Should the Angels trade for Robinson Cano?

It's a holiday week in the Halosphere, and while literal stoves are heating up all across the country, the Angel/MLB trade hot stove seems to be taking a bit of a breather for now, before it gets white hot in December for the winter meetings. That doesn't preclude me from looking over the early week rumblings and getting my GM prognosticating hat on, though, and word of Robinson Cano's discontent in Seattle yesterday did exactly that.

So, here we have Robinson Cano, who is two years into a deal with the Mariners that's costing them about $24 million per year, and there are still 8 more years on the books. Oof. Not to mention the fact that they've not gotten the Robinson Cano that they thought they paid for...as Angels fans, we can all relate and somewhat empathize. Jerry Dipoto finds himself once again with the big money albatross, only this time it was inherited, not forced upon him by ownership. Cano is 33, has declined in production over his two years with the Mariners, but that decline in production would still be an improvement over folk hero Johnny Giavotella. With his non-New York club, Cano has put up a .300 BA, .358 OBP and a .807 OPS, although it's nowhere near the levels of output he was reaching in New York, and that's the rub.

Still, there is something there. Again, he'd be an improvement over the current situation, and considering Cano was playing with a hernia through much of 2015, perhaps he's ready for a resurgence. A quintessential Buy Low moment if there ever was one, but if Billy Eppler were to really look into this, there would still be the matter of who they give up and how much money the Mariners would eat.

Jerry Dipoto is very familiar with our farm system, and perhaps that can be used to the Angels' advantage. Does Jerry still have some love and adulation for Roberto Baldoquin? If so, that may be a piece to start with. There is also the Tyler Skaggs quotient, a player that Jerry liked so much, he brought him back to Anaheim after some time spent with him and the Arizona Diamondbacks. One or both of those players, plus...and here's the big IF...the Mariners taking on a gigantic, stomach-churning portion of that remaining contract. And there lies the problem, and where my GM fantasy begins to come off the tracks a bit.

But hey, Jerry Dipoto sending away an unhappy, struggling, big name player to a division rival, while still having said player on his payroll? There is precedence there, albeit under more dire and complicated circumstances. I think Cano would be an interesting trade piece, but with too many "what if" factors. Still, it'd be nice to be on the other end of a Vernon Wells/Josh Hamilton-type albatross dumping trade.