Angels must address this difficult roster decision as soon as possible

The Angels have a relatively fungible roster around the margins, as evidenced by Perry Minasian going out and grabbing players like Lamonte Wade Jr., Chris Taylor and Hunter Strickland midseason and also constantly shuffling relievers around. Minasian's team is in an enviable spot right now of not needing to make a monumental roster decision in the wake of an injury or because a critically important member of the team is playing horribly.

Yet, here in the middle of June, the Angels have a crucial choice to make regarding the most integral member of the organization. What the decision makers face is a fork in the road with regards to a future first ballot Hall of Famer.

Angels must address this difficult roster decision as soon as possible

Do the Angels end up moving Trout back to the outfield?

Man, it's hard to say that the Angels should remove Trout from his DH role anytime soon. Why? He's still playing, isn't he?

After being available in every game through the month of April, Trout missed all but two games in May. Even though he was available from Opening Day until April 30th and playing right field, Trout was pretty bad in that span of time. Now, as an every day designated hitter, Trout is slashing .333/.408/.429/.837 with a very solid 20.4% K% and 12.2% BB%. Some would argue that him DHing has nothing to do with his turnaround since returning from the IL, as he had a brutally low BABIP despite spraying lasers all over the field. From May 30th on, his BABIP is an astronomically high .406.

Not only was he bad offensively, as everybody knows, his defense was pretty brutal.

Well, Trout is a certifiably better defensive right fielder than Jorge Soler, right? Well, they are not THAT far apart. As right fielders this season, Soler has -1 defensive runs saved (DRS) in 189 innings and Trout posted a -3 in 185 innings. Both have -2 outs above average (OAA). In terms of defensive value, Trout has been slightly more valuable -- he has a -2.8 defensive fWAR to Soler's -3.3. Essentially, both are below average defensive right fielders and Trout is not definitively better than Soler this season.

Just like with Reid Detmers in the bullpen, the Angels should just leave Trout alone. He's playing every game and playing very well. It's not like he would be much better than Soler in right field anyway, and the injury risk far outweighs the reward of getting him reps in the outfield again and moving Soler back to DH.

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