Angels mailbag: Where should Mike Trout finish in the AL MVP race?

Hello, Angels fans. The 2016 season is ending, and the club is 69-87, on pace to win 72 games. They played two competent teams last week in Texas and performed fine against them, and now they will face Oakland and Houston to conclude the campaign.

Here’s the place to ask anything you want about the Angels, as all year long, with questions submitted through my email (pedro.moura@latimes.com) and Twitter accounts (@pedromoura).

First, and it is not particularly close. The best baseball player alive performed as such. He was better this season than any player or pitcher in any league. The man who seems increasingly likely to win, Boston’s Mookie Betts, is an incredible player, but really does not have much a case against Trout. Yes, they are about equal in home runs, stolen bases and overall baserunning, batting average, and slugging percentage. Yes, most defensive metrics measure Betts better in the field, while Trout plays a more valuable position.

But to support Betts over Trout overlooks one massive gap within their statistics: Trout’s on-base percentages is 72 points better than Betts’. Put another way, Trout has been 20% more likely than Betts to reach base when batting.

The point of batting, you might have heard, is to score runs. And the best way to score runs is to not make outs. Trout has been the best at that, by far. Even David Ortiz, the retiring Red Sox slugger, trails him by 32 points. If it was a hitting-only award, Ortiz winning would be fine, as he and Trout are about equally valuable there. But to support him would require ignoring the other aspects of the game, namely baserunning and defense.

Trout continued to be the best baseball player alive. Andrelton Simmons played shortstop as advertised and improved his hitting. Until his traumatic brain injury, Matt Shoemaker proved to be a dependable starting pitcher, someone the Angels should be able to count on, and indications are he can return next season. A few potentially useful players emerged: the positionless Jefry Marte, catcher Jett Bandy, reliever Cam Bedrosian. 

Two answers in one: The Angels do not need to sign Escobar to an extension. They can bring him back for next season at $7 million, or they can buy his contract option out for $1 million. He turns 34 in five weeks, but he should be able to provide $6 million in value next year. There’s no reason to bet beyond that, though.

As has been covered in this space an untold number of times, the Angels cannot sign any international players to bonuses totaling more than $300,000 until July 2, 2017. The ban is a consequence of the $8-million bonus they doled out to Roberto Baldoquin in the 2014-15 off-season, a decision that cost them about $15 million because of taxes and appears to be a massive waste.

I’d guess yes, but it’s possible they acquire another option. Cliff Pennington is fine as a placeholder if the team elects to put its focus on 2018. Kaleb Cowart could compete there in the spring. 

As I’ve written here, the market for Escobar’s services in trade does not quite reflect his value as a hitter, because there are clubhouse concerns, as well as his troubles on the bases and in the field. He has been about an average major league regular this year. But his future is hard for me to project, and I don’t know what the Angels’ plan for him is. 

Yes, some combination of those six is likely, though the Angels will surely bring more competitors to camp and let them try to earn a spot.

Nothing since this.

I don’t think the Angels are lacking in motivation. As far as I’ve ascertained, there was no drop in effort after they were eliminated from playoff contention. There’s plenty of personal motivation inherent in playing professional baseball, like the millions on the line. So, I expect them to try to win those games.

To answer those last two in one, the Angels have not approached Calhoun about an extension, as far as I know. He is going to enter his second year of arbitration this off-season and stands to earn another significant raise. The team can unilaterally choose to keep him through the 2019 season, but after that he will be a free agent — a 32-year-old free agent.

His age is certainly one factor in the lack of extension talks, but he’s a very valuable player right now, and if the club is not going to contend next season, there’s not a lot of sense in keeping him. It would make sense to explore a trade.

As far as Cron, he does not have much trade value as a below-average defensive first baseman with a career .267/.309/.455 batting line. But if he can keep up this year’s slightly improved performance — on offense and defense — in 2017, I could see him attracting more interest.

One last two-in-one: There is no sense in discussing specific free-agent targets right now. The Angels will have interest in any good players they can get for a good price, but it’s pretty much impossible to judge players’ eventual price right now.

This is an interesting question. Huston Street remains under contract for next season, but he had the worst year of his career in 2016, and there’s ample reason to think Cam Bedrosian will be better than him next season. Bedrosian is certainly a more powerful pitcher. 

Still, Street has long argued he is more effective as a closer. He has plenty of financial motivation to argue that, but if he is even a bit better in a ninth-inning role, with the certainty it provides, it makes sense to keep him there and use Bedrosian as a setup man. There’s nothing wrong with using your best reliever in the eighth inning.

I’m sure the Angels will monitor the market for Andrew Bailey in the off-season. I don’t expect it to be robust. He was signed as a minor league free agent six or so weeks ago. 

Now, remember, I have never seen many of the Angels’ minor leaguers play baseball competitively, but from talking to people around the game, I believe the Angels’ top prospects are: outfielder Jahmai Jones, first baseman Matt Thaiss, and right-hander Alex Meyer, if you still consider him a prospect. 2015 first-round catcher Taylor Ward is probably next. The 2017 first-round choice, whoever he is, should immediately leapfrog the aforementioned men.

I am not quite sure yet, because I don’t think all the players are sure yet. It’s certainly something we will follow in the off-season. But I do know this: Jordan Serena, a 24-year-old Class-A infielder, played on the Great Britain team that was just eliminated from qualifiers. Also on that team were former Angels left-hander Michael Roth and ex-outfield prospect Antoan Richardson.

Arte Moreno, the Angels owner, has declined repeated requests to be interviewed by The Times, so I cannot tell you for certain. But I think we can safely assume that he wants to remain the owner of the Angels because he has remained the owner of the Angels. He gets to decide that.

Rafael Ortega has not performed like a major league hitter this year. He’s nice to have as organizational depth, but not the type of player you want in your opening-day lineup. Jefry Marte demonstrated he can hit for power, as scouts have been predicting for a long time, but his defense in left fields needs a ton of work. So, no, I don’t think that combination could be serviceable.

Neither. Please upgrade the food at Angel Stadium for 2017, concession gods.

What an odd question. But, man, I used to love boba tea. When I attended USC, I would go to one of the chain tea shops around school and get it like three or four times a week. A group of us even considered renting one of the sealing machines so we could make our own at home. But then I realized how sweet those milk teas and blended drinks are. I don’t think I’ve had any this year. Shoutout to The Boba Truck, though. That place is great.

Pedro,

Japanese youngster Shohei Otani appears to be uniquely good at baseball. Star pitcher and hitter a la Babe Ruth. MLB player development makes prospects pick a path. Do you think there's an AL club out there wealthy enough to land him and open-minded enough to give him a shot as a SP and regular DH? Is success plausible for a two-way player at the MLB level? Sure would be exciting. 

-Andy Whalen (via email)

I have never seen the 22-year-old Otani hit or pitch, but plenty of scouts employed by major league teams have, and they rave about him, particularly as a pitcher. I’ve heard several Yu Darvish comparisons cited. Now, I’m generally against the comparing of a prospect to someone from the same place as him — it often seems lazy. But from what I can tell, which is again not much, it is apt in this case.

That said, from what I understand, Otani’s potential is greater as a pitcher than a hitter. He has good raw power, but it is not pure, 80-grade, power, according to scouts I know who’ve seen him. So, while it is intriguing to dream of him as a potential DH in his spare time, I don’t think that’s very likely. In fact, he probably has more value to a National League team, what with the guaranteed 80 or 90 plate appearances.

That concludes this week’s Angels mailbag. Send in your questions to the below addresses at any time, and check back next Monday for answers in the last mailbag of the regular season.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura