If Mike Trout had any thought of leaving Southern California, that was quickly extinguished today when the Angels decided to back up the Brinks truck to the Trout home.
Tuesday, as the baseball world was still somewhat recovering from the deal Bryce Harper signed with the Phillies a couple weeks back and the potentiality of two of the biggest names in baseball somehow joining forces in the City of Brotherly Love sometime in the near future, the Angels responded.
The Halos responded with what is now the largest contract is sports history, a 12-year deal worth $430 million dollars… almost a half a billion dollars to keep what is essentially the face of Major League Baseball in Los Angeles.
This is $100 million more than what Harper signed at with the Phillies and will roughly mean that Trout will make $98 thousand a day and around $221 thousand per game.
Let those numbers marinate.
Currently the 27-year-old Trout is riding a $144 million dollar deal that set to expire in 2020. His new deal, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times has no opt-outs meaning arguably baseball’s greatest player of this generation will remain an Angel for the rest of his MLB career.
The biggest question from here though is not whether or not Mike Trout is worth the money but does the formula the Angels are working with here translate to success on the field and ultimately a World Series or two?
So far during the Trout tenure in LA, the Angels have made the postseason just once and have failed to surround the star with adequate help to even really sniff the playoffs.
The Angels have undoubtedly bought themselves plenty of time to make it work with Trout, but you have to ask yourself does the team have anything left in the piggybank, at least down the road to get the help that Trout will desperately need? The guy is just entering his prime as a baseball player and he may get a little bit better a long the way, but asking him to bring the Angels success entirely on his own isn’t fair – no matter how much money you pay him – nor has he really proven he can do so.
