Mike Trout's move to right field further emphasizes Angels' massive offseason mistake

The Angels' full team is now at spring training -- save for Anthony Rendon -- and big news just emerged concerning their future Hall of Famer: Mike Trout is no longer a full-time centerfielder. Trout met with Angels coaches in Tempe, AZ and they determined that he will primarily play right field for the foreseeable future, but on some days will mix in some center and DH. So the question that this news begs is...if this was the plan all along, why did the Angels not further supplement their outfield with a bona fide centerfielder this offseason?

Mike Trout's move to right field further emphasizes Angels' massive offseason mistake

Taylor Ward and Jorge Soler will not play centerfield, so that leaves Jo Adell and Mickey Moniak as the team's options on days where Trout plays right field or DH. Adell was a horrible defender for years, and has been taking marginal steps forward in his defensive development. Adell has 15 career games in centerfield and finally got somewhat acclimated to right field. While last year he was still spotty and his defensive fWAR was a paltry -5.6, you could at least see he was making positive steps forward. Moving him from right field to center has way more of a likelihood for disaster than success. He is not the type of player to pick up a new position quickly, even if centerfield is an easier position to play than a corner outfield spot.

Moniak is a good defensive centerfielder, but if there is a left-handed starter then he simply cannot be in the lineup. Moniak needs to be a platoon player, given his career slash line against LHPs is a terrible .175/.208/.242/.450. Moniak is an automatic out against lefties, and he also has injury concerns of his own. Trout will not be moved out of center for good, but it seems that playing him in center every time the team faces LHPs would not adhere to the team's strategy of keeping him available the whole season.

Scott Kingery could mix into centerfield as well, but he will need to prove he is worthy of a big league roster spot this spring. Perhaps Matthew Lugo breaks camp with the big league team and takes centerfield reps? Lugo just recently became an outfielder himself, and has yet to make his pro debut. There's 0 chance the 19-year-old Nelson Rada is ready for the big leagues anytime soon. The internal options to replace Trout in centerfield are less than ideal.

The Angels could still make a trade for a centerfielder, with Luis Robert Jr. being the big prize that is still available. However, the White Sox are not going to sell-low on their centerfielder, so the Angels would have to dig deep into their pipeline in order to pry Robert Jr. away. The team has long had ties to Alex Verdugo in free agency, but centerfield has not been his primary position since 2018. The left-handed hitting Verdugo has better numbers against LHPs than Moniak, but they are not necessarily elite by any means. Plus the team would sacrifice outfield defense in this scenario as well. Manuel Margot and Kevin Pillar are still out there.

The non-Trout centerfield options are less than ideal, and you would have thought that bringing in the next full-time centerfielder would have been a much bigger priority for the Angels this offseason. Furthermore, the team was deep in talks to acquire Anthony Santander...who is a right fielder. Was moving Trout to right field the plan all along or did it just come about after they missed on Santander in free agency? The strategy feels hasty and disjointed, even if it is imperative to try everything to keep their superstar healthy.

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