Why trading Shohei Ohtani to San Diego is the best thing for the Padres, Angels and MLB

It's a tough call these days as to what the biggest debate in Los Angeles is. Could it be where will Shohei Ohtani end up after the MLB trade deadline or whether Barbie or Oppenheimer will have the best summer? I'll leave the summer silver screen debate to the celluloid blogosphere and focus on Ohtani.

Ever since training camps broke in March, the biggest story in Major League Baseball has been everybody and their uncle, mother and cousin trying to guess if and where the Los Angeles Angels will trade Shohei Ohtani, the best all-around baseball player since Babe Ruth. For what it's worth, my New Yorker uncles and cousins hope he goes to the Yankees while my mother struggles to pronounce his name and chooses to focus more on her grandchildren. Yet, for the rest of us, it's a never-ending round and round discussion that the sports world will have to put up with for another week as the August 1 trade deadline hurdles towards us on the calendar.

So where oh where will arguably the biggest sports superstar on the planet be come August 2? Here's my answer and why its the best move for the Angels, the team he'll go to and the MLB as a whole.

On or before 6:00 pm on August 1, Angels owner Arte Moreno should trade designated hitter/starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani to the San Diego Padres. Here's how and why this is the trade that should go down.

The "how" of a Shohei Ohtani trade to the San Diego Padres

As most of us know (but it's fine if you don't), Shohei Ohtani signed just a one-year contract with L.A. after last season, which makes him a complete free agent this fall. He can sign with whatever team he wants. He can go back to Japan. He can move to the space station. He can do whatever he wants but, for the sake of this piece, let's say he's going to play a little more baseball here in North America (I got you, Toronto). It's widely projected that Ohtani's next contract will be 10-plus years for over $600 million, with some even speculating it could be close or hit $700 million. I'll give you a few moments to take that all in and catch your breaths. Maybe grab a glass of water and sit down. You ok? Good. I'll continue. It's very likely the Japanese superstar and first two-way All-Star in over 100 years will become baseball's first $50 million-per-season-man. So when combining money and talent how do you compensate?

The way the Padres would do it would involve signing and trading one and potentially two of their current stars with a prospect or two thrown in from both sides. Since Ohtani is both a solid starting pitcher and a great hitter who is currently on pace for at least 50 home runs, it only makes sense that L.A. would need a quality starting pitcher and good to very good bat in return. Both players coming from San Diego would also have to be guys with names big enough to fill the seats in Anaheim. Prospects are great and necessary, but is Arte Moreno really going to put up with a barren Angel Stadium for the last two months of this season and potentially all of next season waiting for maybe two of five top prospects to pan out? I don't think so.

In this deal, San Diego would trade two of their big stars (one of which they would likely lose anyway come November) in starting pitcher Blake Snell and slugger Juan Soto. Snell is mimicking his last contract year of 2018 when he was with the Rays by putting up solid numbers even though the wins aren't there, which is more a reflection of a lame first half for the San Diego offense than his ability to earn wins on the mound. The Padres have a pretty stacked pitching staff, most of whom are under contract for a few years. Soto is also looking for a big new contract after signing two one-year extensions with Washington and San Diego over the past few seasons to avoid arbitration.

Snell and Soto are likely in their last few months in "America's Finest City," so why not get something back in return and I think a guy like Ohtani should be sufficient (haha). I referenced prospects being a part of the deal and, although they're not always necessary in big deals, it feels like they're always thrown in so I'll do that here. Along with Ohtani, let's say Los Angeles throws a prospect like catcher Edgar Quero, a solid switch-hitting catcher who may not exactly be Logan O'Hoppe, but few are. I mentioned San Diego's lackluster offense which has improved over the past few weeks but the catcher position at the plate is weak at best. Gary Sanchez provided some surprising pop when the Padres first signed him after the Mets lost interest in him, but he's under the Mendoza line and not too many GMs are counting on catchers in their 30s to have a resurgence at the plate during the rest of their careers. For San Diego's part, they could throw in prospects like pitcher Jairo Iriarte who, at 21 years old, could be a late season call-up in 2024 and in the rotation in 2025 alongside Snell. Other deal add-ons from San Diego to Anaheim in the prospects department could include one of their many catching prospects like Brandon Valenzuela or even first base prospect Nathan Martorella. A majority of San Diego's top prospects are pitchers so, outside of the catcher position, their farm system is a bit thin. Therefore, it's more likely the Padres would send an additional pitching prospect or two to Anaheim. and maybe seek a second or third tier hitting prospect from the Angels.

Okay, so this deal is obviously fantastically awesome for the Padres and a great move for the Angels, but why should the MLB execs in Manhattan be thrilled with this deal?

Much like when Boston traded Ruth to New York it all worked out (well, except for the Red Sox for 86 years, but that's another story for another day). With a Wild Card system, it may have only taken Boston 46 or 56 years to win another title. Plus, as far as I know, I don't think Arte Moreno has his hands in any theatrical productions that he urgently needs to fund any time soon. Major League Baseball should be ecstatic over this deal for multiple reasons.

1. It creates two competitive teams out of none in the Angels and Padres. The Padres just don't have the offense this season to get above .500 (never mind the playoffs), so Ohtani jacks up their offense and makes the pitching even better than it is for this season and those to come. A realist will tell you the Angels aren't going anywhere with Ohtani, so substitute a slugger and legit starter and throw in a potentially reignited Trout and all of a sudden the Angels are fighting off Houston for second place in the AL West next season.

2. It creates more league parity, which is great for any professional league. I'm a Red Sox fan, but I know baseball fans nationally get bored with another Red Sox-Yankees battle for baseball dominance. The league and the fans need multiple teams in the mix for the World Series. In the National League this year, its Atlanta and, well, Atlanta. Sure teams like the Marlins and Phillies are having nice seasons and Arizona, the Giants and Reds are nice stories, but we're on a clear collision course for another Braves/Dodgers NLCS and another Braves World Series appearance. Not that there's anything wrong with that as Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza would say, but I think baseball would benefit drastically from a four-team race to the end in the NL West. Sorry Colorado, I got nothing for you. And like I mentioned before, the AL West also gets more competitive, which raises the competition level from season series to season series to new heights. The trade also should prove to awaken sleeping historical giants like the Red Sox and Yankees and hopefully teams like the Cubs and somebody from the AL Central, a division that has been the proverbial snoozefest for far too long.

3. And lastly, MLB would love this deal because of the almighty dollar, which they and every other pro sports league loves the most. More fan interest means more fans in seats which means more revenue and more new television and media deals. You get the jist here. Commissioner Rob Manfred could get a contract renewal despite his severe drop in popularity. Yet, much like when teams win and people care less about an unlikeable owner, this deal would have so many positive peripheral effects on the league that fans would not care about liking or not liking the commissioner and MLB front office folks. Fans would just be loving the game they've wanted to love for a long time.