Is it finally time for Mike Trout to be traded? The all-in Phillies make too much sense.

Before the 2009 season, Baseball America ranked the best high school players in the country for its annual prospect handbook.

Mike Trout came in at No. 80.

Eighty.

Trout climbed the list with a strong senior season in Millville, N.J., but 21 teams still took a pass (the Nationals and Diamondbacks had two cracks at him) before the Angels finally drafted him 25th overall.

If you’re trying to understand why Trout hasn’t ever asked to be traded, his friends and former teammates suggest you start there.

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But Trout is healthy and playing well after Memorial Day for the first time since 2023. The Angels, on the other hand, entered the weekend tied for the American League’s worst record and with a fleet of shirtless protesters in the stands who want ownership to sell the team.

Trout must hear them. He has ears.

Here, then, is the question: Nine weeks until the trade deadline — with several teams, notably his hometown Phillies, desperate for a right-handed bat — will the 34-year-old future Hall of Famer finally force the issue?

“The only way it’s going to happen, I think, is if the Angels decide that they’d like to do this and would then approach Mike about it,” former Angels manager Joe Maddon said this week on Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast. “If they were to do it that way, I think it would become more amenable to Mike. But for him to be proactively trying to get this done, I don’t see that happening.”

In that case, Trout probably won’t go anywhere.

Again.

“Very possible,” Maddon said. “I can’t tell you that it’s not. It’s very possible.”

Let’s be clear: The Angels should’ve traded Trout years ago. Maddon believes the right time was when Shohei Ohtani left in free agency after the 2023 season. But Trout missed half that year with a fracture in his left hand and almost all of 2024 due to left knee surgery.

There’s also the matter of his contract. Trout is signed through 2030 for $37,116,667 per year. He’s owed a total of $148.46 million after this season, making him difficult to move even if he didn’t have blanket no-trade protection and seemingly no interest in waiving it.

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And then there’s this: “You’ve got [Angels owner] Arte [Moreno],” Maddon said, “who, I don’t think, wants to be the guy that trades Mike Trout.”

Moreno, who turns 80 in August, didn’t want to trade Ohtani either, even though his front office reportedly recommended a deadline deal in 2023 in which Ohtani would’ve gone to the Rays for slugging third baseman Junior Caminero, then a double-A prospect.

The Angels held Ohtani, then watched him sign with the Dodgers.

Trout isn’t a flight risk. He’s just rotting away.

Midway through his 16th major league season, Trout is 27th all-time in wins above replacement, based on Fangraphs’ calculations. And the Millville Meteor has played in three — count ‘em, three! — postseason games, none since 2014.

Is it any wonder that even Angels fans are rooting for Trout to get traded?

And there’s no time like the present.

“He’s playing every day, his OPS is good, he’s getting on base a lot, he looks fine in the outfield,” Maddon said. “It looks like he’s pretty healthy right now, so this is the optimal moment to do it. Or you’re just going to eat it.

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“The thing they have to realize, the Angels, is you’re not going to get the same level of prospect for Mike Trout, regardless of future Hall of Famer, that you think you’d like to. You’re going to have to lower your expectations a little bit to get this deal done. But I mean, they should get at least one, maybe two guys they kind of dig on and move it forward from right there.”

Especially given the lack of right-handed hitting across the sport.

Through Wednesday’s games, right-handed hitters were batting .238. Their collective .692 OPS would be the lowest mark since 1989. Times are tough for righty hitters everywhere. Manny Machado was batting .169 with a .603 OPS; Mookie Betts was at .182/.649; Bo Bichette (remember him?) checked in at .225/.591.

But no team has gotten less from its right-handed hitters than the Phillies. Going into the weekend at Dodger Stadium, righty-hitting Phillies were batting .207 and slugging .315 with a .585 OPS, last in the majors in all three categories and the worst marks across the board for any Phillies team since 1945.

The individual numbers:

Third base (Bohm) and right field (García) have been big problem areas. Interim manager Don Mattingly delivered a scathing indictment of García last weekend when he said he’d consider benching him except “I don’t feel like we really have a true alternative.”

