There are only 15 days remaining until the MLB trade deadline and the Angels are on the clock. They must decide whether to trade Shohei Ohtani, possibly the best overall player of all time. Is the greatest deadline rental ever about to become available, and if so, what kind of haul will it take to land him?

The front-office decision-makers I’ve communicated with over the past several days have mixed opinions on whether the Angels will trade Ohtani by the Aug. 1 deadline. Some said the Angels told them they aren’t going to trade him, while others said the Angels will at least listen to offers. But the majority of the general managers and presidents of baseball operations I’ve surveyed think the most reasonable path for the Angels is to trade him, and believe they will eventually come to that conclusion.

Only time will tell what Angels owner Arte Moreno and GM Perry Minasian decide. However, even though it would be incredibly difficult to part with Ohtani, that’s what I believe they should do.

It’s a complicated situation. Let’s review where things stand.

First, the Angels would prefer to make the playoffs this year with Ohtani, then re-sign him in the offseason when he becomes a free agent. If they can reach the postseason, they think they’ll be able to persuade him to stay. But entering Monday, the Angels are six games back in the American League wild-card race, and right now would have to jump over the Yankees, Red Sox and Astros to get in. They’d also have to fend off the Mariners, who are one game ahead of them in the standings, and the Guardians, who are a half game behind them. To make matters worse, Mike Trout is on the injured list with no announced timeline for his return. The Angels are 46-48 and have never finished above .500 since they signed Ohtani before the 2018 season. They’re being unrealistic if they think they are a playoff team; they’re not.

Second, Ohtani has publicly said and made clear to people close to him that joining a winning organization will be an important factor when he decides which team to sign with in free agency. The Angels simply don’t have the farm system or major-league roster to show him that they will be a top-notch team in the near future. They just don’t have enough talent to trade now, nor do they have the prospect capital to turn things around in the next couple of years.

Therefore, the Angels have two choices: Keep Ohtani at the trade deadline and say goodbye to him in free agency, only receiving draft-pick compensation after making him the qualifying offer, or trade him in the next two weeks and get a significant return to bolster both their prospect pool and major-league team. In fact, if they make the right trade, it might even help them re-sign Ohtani as a free agent because they’d be able to show him how much the team — and its future — has improved with the infusion of talent from the deal.

Let’s try to determine his trade value at a high level, remembering that he’d only be a two- to three-month rental.

During MLB Network’s All-Star television coverage, Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez looked over at future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols and said that Ohtani is like both of them put together: an ace like Martinez was and an impact middle-of-the-order bat like Pujols was. I loved that framing because it’s a real reflection of his value. A team that acquires Ohtani gets an ace and a big bat. He would dramatically improve any contending team’s chances of making the playoffs or even winning a world championship. Therefore, the return must be in the range of five to eight players, depending on the level of talent going back to Los Angeles.

A best-case scenario for the Angels would be if Ohtani’s representatives at CAA came to them and said, “If you trade him to team X, we would try to work out a long-term deal with that team during a 48-hour window.” (Trades can be structured so that they’re pending an agreement between the player and his new team.) Then, the Angels could maximize the return even further. However, I’m told by major-league sources that scenario is not realistic, and that Ohtani is going to hit free agency in November so he can receive his true value, which most industry experts believe will be somewhere between $500 million and $600 million.