San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller went all in ahead of last week’s MLB trade deadline, as he parted ways with six players to acquire outfielder Juan Soto from the Washington Nationals. He also eyed the possibility of bringing in Los Angeles Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani to the Padres.
Speaking on “The Show” podcast with MLB insiders Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman, Preller revealed that he jump-started discussions with Angels general manager Perry Minasian about a trade for Ohtani. In the end, the Padres GM never got the sense that the Angels were seriously considering offloading the reigning American League MVP Award winner.
“There were some incredible conversations internally when you’re talking about two A-lane type talents and very unique players,” Preller said. “It’s kind of like sports talk radio debates that we’re having in our room, like which one of the two? Could you do both?
“Ultimately in that situation I think the one thing we got a feel for again was that if they did go down that path we were going to be in the game, and maybe with some different players too that didn’t end up in (the Soto) deal. There were some guys that both teams had interest in, there were some guys that it felt like each team valued a little bit differently. At the end of the day, I think from Perry’s (Minasian) standpoint it became clear. … With the Angels it was kind of like ‘Hey, let’s kind of consider it,' but not really sure if they were going to end up putting him on the market and making a deal. … But at the end of the day they were clear ultimately in the end that they were going to move forward with Ohtani, and we moved on with Soto.”
Initially, the Angels were reportedly open to at the least listening to offers from teams for Ohtani, but their call to not trade the two-time All-Star came at the request of team owner Arte Moreno. Ultimately, Moreno reportedly decided that he “didn’t even want to hear offers” for Ohtani, as Minasian then turned his attention to shipping off Brandon Marsh, Noah Syndergaard, and Raisel Iglesias.
Ohtani is set to have a mere one more year left on his contract, and it is still up in the air as to just how the Angels plan to address his future over the offseason. Heyman did recently note that the Angels will once again “try” to come to terms with Ohtani on an extension deal.
Ohtani’s future with the Angels is shaping up to be the most talked about storyline in the offseason later this year.
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