A couple of months ago, I was talking ball with my roommate. My roommate, a Texas Rangers fan, stated that he rather have Marcus Semien on his roster than Mike Trout. As a natural response, I called him crazy. I said that I also tend to be delusional regarding my favorite teams, at times I even think the Denver Broncos are a competent franchise, but he’s gone too far. Semien has a career .771 OPS, 1 Gold Glove, 2 Silver Sluggers, 2 All-Star selections, and has finished 3rd in MVP voting 3 times. Meanwhile, despite being younger, Trout has a career .991 OPS, 9 Silver Sluggers, 11 All-Star selections, 3 MVPs, and has finished in the top-10 in MVP voting another 7 times. There’s no comparison, Trout is a much better and more accomplished ball player. Nevertheless, on Tuesday, April 30th, the Angels announced that Mike Trout will undergo knee surgery. While he’s expected to return this season, his status is currently “out indefinitely”. Sure enough, moments later, I got the “I told you so” text from my roommate. He’s right, and this made me start thinking. Are we watching the prime of the career of one of, if not the greatest to ever play the game of baseball, slip right between our fingers?
THE BEGINNING:
Michael Nelson Trout was born on August 7th, 1991, in the town of Vineland, New Jersey. After he played his high school ball in Millville Senior HS, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim selected the 17-year-old outfielder with the 25th pick of the first round of the 2009 MLB draft. Trout worked his way up the Angels’ minor league system ranks relatively quickly and impressed the team in the 2011 Arizona Fall League. After a couple of injuries and pieces falling into place, at only 19 years of age, Trout got his first shot with the big league club in July of 2011. He struggled in his first go in the big leagues and was sent down to triple-A, before getting another shot the following year.
In 2012, Mike Trout got comfortable in the major leagues, and the rest is history. In 139 games in 2012, Trout batted .326 with an OPS of .963, launched 30 home runs, and stole 49 bases. Since Trout only has 135 plate appearances (150 counts as a rookie season), he was still considered a rookie in 2012 and easily won the Rookie of the Year Award.
Trout put up another great campaign in 2013, upping his OPS to .989 and placing second in AL MVP voting for the second consecutive year. Back-to-back monster years were enough to prove to the Angels’ front office that Trout was legit and that 2012 wasn’t a fluke. Therefore, in March of 2014, the Angels signed the 22-year-old Mike Trout to a 6-year 144.5-million-dollar contract extension. The deal instantly paid off for the Angels, as Trout was absolutely incredible in 2014. On his way to leading the team to a 98W-64L season and their first division title in years, Trout set new career highs with 36 home runs and 111 RBIs, leading the league. Unfortunately, he couldn’t prevent the Angels from being swept 3-0 by the Kansas City Royals in the Divisional Series. Nevertheless, his incredible season was easily enough to win his first MVP award.
THE PRIME:
After a superb 2014 season, Mike Trout ran it back in both 2015 and 2016. In 159 games in 2015, he hit .299 with an OPS of .991, launched 41 home runs, and finished second in MVP voting. In 159 games in 2016, Trout hit .315 with an OPS of .991 again, launched 29 home runs, drove in exactly 100 runs, and won his second AL MVP award. While all of his personal success was great, the Angels went 159W-165L over the two years and missed the playoffs both times. A narrative began to spread around the baseball community: “What if the Angels are holding back Mike Trout and wasting his prime? Does Mike Trout need to get out of Anaheim?”
