LA Angels Thursday News Crash:

Imagine, if in 2023, Shohei Ohtani had unleashed his two-way prowess for the Tampa Bay Rays, if only for a few months. Imagine if he had been traded for Junior Caminero, who would now be starring at third base for the Los Angeles Angels instead of the Rays.

A blockbuster involving those players, carrying mammoth implications for both clubs, was seriously discussed before the 2023 trade deadline, according to people briefed on the conversations.

It didn’t happen, of course. For the second straight year, Angels owner Arte Moreno decided against trading Ohtani, only to lose him to the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent four months later.

The Angels, on the other hand, soon will face renewed questions about whether to embark upon a selloff as they sit on the worst record in the American League with a general manager, Perry Minasian, in the final year of his contract. Their manager, Kurt Suzuki, is also on a one-year deal.

Caminero, then a 19-year-old at Double A, would have been one of two top prospects heading to the Angels for Ohtani. The other would have been shortstop Carson Williams, who was then a 20-year-old at High A. The Angels would have wanted additional talent, even though Ohtani was only a rental. The Rays were willing to include lesser pieces to close the deal, league sources said.

For the Angels, Moreno’s refusal to bring the trade to fruition represents yet another what-if from Ohtani’s time in Anaheim.

Prior to the 2022 deadline, when Ohtani was under club control for two pennant races, the Angels discussed an Ohtani trade with the San Diego Padres that would have brought them a comparable or perhaps even better package than the one the Padres ultimately sent the Washington Nationals for Juan Soto, who was under control for three races.

The Nationals’ six-player haul for Soto included outfielder James Wood, shortstop CJ Abrams and left-hander MacKenzie Gore. As previously reported, center fielder Jackson Merrill also was part of the discussions for Ohtani, according to sources briefed on the talks. It was not out of the question the Padres would have included him if Moreno was willing to proceed.

But Moreno balked then, and balked again the following year. The Angels finished both seasons 73-89. If they had kept Ohtani, it would have made their failure to trade him forgivable. But their only compensation for losing the best player in the world as a free agent was the 74th pick in the 2024 draft, which they used on right-hander Ryan Johnson.

Making matters worse, the Angels compounded their problems when they turned into buyers instead of landing Caminero, Williams and potentially more from the Rays. They have yet to be haunted by any of the prospects they traded. But several have appeared in the majors, and could have been used for other moves.

Entering July 26 of Ohtani’s final season in Anaheim, the Angels were 52-49, 3 1/2 games out in the wild-card race, with playoff odds of 16.7 percent. That day, they acquired pitchers Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López from the White Sox. They then added first baseman C.J. Cron, outfielder Randal Grichuk and reliever Dominic Leone prior to the Aug. 1 deadline as well.

Their plan flopped spectacularly.

The Angels lost 19 of their first 26 games in August. At the end of the month, Moreno authorized a massive waiver dump that cost the team five players, including Giolito, López and Leone. But the shocking purge worked as intended, getting the Angels under the luxury-tax threshold.

“What might have been” tales from past deadlines are common in baseball. Rarely, though, are proposed trades as impactful as the ones the Angels could have made for Ohtani, first with San Diego, then with Tampa Bay. Caminero alone would have filled a third-base void created by the disastrous signing of Anthony Rendon, giving the Angels a building block for the future.

Alas, it was the same old story.

Moreno said no.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7296204/2026/05/21/shohei-ohtani-trade-rays-angels-2023-moreno/?unlocked_article_code=1.kFA.j9my.fMSIEnU0-m2P&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta