The biggest issue this major league offseason is Shohei Ohtani’s free agent contract. Which team will give Ohtani a contract that is certain to be the largest ever? The outline will gradually be revealed early next month when the World Series ends.
However, there is another superstar who will receive as much attention as Ohtani. This is Mike Trout, who played as a ‘double gun’ with Ohtani for the LA Angels for six years. This is because the Angels can trade Trout this winter.먹튀검증
USA Today reporter Bob Nightingale said on the 12th (Korean time), ‘The Angels are willing to trade Trout if he wants to. He has the right to completely veto trades, but he recently revealed that he would like to personally discuss the direction of the club with the high-ranking front office. However, Trout’s trade value is not as high as it used to be. There has not been a season in which he has played more than 140 games since 2016, and he has missed 249 games over the past three years. He ended the season early again this year. He receives $248.15 million over the remaining seven years of his contract.
What is noteworthy is that he wants to meet with the Angels team management.
The Angels were unable to play fall baseball this season either. 2014 was the only time Trout played in the postseason since his major league debut in 2011. Until this year, he had not been able to stand at bat in the common postseason for 9 consecutive years. Houston Astro Jose Altuve, who has advanced to the ALCS for the 7th consecutive year, has played in a total of 96 postseason games since his debut in 2015, won two World Series and was selected as ALCS MVP once. He has hit 24 home runs in his postseason career, ranking him second all-time in this category. He is a representative hitter who enjoys fall baseball without hesitation.
This is the most fatal complex Trout has against Altuve, whom he meets numerous times during the season as a member of the same AL West division.
“We do that every year,” Trout said of his meetings with team management, but it looks like things will be different this time. This is because it is certain that the Angels will begin a full-scale rebuild. Ohtani is leaving anyway, and they can’t bring in a big free agent to replace him.
If the club’s direction after next year is rebuilding rather than winning, this is sufficient justification for Trout to request a trade. Rather, the team could take the initiative and ask Trout if he wants to trade.
Trout’s trade rumors have already been brewing since the middle of last month.
In relation to this, another prominent major league reporter drew attention by pointing out Trout’s trade destination. New York Post columnist John Heyman said on the 14th, ‘People believe that if Trout wants to be traded, his hometown of Philadelphia and the New York Yankees will be interested.’
He continued, “However, people around the Angels team say that Trout has never given any hint as to which team he wants to go to,” and predicted, “Even if the Angels let Trout go, they will have to pay a portion of his huge salary.”
However, Heyman’s analysis is that the group of prospects that the Angels will obtain by trading Trout as a trade card will not be as large as expected. He spent about half of this season on the disabled list due to injury. Few people expect Trout, who turns 33 next year, to recapture the performance he had in 2019 (45 home runs, 1.083 OPS), the last time he was named MVP.
In other words, it will not be easy to trade Trout. In response, Heyman made this suggestion: The question is, why not trade him for Giancarlo Stanton of the Yankees? Of course, it is a trade that has no particular appeal to the Angels. Stanton missed about two months in the first half of this year due to a hamstring injury and had a batting average of only 0.191 in 101 games. He signed a 13-year, $325 million contract in November 2014 while with the Miami Marlins and was traded to the Yankees after the 2017 season. He still has four years left on his contract.