What’s getting lost in the mess that is Mark Trumbo at third base for the Angels is the fact that Trumbo just isn’t much of an offensive upgrade.
Trumbo, who committed his third error in two games in the Angels’ 7-3 loss to the Royals on Sunday, hit .254/.291/.477 as a rookie last season, giving him a .768 OPS. Nothing in his minor league track record suggests that he’s going to get a lot better at age 26. Maybe he will anyway -- he was better than I thought he would be at age 25 -- but the odds of him hitting enough to make up for what will be, at best, a well below average glove at third are long.
Alberto Callaspo, a perfectly average defensive third baseman, hit .288/.366/.375 in 475 at-bats for the Angels last season. No, he didn’t come close to matching Trumbo’s RBI total, but he was just about as valuable offensively thanks to the extra 75 points of OBP. And the Angels aren’t exactly starving for a .300 OBP-30 HR guy hitting seventh when they have Torii Hunter, Kendrys Morales and Vernon Wells following Albert Pujols in the order. A .280/.350/.370 line from Callaspo will do just fine.
The Angels also have super-sub Maicer Izturis available to play the position. He hit .276/.334/.388 in his 449 at-bats last year.
I don’t think the Angels should abandon the Trumbo experiment entirely, but he should be the team’s third option at third base, not the first. If that means he doesn’t start more than once or twice per week between there and DH, that’s fine. The Angels could always work him out in left field, too. Of course, Mike Trout is awaiting his chance in Triple-A, but Trumbo has a better chance of being an upgrade on Wells than he does on the current third basemen.