Trout was eager to put these rumors to rest and started the 2017 season strong. The Angels got off to a very solid start, but then disaster struck. In late May, while stealing second base, Mike Trout tore a ligament in his thumb and missed 6 weeks. The Angels spiraled without him and by the time Trout got back, the season was out of reach. They finished the 2017 season with an 80W-82L record. It was proven to have not mattered, because in 2018 Trout played 140 games, and the Angels finished with an identical 80W-82L record. While Mike Trout is too humble to admit it, the narrative was confirmed, the Angels were holding him back. Despite all of this, in March 2019, Mike Trout signed a 12-year 430-million-dollar contract extension with the Angels, effectively making him an Angel for life. Not only is he one of the greatest ballplayers ever, but he’s also one of the most loyal and humble ballplayers ever. Trout followed up his second extension even better than he did his first. In 134 games in 2019, Mike Trout hit .291 with an absurd OPS of 1.083, launched a career-high 45 homers, drove in 104 runs, and obviously, won his third AL MVP award. Nevertheless, the Angels went 72W-90L and missed the playoffs. It was quite frankly getting ridiculous.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END:
The 2020 season was shortened due to COVID-19, but that didn’t stop Mike Trout from putting up a great season. Nevertheless, even with the 2020 expanded playoff format, to the surprise of nobody, the Angels found a way to miss the playoffs. In 2021, Mike Trout struggled with a strained calf and missed all but 36 games. Naturally, without Trout, the Angels were incompetent. Even with Shohei Ohtani putting up an MVP season, the Angels went 77W-85L and missed the playoffs, yet again. In 2022, MVP Trout was back. Between both Trout and Ohtani playing at MVP levels there was hope the Angels would finally return to the playoffs and October baseball. Unfortunately, Trout missing 5 weeks with a back ailment was all it took for Anaheim to collapse. They ended up going 73W-89L, missing the postseason.
The 2023 season was the last year of Shohei Ohtani’s contract with the Angels. It was understood that due to Trout and Rendon’s large salaries, the Angels wouldn’t be able to compete with the massive offers Ohtani would receive in the free-agent market. If they couldn’t make the playoffs with Ohtani, what chance did they have without him? Therefore, the 2023 season was their last shot, they had to go all in. In July, Trout broke the hamate in his left hand, and his season ended immediately. The Angels sat at 51W-49L a week before the trade deadline. At the time, the Angels were not in a wildcard spot and were in third place in their division. The worst AL wildcard team ended up being the Toronto Blue Jays at 89W-73L. In accordance, the Angels would’ve had to finish the year on a 39W-23L run to beat out Toronto. Even though, back in July, they didn’t know exactly what the mark would be, general manager Perry Minasian would have to be delusional to believe his team had a shot. Logically, the team should’ve thrown in the white flag and traded their players on contract years for prospects who will help the team the next time they’re relevant. However, Minasian refused to do so, and in an attempt to bring in rental players for their all-in run, he traded away the teams’ future. This decision instantly backfired and the Angels collapsed. They finished with a 73W-89L record for the second straight year and lost Ohtani along with a handful of their top prospects.
Entering this season, I expected the Angels to be horrible, and finish in last behind the Oakland Athletics. Nonetheless, out of nowhere, the 2019 version of Mike Trout was back. With Trout playing out of his mind, the Angels got off to a decent 9W-9L start. But Trout couldn’t do it on his own forever. The Angels proceeded to lose 9 of their next 10 games. Even with Trout being on paste for 58 home runs, the Angels were 10W-19L. The next night, the Angels got a big come-from-behind, 6-5 win over the Phillies. They thought they might be able to build on this win and get hot, but little did they know, in said win, Mike Trout tore his meniscus. The Angels weren’t good to begin with, now that Trout is sidelined for the foreseeable future, it is safe to assume the Angels aren’t making the playoffs this year.
This is Mike Trout’s 6th major injury since 2017. Considering the way his body deteriorating, I doubt his prime will last much longer. He doesn’t become an unrestricted free agent until 2031, after his age-38 season, so it’s unlikely he’ll be nearly the same on his next contract. As I’ve made clear, the Angels currently aren’t good, to make things worse they have arguably the worst farm system in baseball. With MLB.com’s 30th-ranked farm system, it’s hard to see the Angels improving before undergoing a major rebuild. In addition, both Trout and general manager, Perry Minasian have knocked down any mention of a Trout trade. With all that said, I believe that Mike Trout will be on underwhelming Anaheim teams for the remainder of his career and will not win a single playoff game in his prime. His only chance at seeing success in October is if he ring chases and signs with a contender in 2031. But even then, he’ll be old, washed, and not the real Mike Trout. It truly saddens me that the Angels have stolen the GOAT’s prime.
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