LA Angels Rumors: Should LAA trade Brandon Marsh in All-Star package?

Jon Morosi of MLB Network talked some LA Angels baseball on the air yesterday.

He of course hit on what we’re all talking about when it comes to the Angels: Starting pitching.

It’s what’s kept us out of the playoffs these last seven years, and needs to be addressed.

Morosi said he could see the Angels making a deal this offseason for Luis Castillo. While that may sound great, the assets may be a bit too much to give up for the Halos.

Jon Morosi could see the LA Angels trading for Luis Castillo, but has them trading Brandon Marsh in the process.

The LA Angels could definitely use a former All-Star in Luis Castillo, but do not need to be trading Brandon Marsh right now. Marsh is arguably the Angels’ best prospect, and has potential to be a regular All-Star in this league.

Sure, he wasn’t a world-beater last year with the Halos, hitting .254/.317/.356 (.673 OPS) with 27 runs in 70 games. That being said, he played good defense and still showed flashes of promise during his first taste of the Big Leagues.

His athleticism was on full display, and he never had to get sent down. We know he has what it takes, as this is the same guy who scored 26 runs in 24 games in Triple-A last year. He even stretched three doubles into triples in just those 24 games too.

He hit .300 in his 96-game Double-A career, where he showed us how much potential he has as a leadoff hitter. He got on 38.3% of the time, and stole a very impressive 18 bases.

His speed, defense, and potential is just too much to trade away at this point. There’s even talk that he may even be better to play center next year than Mike Trout, and move Trout to right. How can we know he has that level of potential and then trade him?

I know Castillo’s always been a very good and consistent pitcher, but is a 3.98 ERA pitcher with a 1.364 WHIP who walked 3.6 batters per nine innings last year good enough to ditch Marsh for? The Angels have been developing Marsh since 2016. We need to keep him in Anaheim so we can complete the process.

It’s very similar when people suggest trading Jo Adell. Obviously, Adell is one of the top pieces of trade bait that we’d have if he was available, but why trade a top ten pick who just came up and recorded 26 RBI in 35 games?

The Angels need to stick to their young guns. They have two outfielders oozing with potential, and should only be trading them for top-of-the-line starters, and while Castillo is a proven commodity, each of Marsh and Adell could easily end up being more valuable than him in their careers.