Trout, Rendon could be baseball's new best duo

SAN DIEGO -- Go ahead, Joe Maddon. Take out a blank lineup card and write their names. You know you want to, Joe. How's it going to work? Anthony Rendon hitting second and Mike Trout third? That definitely looks good.

Seeing how Opening Day is still more than three months away, try some other options. Like this one: Trout hitting leadoff, Rendon second. Or maybe flip them a time or two next spring.

What the Angels' new manager knows better than anyone is this: He has no bad options with Trout and Rendon in the same lineup. Just hit them back-to-back somewhere near the top, and you're golden.

This is the transformation the Angels' lineup underwent Wednesday night when Rendon agreed to a seven-year, $245 million deal to give baseball's best player -- that would be Trout -- a suitable running mate.

No team has a one-two combination as good as this one, and you can look it up. Trout and Rendon combined for a 15.6 fWAR -- that's the Fangraphs calculation of Wins Above Replacement -- in 2019.

That would have been tops in the Majors for two teammates, slightly ahead of Alex Bregman and George Springer, who combined for a 15.0 fWAR for the Astros.

This is how championship teams are built. It's obviously not as simple as acquiring two of the 10 best players, but it's where you start. These players create stress for starting pitchers, forcing them into more high-leverage situations, and at times, getting them out of the game in the fourth or fifth inning.

The Nationals had that dynamic last season with Rendon and Juan Soto in the middle of their order. The Yankees could have it in 2020 if Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are healthy.

And the Angels aren't nearly finished. That's another part of this thing. It suddenly became easier for them to recruit talent, because every other player is paying attention to this team in a way they might not have before.

Their glaring weakness remains starting pitching. The rotation had a 5.64 ERA, second worst in MLB, behind only the Rockies. Having already acquired Dylan Bundy from Baltimore and getting Shohei Ohtani back from Tommy John surgery to go with Andrew Heaney is a start.

But only a start. Free-agent lefty Dallas Keuchel would be a nice addition to the rotation. Or Madison Bumgarner. Perhaps general manager Billy Eppler can pry David Price away from the Red Sox.

As you may have heard, the Angels were focused on signing Gerrit Cole, who would have given their rotation and their entire team a dramatically different look.

When Cole agreed to terms with the Yankees late Tuesday, the Angels did what smart teams almost always do. They went for the most talented unsigned player. Never mind his position.

Talent is talent. In the last three seasons, Rendon has finished sixth, 11th and third in National League Most Valuable Player voting. (Trout finished fourth, second and first in the American League race in those three seasons.)

In that time, Rendon is fifth in the Majors in OPS (.953), third in doubles (129) and tied for sixth in OBP (.397). (Angels third basemen had a .713 OPS in 2019, 24th of 30 teams.)

The Angels also have one of baseball's best prospects, Jo Adell, penciled in for a 2020 debut and an array of big names in Ohtani, Albert Pujols, Justin Upton and Andrelton Simmons.

Again, this is a start. The Astros and A's are better than the Angels today and may be better on Opening Day. But the Angels took a huge step in the right direction by getting Rendon.

If you love this sport, this is a good day for you, too. Trout has been to the postseason once -- and only briefly -- in his eight seasons. Because of that, a bunch of fans have not seen nearly enough of him.

To get him back into the postseason would give baseball fans around the world an opportunity to see one of the potentially 20 or so greatest players of all time.

That hasn't happened because the Angels have been unable to put enough talent around him. On Wednesday night, they made a major move toward changing that.