Shohei Ohtani will become a free agent at the end of this season. It is unknown whether the Los Angeles Angels, the team he belongs to, can catch Ohtani. In a past interview, when asked if he wanted to stay with the Angels, Ohtani replied, “I like the fans and the atmosphere of the club,” but also said, “I’m desperate to win more than that.”온라인카지노
It’s a courtesy answer if it’s a courtesy, but anyway, the Angels are far from a ‘team that can win’ this season. So far on the 5th (Korean time), the win rate is barely over 50% with 45 wins and 43 losses. It is already 7 games behind Texas, which is ranked first in the district. There is also a four-game gap with the New York Yankees, the wild card Maginot Line. It is said that there is still a lot of season left, but Fangraph.com, a baseball statistics site, sets the probability of the Angels making the playoffs at 19.4%.
In this situation, even main gun Mike Trout was placed on the injured list (IL) with a fracture of the left hand bone. After a foul during the game on the 4th, Trout complained of pain in his left hand and withdrew from the game, and returned to the IL the next day. Haematous bone fractures usually take 4 to 8 weeks to rehabilitate. It’s unclear when Trout will be able to return, but it seems clear that the Angels’ chances of making the playoffs have been reduced that much.
If fall baseball is difficult, it might be a reasonable decision to put Ohtani, who will become a free agent after half a season, for sale before the trade deadline. Instead of handing over a superstar, it is always common in the major leagues to accept a lot of prospects and promise the future.
However, The Athletic predicted that the chances of the Angels trading Ohtani were extremely low. There are two main reasons. The Angels’ goal is to sign a long-term contract with Ohtani. It is expected that he will sign a free agent contract with other teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the Angels are still not giving up hope. However, if Ohtani is traded during the season, that will effectively end the relationship with Ohtani. There are very few cases in which a player is let go by trade and wooed in the free agent market.
Another reason is that Ohtani’s value is too great. Ohtani appeared in 86 games as a hitter this season and is having a shocking season with a batting average of 0.300, an OPS of 1.044 and 31 home runs. He is 7-4 with a 3.32 earned run average in 100.1 innings on the mound. He’s great as a pitcher, and it’s hard to find anyone to compare him to as a hitter. No matter how many promising players they bring in, considering Ohtani’s performance now, it’s not easy to meet fans’ expectations.
The Athletic pointed out that last season’s trade deadline was effectively their last chance to trade Ohtani. It is a story that “I wouldn’t dare to trade” him, who is literally having a ‘monster season’ in the last season before free agency.