When we first heard Los Angeles Angels GM Perry Minasian talking about having star DH Mike Trout return to the outfield, we thought it must be a joke. Surely Minasian was just leading the media on after the winter meetings to have a quick laugh, but it’s turning out that that’s not the case.

“I’m not ruling anything out,” Minasian said in a piece by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “We’ll see where the team looks like when we get to spring training and what’s in place and what gives us the best chance to win games. Might be playing center. One day might be playing left. One day might be DHing. I don’t know.

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“When Mike is healthy, he can play the outfield at a high level. So he’s feeling good. He’s motivated to play the outfield. To what degree he does that? We’ll see what the roster looks like and it’ll also be [manager Kurt Suzuki’s] decision.”

This is an amazing statement given how long it’s taken the Angels to get Trout back to a place where can be productive offensively. After struggling to deal with knee issues, Trout posted decent numbers offensively, including five home runs in his last seven games to go with those 400 career home runs and the 26 he hit during the season.

The Angels do need a centerfielder, but it shouldn’t be Mike Trout. Minasian, however, said he’s keeping his options open, which includes Trout seeing time at all three outfield positions. The risk seems enormous compared to the return, and you have to wonder if this isn’t Arte Moreno getting back some money on Trout’s huge contract again if he does get hurt, not to mention being able to avoid spending money on an outfielder.

“Probably the best way to put it, do we have to go get a center fielder? Not necessarily,” Minasian said. “We have some players that we believe can fill the position and obviously, Teodosio can play defense at a very high level. It’s more player-specific. Does this guy fit? Does he change our team? Does he help us on both sides of the ball? That type of thing. Does it improve our depth? So is it a must? I wouldn’t say it’s a must, but is it an area we’re looking at? Absolutely.”

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All we can hope is that this doesn’t come close to happening. Mike Trout gave the Angels some solid offense as he adjusted to the DH role, and the Halos should do all they can to keep him healthy, including not playing him in the outfield at all.