Deadline'. The fact that it makes the front page of ESPN dot com does say a lot about the assumption most of the league has about Ohtani. At this point last year, there wasn't even that much of a certainty about Juan Soto, like 'there's a chance he could go, but could teams pony up enough', and the Padres managed it. And while that's what we're hearing a lot of, 'will somebody give the Angels the deal they want for Ohtani', for some reason, despite the steepness of those demands, everybody just...thinks Shohei Ohtani's gonna get dealt.

And there's a chance he could. A...strong chance. But at the same time, the Angels are 6-3 since the All-Star Break, and beginning to climb back up the AL West. So...maybe they should keep him around?

For the first time this season, I had to glance at the wild card standings. And it's early, there's still 2 and a half months left, but the Angels have an okay position, all things considered. Within 8 games of the division, within 4 games of the last wild card spot. Within 5 of Houston as well, as they've had a similar record since the break. This is...not impossible. The Angels have more of a chance of a playoff spot than the Mariners, and than whoever comes in 2nd in the AL Central. The nearest two teams to them in the wild card standings are the Yankees and Red Sox, who are both, to paraphrase Logan Roy, not serious teams. It can happen.

And there are a lot of pieces of this Angels team that are convincing me that competing this year and keeping Ohtani is the way to go. Zach Neto was drafted last year, was brought up in May, and is one of the best performers on the team, with 27 RBIs and 8 homers in 62 games, as well as some excellent defense. Mickey Moniak's been awesome since getting the call-up, hitting .331 with 11 homers and 34 RBIs. And now recent callups like Michael Stefanic and Trey Cabbage have been great additions to the fold, along with bench trades like Eduardo Escobar and Mike Moustakas. It also helps that Griffin Canning and Reid Detmers have had better starts lately to catch them up with Ohtani and Sandoval. 

A ton more is working than it was last month, and they might be better off if they keep Ohtani and focus on what's working rather than giving up as they're hot. The desire to offload him might be greater than the desire to go for it, but I kinda want a team like the Angels to be conservative here, even if they could get a lot of assets from somebody in return.

Coming Tonight- A rookie catcher who's been a surprise pick-me-up for his team.