I didn't think much of this when I read ESPN Insider Keith Law's farm system rankings earlier this week, but now people are talking about it and I guess it makes sense to weigh in as the rumors and speculation continue to persist. Will the Los Angeles Angels consider trading Mike Trout to rebuild their MLB-worst farm system?
Law ranked the Angels' farm system as the worst in the MLB. Baseball America came out with their farm system rankings yesterday and had the Angels at the bottom of the league as well. If Los Angeles misses the playoffs in 2016, the organization will really have to really re-think its strategy moving forward.
Trading Trout certainly is not on the docket right now. He's the best player in the MLB and the Angels are one season removed from finishing the regular season with the best record in baseball. However, the 2015 season raised some red flags in terms of the depth of the team's offense and the future of its starting rotation. The health of Albert Pujols is also a paramount concern, as he's not expected to be ready for Opening Day.
Here's what Law wrote in his piece earlier this week:
"I've been doing these rankings for eight years now, and this is by far the worst system I've ever seen. They traded their top two prospects in the Andrelton Simmons deal and had no one remotely close to top-100 status. They need a big draft this year to start to restock the system or we're going to start talking about whether it's time to trade Mike Trout."
But how much damage can they really do with just three picks in the top-100 of this year's draft?
The MLB roster beyond Trout may not be good enough to sustain success in the competitive AL West. The pitching staff is set to lose C.J. Wilson and Jered Weaver after the 2016 season and the team will be hoping Garrett Richards, Andrew Heaney, Matt Shoemaker, Hector Santiago, Nick Tropeano and Tyler Skaggs can constitute a formidable rotation, which actually isn't out of the question. Let's also not forget that the Angels are big spenders, so they can perhaps sign Stephen Strasburg next offseason or wait for Jake Arrieta (if he makes it) to free agency after the 2017 season.
But the rotation isn't their only question mark. Even with Trout, who is arguably the best offensive player in the game, the Angels ranked 20th in the MLB last season in runs scored. The club's OPS also ranked 24th. New general manager Billy Eppler acquired both Andrelton Simmons and Yunel Escobar in trades this offseason, but neither figures to markedly improve the offense (although Escobar did have a career-year at the plate in 2015 with the Washington Nationals). For their careers, Simmons owns a .266 average and .666 OPS while Escobar sports a .281 BA and .735 OPS, respectively.
Kole Calhoun is probably the team's next productive offensive player behind Trout and Pujols, and he owns just a .264/.319/.435 stat line in 365 career games (four MLB seasons).
The Angels also have troublesome situations at the left field, second base and catcher positions heading into 2016 (and perhaps beyond due to the thin free-agent class that follows the 2016 season).
The pitching staff isn't bad, but if it wants to keep the team afloat, it'll have to do better than the 13th-ranked ERA in the league.
And there's not really much help on the way. According to MLB.com, the Angels have zero players in the league's Top 100 prospects (for the second year in a row) and Law also didn't have one of their young players in his Top 100.
That wouldn't be bad news if the team hadn't missed the playoffs five out of the past six seasons, or had to compete with the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros in subsequent years.
So right now, I wouldn't buy into any of the rumors or speculative talk about the Angels trading Trout. (Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register provides ways the Angels can improve without trading the MVP.) However, another underachieving campaign in 2016 could sound the alarm because Trout would provide them with an absurd haul of MLB-ready players and top prospects that could perhaps bring them back into World Series contention not too far down the road.
