This trade idea would land Mike Trout for the Philadelphia Phillies, but they’d have to give up a lot.
One of the biggest dreams that Philadelphia Phillies fans have had for a while is seeing Mike Trout play for the team at some point during his career.
Native of Millville, NJ, he grew up around the area and is a lifelong fan of Philadelphia sports, still holding season tickets to teams in the city.
However, when Trout signed the massive 12-year, $426.5 million contract to stay with the Los Angeles Angels, that seemingly ended the dream he would play for the Phillies.
But with the Angels struggling during his tenure and Shohei Ohtani departing this offseason, trade speculation surrounding one of the game’s best players has started to ramp up again.
Los Angeles could pull the plug on this era and decide to start rebuilding.
Michael Carptenter of Yardbarker thinks that is what the Angels should do, and trading Trout to Philadelphia would bring back the type of return that would jumpstart these efforts.
“It’s time for the Angels to give one of the greatest players of this decade the chance to compete for the postseason by trading Trout to a contender like the Philadelphia Phillies … The Phillies have four Top 100 prospects like pitchers Andrew Painter and Mick Abel along with position players Justin Crawford and Aidan Miller to help sweeten the deal in addition to Castellanos,” he writes.
That would be a massive blockbuster if it were to occur.
Not only would the Phillies finally get a player all of their fans would love to see play for the organization, but they would also be sending out their top four prospects and slugger Nick Castellanos to get it done.
It would be a like-for-like trade as Trout would replace Castellanos in right field, but the idea of giving up that much for a single player, regardless of their greatness, is a tough one for any organization.
If Trout hadn’t been bitten by the injury bug for the past three seasons, then maybe a package of this magnitude could be worth considering, but with Philadelphia already on the books for their highest payroll ever, landing the superstar outfielder likely continues to be just a dream.
