Should the LA Angels play or trade Kole Calhoun?

Kole Calhoun has had a nice five and a half year career with the Angels.  He has been a Gold Glove defender and for the most part a solid hitter at the plate.  However is Calhoun’s time coming to a close in Anaheim?

With the plethora of talent coming up in the LA Angels farm system and Calhoun’s contract coming to an end soon (Calhoun could become a free agent at the end of 2019 if the club doesn’t pick up his option for 2020), the Angels need to decide how they want to play things regarding Calhoun.

One option is for the team to just keep Calhoun until the end of the 2019 season, see how he does, and then decide if you want to exercise his option for the 2020 season. That decision could also be influenced by the progress of top prospect Jo Adell.  The other option is to see what you could get by trading Kole Calhoun.

If you do trade Calhoun will it weaken the Angels in right field.  There really isn’t a suitable replacement who is major league ready in the Angels minor league system that could replace Calhoun. So unless you get an outfielder in return trading Calhoun wouldn’t make much sense.

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The question is saving 10.5 million dollars that Calhoun is owed in 2019 worth getting rid of him.  Calhoun despite his second half resurgence had a subpar season hitting just .208 with a .286 OBP with 19 homers and 57 RBIs.  Remember the Angels had almost stopped playing him in late May before he was placed on the disabled list.  Calhoun was hitting just .153 with one homer and 11 RBIs at that point in the season.

For his career Calhoun has averaged 20 home runs and 70 RBIs per season while hitting .252 which is adequate, but nothing spectacular.  What will he do in 2019 is anyone’s guess?  So therein lies the Angels dilemma do they play Calhoun or trade him and get something in return for him?

In my opinion unless the return you can get from trading Calhoun is really good, which I doubt it will be, you ride or die with him.  If he can produce with a little more consistency 20 plus homers and 70 plus runs driven in with at least a .260 batting average I call it a win.  He is one of the hardest workers on the team and his competitive spirit is a good example for the young players coming up.

As for exercising Calhoun’s $14 million dollar club option for 2020 that’s a different story.  Unless Calhoun has a spectacular year and Adell is clearly not ready to take over in right you give Calhoun his $300,000 buyout clause and send him on his merry way.  We will have to see what Billy Eppler decides to do as his decision trumps all of ours.