As Ohtani's free agency looms, how can Angels sustain success?

I’m not sure there’s a more stressful team to be a fan of right now than the Angels. Obviously, Halos fans get to do something no other fan base gets to do: Watch Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout play for their team every night. That’s about as glorious a gift a baseball fan could want. Shohei! Trout! Every night! That’s the good part.

The stressful part, of course, is knowing how perilous the ground it all sits on truly is. With Ohtani set to become a free agent after the season -- and potentially the best Trade Deadline chip in a decade if it all falls apart -- it feels like every Angels game has a lot more riding on it than just that one game.

Right now, the Angels are in a good spot, in the thick of the playoff race. But one extended skid could blow the whole thing up. What happens if the Angels have a month like last June, when they suffered a 14-game losing streak? Does Ohtani get traded? Does Trout get exhausted with what sure looks like another extended rebuild and start to get a wandering eye? Will the Angels ever look like this again?

But if they keep this going, they’ll be the best show in the sport, on the grandest stage.

Which is why there’s no team in baseball that should be more incentivized to just absolutely floor it right now than the Angels. This is a team that should act as if 2024 does not exist. Right now, they’re seven games behind the Rangers and, impressively, just a half-game behind the defending champion Astros and the Yankees for the final AL Wild Card spot. They should be desperate to remain in the hunt -- more desperate than any other team in baseball.

So what should they do to hold on and stave off the uncertainty of the future as long as possible? Here are some moves the Angels should make to take advantage of the situation.

Call the White Sox. Constantly. Call them right now. Call them again in 20 minutes.
It is hardly news that the Angels need pitching. Ohtani has been great, Patrick Sandoval and Reid Detmers have been fine, and everyone else is ... well, they’re wearing out the bullpen. Obviously, over this next month and a half, the entirety of the league is looking for starting pitching, but the Halos don’t necessarily need top-shelf starting pitching -- they just need guys who can give them some innings.

Lucas Giolito is the pitcher everyone will want, but Lance Lynn could serve the Angels just as well, particularly now that he has that 16-strikeout game under his belt. They’re also an ideal team to take a chance on Mike Clevinger, as long as he’s able to return quickly from his IL stint for right biceps inflammation. This assumes the White Sox can’t crawl back in the AL Central race. (While the Halos are at it, they should cheer for the Cardinals not to make their way back in the NL Central either. Jack Flaherty would kind of be a perfect fit here.)

Move Hunter Renfroe to first base.
The Angels have sometimes struggled finding outfielders to surround Trout, but that’s not the issue this year. Taylor Ward, Renfroe and even Mickey Moniak are all having solid years. (Also, not for nothing, but Jo Adell is tearing it up at Triple-A Salt Lake City, too.) What they don’t have are infielders. Anthony Rendon is hurt again -- though hopefully, he won’t be gone too long -- and Gio Urshela is expected to miss the rest of the season. (Though on Friday, the Angels acquired Eduardo Escobar from the Mets.) Jared Walsh has had a rough go at first base, batting well under .200.

So give Renfroe a shot over there, see if he can hold down the spot. The point is that the Angels have outfielders, and they don’t have infielders. So maybe there’s some "borrowing from Peter to pay Paul" business that can be done here. Plus, this gives them a chance to buy low on …

Tyler O’Neill.
Even if the Cardinals somehow get themselves back in the NL Central race, it is extremely likely they’re going to end up trading O’Neill, who -- because Tommy Edman has started manning center field since O’Neill hit the IL -- doesn’t really have a position anymore. That’s not to mention the team’s frustration with him -- remember the much-discussed “hustle” incident with manager Oliver Marmol earlier this year?

You can probably get O’Neill for a steep discount right now as he continues to rehab his back. The thing about O’Neill is that, when he’s healthy, he’s a five-tool player: He’s fast, he has won a Gold Glove, he has the bodybuilder’s physique that can hit a ball to the moon. If the Angels are going to hang on, they’re going to need to capture lightning in a bottle somewhere. O’Neill is that kind of player.

Remember to give Shohei some time off next month. But just the next month.
It was a little alarming to see Ohtani say he was dealing with a little bit of fatigue last week, which led to the Angels giving him some extra rest. (He ended up grinding through six innings against the Rangers before bouncing back against the Dodgers on Wednesday.) Ohtani is pushing himself harder than he ever has before, and it makes sense to give him every break you can for the rest of June. An extra day off here, pull him an inning or so early there -- not a bad idea.

What he’s doing is so unprecedented that of course, he’s tired. But once Aug. 1 hits, it’s time to floor it. There’s no way the Halos are making it to the playoffs without Ohtani at his absolute best -- it’ll be a challenge even if he’s great -- and they will need to wring every ounce of him they can get down the stretch. It is possible these are the last few months Ohtani is a member of the Angels, so let’s try to make the most of them.

Put the front page of the October 5, 2014, Los Angeles Times on Trout’s locker.
That date sound familiar to you? That’s the day of the last postseason game the Angels -- and therefore, Trout -- appeared in. Trout may vividly remember it, because he struck out in the final at-bat. The fact that he has established himself as a likely future Hall of Famer over the next nine years despite not playing in a playoff game since is one of the more bewildering aspects of the last decade of baseball. Considering what the Halos may be facing if Ohtani leaves, this could be Trout’s best chance in an Angels uniform in quite a while.

The Angels have been hammered by injuries so far, and they’re still hanging in, largely because of Ohtani and Trout. And while June has been one of the worst months of Trout’s career in terms of offensive production, we know he is capable of carrying a team. So let’s all remind him he can.