The Angels can no longer afford to play the pitching trade market

This article was supposed to be about the Angels’ plethora of pitchers, and how they would leverage those arms in this year’s trade market, picking up some young prospects in return and thus stocking up that picked-over underwear bin at Dollar General they call a farm system.

I would throw out trade ideas with teams seeking starting pitching, like the Pirates; there are also teams, like the Giants, who are on the prowl for some reliever arms-...hey, the Angels have some of those!

It’s good living out there for the sellers, if they’re smart and if they got the goods. Billy Eppler has shown he’s imbued with the former, but he no longer has the requisite coveted wares. But that’s not really his fault.

In a perfect world, you’d have a good first half from C.J. Wilson, and he’d be trade bait that we’re all happy to throw into the most suspect ocean possible. There was also guys hovering around AAA, that we knew could ball, like NiTro or maybe Tyler Skaggs. There are the guys already in the rotation, like a sturdy Hector Santiago or a peak Matt Shoemaker.

Shoot, even Tim Lincecum gave me hopes of a sneaky good trade piece, if he came back as a man obsessed (with pitching well). But The Freak is still working stuff out...NiTro, Heaney and Richards are nursing some UCL tears...C.J. Wilson never came back...yes, 2016 is insane. Lousy with injuries. Some black magic hex type stuff.

The remaining hurlers are now indispensable. Can you really trade away Matt Shoemaker right now, a guy that’s under club control for cheap and is pitching like Clayton Kershaw? Deal Hector Santiago, who’s in the same boat (minus the Kersh comp, of course)? Definitely can’t move Tyler Skaggs?

This article, which was supposed to be about the Angels as sellers, is now about the Angels’ need to hang on to any good arm that’s under club control for the immediate future. The door is closed on those trades, unless they just want to look towards 2018 already.

I’m sure some may disagree. Still float arms out there or not? Plan for 2018, punt 2017?

Put your GM hat on, and give me your best answers, thoughts, gifs, whatever on my ponderings. We’re just talking pitching here, so keep it in that arena.

Now, what do you do with the Angels pitching situation?