Mike Trout Should Demand a Trade from the Angels to a Contender, Right?

A caller named Nick set the tone on Tuesday.

"All I'm asking for is, if they're not going to do nothing for my Angels, then give my Trout a chance," he told Rich. "Send him off to New York or send him off to the Dodgers."

The line landed because nobody in the room could push back on it. Mike Trout is healthy. The Angels are 10 under .500, the worst record in the American League. They had won one of their last 10. They beat the Yankees in New York to start the season and have gone off a cliff since.

Rich made the room ask the harder question. Has Trout ever shown the desire to act on the trade thoughts every fan in the audience assumes he must have?

The answer is no. The contract runs through 2030. The quality of life in Southern California is real. He just opened a golf course with Tiger Woods in New Jersey, so the East Coast pull is also real. His hometown Phillies would, as Brockman noted, raise their hand instantly if Trout ever asked.

But he has not asked.

Rich's framing was the key one.

"You got to think he has those thoughts," he said. "He just doesn't have the desire to act on them."

The contrast across the freeway was the cleanest one available. Shohei Ohtani went up the interstate to the Dodgers and has won a World Series since making that decision. Trout has stayed.

If Trout ever did pull an NBA-style or NFL-style power move and ask out, Rich said, the trade deadline would be the most consequential one in years. Six years left of one of the best players in the sport. Four years of contract control beyond this one. Every contender in baseball would line up.

The bit closed with the realization that the only people not actively considering this scenario are inside the Angels organization. Which, given the rest of the way the season has gone for them, is consistent with everything else.