In this case, the discount meant signing a deal like Harper and Machado’s instead of one like Alex Rodriguez’s.Īfter Harper and Machado signed their contracts, I attempted to compare the two deals because it can be difficult to put a 13-year deal and a 10-year deal for differing amounts into proper context. Because the Angels’ risk of losing Trout wasn’t going to present itself for another two seasons, any new contract with him was going to come with a discount. Because Trout had two more years left until free agency (instead of entering the market last offseason), he was limited to the Angels when it came to contract partners. That bargain five years ago made the current one possible. Even if his goal was to reach free agency again and sign a second monstrous contract, he still is worth so far more than the roughly $30 million per year he signed away three free agent years for. This doesn’t come anywhere near Trout’s value, and Trout has left an enormous amount of money on the table. Trout would have made something like $50 to $60 million in arbitration had he gone year to year, so the Angels are basically getting three free agent years for $85 to $95 million. You don’t need another 1,500 word explanation of why this is a hilarious steal for the Angels. When Trout actually signed, Cameron followed up: Before he signed a six-year, $144.5 million contract giving away three free agent seasons, Dave Cameron wrote about the potential for a contract extension, and expected a figure more than $100 million higher. His 29.2 WAR mark through his age-22 season was the best in baseball history. In 2014, Trout was coming off an eight-win season, which itself came on the heels of two 10-win campaigns. This is not the first time Trout has made this choice, which is very much a personal decision, but it is one that has cost him potentially hundreds of millions of dollars. Trout is essentially accepting something similar to the Harper/Machado deals two years in advance. Because Trout was already owed $66.5 million over the next two seasons, the contract is functionally a 10-year extension worth $360 million. As first reported by Passan, Mike Trout and the Angels have agreed to a 12-year deal worth $430 million, with Bill Shaikan reporting the deal will come in at $426.5 million. And yet Mike Trout is about to agree to a contract that, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan, will pay him like he’s one of the greatest players of this generation instead of potentially being the greatest player of this century, and one of the greatest baseball talents of all time. He’s been more than twice as valuable as each of those players in their young careers. Mike Trout is a better player than Bryce Harper and Manny Machado combined.
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