{"id":687401,"date":"2026-05-22T23:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T23:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/687401\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T23:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T23:45:17","slug":"shohei-ohtani-was-almost-traded-out-of-la-in-2022-and-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/687401\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani Was Almost Traded Out of LA in 2022 and 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shohei Ohtani<\/a> is a two-way player who\u2019s spent the entirety of his Major League Baseball career with the two Los Angeles<\/a> teams.<\/p>\n

Before he left the Angels for the Dodgers<\/a> in free agency, though, he very nearly ended up elsewhere in Southern California \u2014\u00a0or across the country.<\/p>\n

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In 2022, the Angels<\/a> reportedly discussed a trade deadline deal that would have sent Ohtani the San Diego Padres<\/a>, and in 2023, a near-deal at the trade deadline would\u2019ve sent Ohtani to the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>, as reported by The Athletic<\/a>\u2019s Ken Rosenthal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Angels almost shipped off Shohei Ohtani<\/p>\n

As Rosenthal explains, Angels owner Arte Moreno declined to deal his superstar, despite the widely held belief that Ohtani would choose to go elsewhere at the end of the 2023 season.<\/p>\n

If he had agreed to either deal, the Angels would\u2019ve at least got something for losing Ohtani.<\/p>\n

\"JulJul 12, 2021; Denver, CO, USA; Washington Nationals<\/a> right fielder Juan Soto<\/a> greets Los Angeles Angels<\/a> designated hitter\/starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani during the 2021 MLB Home Run Derby. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

The Padres ultimately got Juan Soto from the Washington Nationals, dealing outfielder James Wood, shortstop CJ Abrams<\/a> and left-hander MacKenzie Gore<\/a>\u00a0in exchange.<\/p>\n

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And the Rays would\u2019ve given up third baseman Junior Caminero<\/a> and shortstop Carson Williams<\/a> for Ohtani, Rosenthal reports.<\/p>\n

The Angels, who are struggling this year<\/a> to the point that fans are holding protests to demand Moreno sell the team<\/a>, surely would\u2019ve benefited from adding players of that caliber.<\/p>\n

Rosenthal said All-Star center fielder Jackson Merrill<\/a> was also in the mix in the potential deal with Washington.<\/p>\n

And as for the Rays, Caminero was an All-Star last season, and Williams was Minor League Baseball Defensive Player of the Year in 2024.<\/p>\n

Who did the Angels get instead?<\/p>\n

Nobody.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t even get Ohtani for the rest of the 2023 season, as he tore his UCL, then strained his oblique.<\/p>\n

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Ohtani then walked in free agency, landing with the Dodgers and helping the Boys in Blue win two straight World Series and, possibly, a third in 2026.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s doing things for the Dodgers that haven\u2019t been seen for decades and likely won\u2019t ever happen again, pitching at a Cy Young level while continuing his dominance at the plate.<\/p>\n

To be fair, all of this doesn\u2019t change that Ohtani was likely to leave the Angels in free agency anyway, and there\u2019s no guarantee these young prospects would\u2019ve blossomed the way they did if they played at Angel Stadium.<\/p>\n

But still, for Angels fans, the \u201cwhat could have been\u201d is enough to keep you up at night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani is a two-way player who\u2019s spent the entirety of his Major League Baseball career with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[15835,200103,49,48,52174,29742,511,14570,1509,3989,78140,1522,3962,14259,501,462,477,482,82,480,40886,3968],"class_list":["post-687401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-angels","tag-arte-moreno","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carson-williams","tag-cj-abrams","tag-dodgers","tag-jackson-merrill","tag-juan-soto","tag-junior-caminero","tag-ken-rosenthal","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-mackenzie-gore","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-the-angels","tag-washington-nationals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}