Stephen A. Smith slams the Los Angeles Angels during First Take

In the past two games, the Los Angeles Angels lost three key players due to injuries. That included Mike Trout, who broke his hamate bone, Shohei Ohtani, who had a blister, and Anthony Rendon, who has a shin contusion.

Amid a slide in the standings, the Angels are facing a difficult schedule that will likely see Los Angeles fall out of the AL West race without those star players. Then, Ohtani is expected to leave in free agency for a true competitor in the offseason. So, many think he should be traded for whatever Los Angeles can get.

Whether or not it’s time to trade Ohtani was what was being debated on First Take, when Stephen A. Smith went as far as to say that nobody cares about the Angels.

Don't expect to catch Stephen A. Smith at a Los Angeles Angels game any time soon pic.twitter.com/W3tsDJJDiw

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 5, 2023

“Oh, who cares,” Smith said. “I wish him [Rendon] well…Okay, let me say something. I wish him well. Not talking about wishing, not rooting against him being healthy or whatever.”

Rendon is one of the highest paid players on the Angels. However, as Smith insisted, nobody cares about the team at the end of the day.

“The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, no one cares about you. No one. I don’t even, I’ve been in LA quite often. I never hear anybody talking about the Angels. We love driving by the stadium. It looks really nice. No one cares. You’re irrelevant. Period.”

Baseball personality Jared Carrabis agreed with Smith’s sentiments on Twitter, posting, “Very mean. very fair. nobody cares about the Angels; they care about Shohei and Trout. still mean tho.”

At the same time, Carrabis questioned if Smith is the right voice to be hearing this from, tweeting, “The problem with Stephen A. Smith chiming in on the Angels isn’t about whether what he said was right or wrong. It’s that he’s attempting to speak to baseball fans and baseball fans know he doesn’t care about baseball. So regardless of the accuracy, we ain’t tryna hear it.”

Shohei Ohtani hit the longest home run of the year

While Shohei Ohtani’s blister might keep him off the mound for some time, baseball’s best player should be able to get in the batter’s box again, where he has been dominant. That recently included hitting the longest home run of the season.

FIRST TO 3️⃣0️⃣ HR 🚀

Shohei Ohtani’s 493-ft homer is the longest by any player this season and a career-best 💪

(via @MLB)pic.twitter.com/7mJDuRk19v

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 1, 2023

As of now, Shohei Ohtani leads MLB in home runs with 31 and fans are preparing for him to chase Aaron Judge’s AL single season home run record of 62. He’s doing this all while being one of the best pitchers in baseball.