Angels Don’t Have A Clear-Cut Choice To Replace Trout In CF

The Los Angeles Angels had a lot of uncertainty in their 100-loss season, but Mike Trout was a rock in center field. The 35-year old outfielder played 142 games in his old spot, but now he’ll be moving over to left field. 

The initial reporting around this wasn’t totally clear, as it was hard to determine if interim GM John Mozeliak approached Trout about the move or things happened the other way around. 

According to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com, it was Trout who came to Mozeliak to talk about “what he thought might be best for his future,” and the conversation was about understanding the demands of playing center field. 

The idea now is to get Trout off his feet enough to get the most out of his body offensively, as he slumped during the second half of the season and the wear and tear began to show. The initial reports also had Mozeliak showing Trout advanced metrics that reflected his loss of range, and Bollinger noted that Trout was rate as a -5 in Outs Above Average. 

But Trout still has an above-average arm, and his sprint speed was excellent early in the season. He wound up ranking in the 83rd percentile in the speed category, and Bollinger has him profiling as a solid defender in left, which would allow Wade Meckler to possibly take over in right field after his surprising season. 

In theory the Angels have one candidate in Bryce Teodosio, who’s an excellent defensive outfielder with fine speed. But Teodosio doesn’t hit much, and his career slash line of .200/.246/.273 reflects that. The Angels have been trying to get Teodosio to hit ball on teh ground and go the other way to utilize his speed, but he hasn’t been able to do that, and at this point in his career he’s basically a defensive replacement. 

The prime candidate among the prospects is Nelson Rada, who had a strong season at Triple-A Salt Lake. Rada’s slash line was .278/.376/.363 with three homers, 22 doubles and 43 stolen bases in 128 games in his second stint at Triple-A, but according to Bollinger the Angels don’t seem eager to rush him into a starting job.

Their reluctance to try Rada as disappointing, as the free agent options at this point aren’t all that great. Bollinger mentioned Dalton Varsho, but he’s coming off a down year offensively, and there isn’t much power among the other names the writer threw out.