Could the San Francisco Giants actually consider pursuing a trade for Mike Trout?
The San Francisco Giants have had a rough go of it during the 2024 MLB season. Between injuries and disappointing losses, nothing has gone according to plan.
At this point in the year, the Giants hold a 32-5 record. While they are still in the thick of things in the National League standings, something has to change quickly for them to turn around. Perhaps a big trade ahead of the July MLB trade deadline would do the trick.
No one knows what to expect from San Francisco ahead of the deadline. They could go either way. The Giants could either get aggressive with buying talent or they could sell it.
While there are questions moving forward about which path San Francisco will take, one MLB reporter has a wild idea in mind for the Giants.
Tim Kawakami of The Athletic has suggested that San Francisco try to make a massive blockbuster trade before the deadline. He thinks that the Giants should pursue a trade for Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout.
“So I continue: This is when the Giants should press hard to get Trout to Oracle Park, wait for him to get healthy, plop him into the middle of their lineup either as the full-time designated hitter or part-time DH/part-time corner outfielder and hope for the best. This is important, too: The Giants, as currently set up, wouldn’t be destroyed if Trout never puts up another Trout season. They sure would want it, but just half-a-Trout for the next four or five years wouldn’t be awful. And if they get the full Trout for a season or two? That’d be pretty special.”
He finished out his article and reasoning with one bold paragraph.
“The Giants can afford this. They’re good enough to believe that Trout can push them to a very high level and they’re hungry enough to be more than ready for this kind of Hall of Fame risk.”
There’s a lot to unpack with this suggestion. First of all, it would be wild to see the Angels even be willing to trade Trout. He is the face of their franchise and seeing him in another jersey would just be strange.
However, if a team like the Giants came in with an aggressive offer, it would be wise for Los Angeles to think about it. As currently constructed, the Angels are not even close to contention.
So far this season, Trout has played in 29 games. He suffered a knee injury that has kept him out a long time, although he is progressing well in his recovery.
Trout has hit .220 this season to go along with 10 home runs and 14 RBI’s. The numbers weren’t great to start the season, but he never had an opportunity to find his groove. No one should think that Trout’s career is anywhere close to experience a complete fall-off.
At 32 years old, Trout still has some good baseball left in him. Kawakami made a good point, that the Giants shouldn’t worry much about getting the full version of Trout. Even a half-a-Trout scenario would be a major improvement for the team.
Granted, this is a crazy idea and seems very unlikely to happen. But, there are also reasons why a move would make sense for both San Francisco and Los Angeles. Crazier things have happened.
All of that being said, this may be the wildest trade suggestion that we have seen so far leading up to the deadline. A Trout trade doesn’t seem possible, but you can never say never. If the Giants want to get extremely aggressive, pursuing a deal for Trout would be a great direction to head in.