Maybe it was a subliminal message to Dave Dombrowski about the Phillies’ biggest trade-deadline need. Trout has 13 homers and ranks eighth among all right-handed hitters with an .892 OPS. He’s on track for his 12th All-Star selection.

And with the All-Star Game coming to Philly two weeks before the Aug. 3 deadline, speculation is only bound to get louder that the famously diehard Eagles fan might finally move — maybe even to the all-in Phillies.

Trout wouldn’t make the Phillies’ roster younger, or help create payroll flexibility amid looming uncertainty about changes to baseball’s economic system. But a healthy Trout (also not a guarantee) could surely boost their production from the right side of the plate and provide a counterweight to lefty-swinging Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, and even emerging Brandon Marsh, Trout’s former teammate.

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Time is also running out for the Phillies to capitalize on the prime years of Harper, Schwarber and Turner, the lefty-righty tandem of aces Cristopher Sánchez and Zack Wheeler, and star closer Jhoan Duran. Rival team officials wonder if the threat of a work stoppage that could eat into next season will further heighten the urgency for Dombrowski and owner John Middleton.

(Note: The Phillies will have $38 million coming off the books after the season when they stop paying Nick Castellanos and Taijuan Walker.)

Other, less complicated options will arise, even if they aren’t evident yet. The Orioles could peddle walk-year outfielder Taylor Ward as a rental; the Astros could trade infielder Isaac Paredes; the Angels could hold Trout and move Jo Adell, a 27-year-old righty-hitting outfielder with upside.

The best fit might be in Minnesota, where Byron Buxton is in the midst of another All-Star season. But the 32-year-old center fielder also has a no-trade clause and pledged at the All-Star Game last year that he’s “a Minnesota Twin for the rest of my life.”

But what if the Twins, 27-30 going into the weekend, choose to trade ace Joe Ryan and plunge into a long-term rebuilding project? Would that test Buxton’s loyalty any more than the Angels’ failures have with Trout?

How much could the Angels get for Trout anyway?

It would depend upon how much of the contract they absorb. Maddon guessed they could net at least one top prospect, maybe two, especially if they’re willing to pay down, say, half the money owed to Trout. The Phillies could build a package around rookie center fielder Justin Crawford or outfield prospect Dante Nori.

But Trout would still have the no-trade clause.

“I hope I don’t rub anyone the wrong way,” Marsh said last year, “but I always want success for him. Just because of what he’s done for me. Seeing Trouty in a big game like that in October, that would be special.”

Asked recently by the Halo Territory podcast about fan sentiment for him to play for a contending team again, Trout conceded that he’s “been hearing it the last 10-12 years.” But he declined to discuss the possibility of a trade.

“[The Angels] gave him his chance,” former teammate Phil Gosselin said a few years ago. “They drafted him in the first round when a lot of teams probably didn’t have him as a first-rounder. He came up through the system. He knows all the people there, knows the owner.

“Everybody wants to win, but if he can win there, where they’ve had a rough go of it, that’ll mean that much more to him. He’s been there through some lean years. I think it’ll make it that much sweeter when he comes out on the other side.”

But that dream gets increasingly unlikely each season. The Angels’ 22-35 start could further test his allegiance.

“Mike’s not going to be proactively involved in setting [a trade] up,“ Maddon said. ”It’s got to be Angels-to-him, I think. And then, at that point, I think Mike would probably acquiesce and move it from there.”

Watch the latest episode

The Phillies are desperate for right-handed hitting. Mike Trout bats right-handed. But Trout also has full no-trade rights and has never asked the Angels to move him. Joe Maddon, Trout's manager for three years, joins "Phillies Extra" to answer the most important question: Why? And will this be the year that Trout asks out? Maddon also shares his thoughts on the Phillies' managerial change, Kyle Schwarber, Brandon Marsh, and more. Watch here.

You can also subscribe to the podcast version of Phillies Extra on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Previous episodes: Rhys Hoskins | Terry Francona | Aaron Rowand | Hunter Pence | Paco Figueroa | Gage Wood | Scott Boras | Brian Barber | Aaron Nola | Justin Crawford