Shohei Ohtani is the best player in Major League Baseball, and every day he is in the lineup for the Los Angeles Angels, he makes his case that he is one of the greatest players of all-time. He is already making a strong comparison to Babe Ruth as a pitcher, and he is clearly one of the top sluggers in the game today. As a result, Ohtani will almost certainly become the highest paid player in the game when he signs his next contract.

His current deal with the Angels runs out after this season. If he was going to stay with owner Arte Moreno's team long term, he almost certainly would have signed a new contract by now. That hasn't happened, and it seems doubtful that the Angels will reverse their current trend and become a playoff team.

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There's an excellent chance Ohtani will be traded by the August 1 deadline, even though Moreno has said that he does not plan to trade the pitcher/slugger. However, as the deadline comes closer, it is likely to become clearer to Angels management that letting Ohtani walk in the offseason would be worse for the team than trading him.

MLB insider Jon Morosi reports that those discussions have already been started by those in the team's inner circle. They are starting to conclude that they will have to at least listen to offers for Ohtani, and they can make it clear that they will demand multiple high-end prospects to begin the talks.

Still, it will be difficult for Moreno to change his plans and trade Shohei Ohtani, no matter what offers the Angels receive.