Hear me out…Trout to Boston

Trout to Boston is a dream but it actually makes a lot of sense.

Many fans may dream about their favorite team trading for Mike Trout. I know I have. I would put the odds of Trout being traded this off-season at 10%, especially after Trout said he expects to be back. Despite it be extremely unlikely, Mike Trout to Boston makes a lot of sense. Hear me out.

Let’s start with Mike Trout. Even if you are just a casual baseball fan, it’s quite obvious why Mike Trout needs to get out of LA. Since Trout broke into the league back in 2011, the Los Angeles Angels have only appeared in the playoffs 1 time. In that 1 playoff trip, they were swept in the ALDS against the Kansas City Royals. So that means that Mike Trout, a player who is only 32 years-old and ranks 82nd all-time in fWAR (85.1), only has 1 career postseason hit. The baseball world has been robbed by the lack of October opportunities for Trout during his career. His legacy needs some signature playoff moments.

Not only has LA been dreadful during Trout’s tenure with the team but the organization does not have a super bright future moving forward. Shohei Ohtani is likely gone. The Angels were buyers at the deadline when they acquired Lucas Giolito, Reynoldo Lopez, CJ Cron, and Randal Grichuk. Not only did the Angels hold on to Shohei Ohtani, who could have brought back a massive haul, but they traded away their top 2 prospects in the Giolito and Lopez trade, only to put those players on waivers later in the month. For a system that already ranked 30th prior to the trade that included their top 2 prospects, there is little hope to believe the Angels can be a consistent contender anytime soon. 

In case you are wondering by now, Trout has 7 / 259.8 M remaining on his extension that he signed with the Angels. LA look like a team that needs to hit the “tear it down to the bare bones” button. If a team were to take on the entire contract, I don’t think LA would receive a crazy package of prospects in return. If the Angels wouldn’t mind eating some of the money, it would take an aggressive offer to bring in the future hall of famer. If I were LA knowing a rebuild is coming, I’d eat 50-75 M and start restocking the farm system. 

With Trout needing to add some big playoff moments to his resume, a trade to Boston makes perfect sense.

One reason Trout is a great fit in Boston is the left-handed heavy offensive attack that Boston used for most of ‘23. If you look at the current outfield, it contains mainly lefties:

LF: Masataka Yoshida (L)

CF: Jarren Duran (L)

RF: Alex Verdugo (L)

OF: Cedanne Rafaela (R)

OF: Rob Refsnyder (R)

It is unclear whether or not if the Red Sox will have the 3 lefties in the outfield heading into ‘24. A lot depends on the vision the new GM / CBO has for the team. 

To go along with all of the outfielders, Boston has a bunch of infielders that also hit left-handed. 

3B: Rafael Devers (L)

SS: Trevor Story (R)

2B: Enmanuel Valdez (L)

2B: Luís Urías (R)

1B: Triston Casas (L)

C: Connor Wong (R)

C: Reese McGuire (L)

If there Red Sox are going to get reinforcements from their top minor leaguers, most of them are also left-handed bats. 

SS: Marcelo Mayer (L)

OF: Roman Anthony (L)

OF: Miguel Bleis (R)

C: Kyle Teel (L)

Acquiring Trout, who has 7 more years of team control, would help stabilize the right-handed bat shortage in the organization. 

Another reason why Trout is a great fit for Boston is they have an opening at the DH spot. Unfortunately, Mike Trout has struggled to stay on the field over the last 6 years. In fact, since the start of the 2017 season, Mike Trout has only appeared in 65.7% of the Angels 1,032 games. The absence of Trout for about 35 % of the Angels games has been a big reason why the Angels have not been able to be a consistent winning team during Trout’s tenure with the club. 

One potential reason for some of the injuries for Trout is the fact that he is still playing center field. Center field is a more physically taxing position than the other outfield spots. Trout’s days of roaming the lead position in the outfield should be over to try to give him the best shot to stay healthy. 

My proposal is not to have Mike Trout be the next designated hitter for the Boston Red Sox for 7 straight years. Boston also has left fielder Masataka Yoshida, who is not a good defensive outfielder (-9 OAA). My proposition is for the Red Sox to acquire Trout and have him split time with Yoshida in left field and DH. 

By splitting time, Trout can play half of his games playing the least physically taxing outfield position in all of baseball by playing in front of the Monster. The other half of his games, he can focus solely on mashing the baseball, which he has done his entire life. Hopefully being off of his feet for almost half of the games will give him an opportunity to stay healthy. For Yoshida, you cover up the defensive liabilities by DHing him for half of the games. Being a partial DH should also help him with the consistent fatiguing Sox fans witnessed throughout his first season in Boston. 

Boston needs a massive off-season. They need a ton of pitching but the Red Sox front office group cannot ignore the need for a middle-of-the-order right handed bat. Trout’s career needs some big postseason moments. Boston needs to get back to the postseason. Trout and Boston feel like a perfect match. 

A fan can dream.