With Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, the Angels have two of the best hitters in baseball right now. That gives Joe Maddon flexibility with how he wants to order his lineup.
To begin the spring, Maddon has been putting Ohtani in the leadoff spot, with Trout batting second. However, the Angels skipper decided to flip the two on Friday/Saturday, just to see what it looks like.
“It’s an interesting thing,” Maddon said, via MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger. “There’s nothing to read into, but it’s definitely a possibility. I just wanted to invert them and see what it looks like with Shohei behind Mikey and how that affects him.