It\u2019s bleak.<\/p>\n
What Trout has done so far in 33 games, however, looks like he\u2019s been exploring Florida with Daniel Ponce de Leon. His hard-hit rate of 50 percent is his highest since 2023, his Barrel percent and Barrel per Plate Appearance (Barrel\/PA) rates are the highest of his career, and he\u2019s whiffing less on fastballs and breaking balls than he has in several years.<\/p>\n
Statcast\u2019s bat speed data only goes back three seasons \u2014 and I know the metric is far from perfect \u2014 but it indicates that, in 2026, he\u2019s swinging as fast as ever.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n After multiple injury-plagued seasons, Mike Trout is looking like the Mike Trout of old again. (Geoff Stellfox \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s one reason why trading Trout, if there\u2019s a decent market for him, is the only logical move for the Angels.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not likely to contend during his contract \u2014 it\u2019s not impossible, with the expanded postseason, but the odds are low \u2014 and they could use the trade to try to add some prospects while also shedding some of the salary commitment. The Angels could swing a trade that just dumps the salary, but that isn\u2019t going to set the team in the right direction; they\u2019re not going to be able to spend their way to 90+ wins just by using whatever they save from moving his contract.<\/p>\n
They need to get one or two real prospects back, even if that means paying down some of the sunk cost already promised to Trout.<\/p>\n
If Trout keeps producing and stays healthy, as he has in the first month-plus of 2026, then the contract itself isn\u2019t an issue \u2014 his production will justify the salary. The problem is that Trout is now 34 years old and has not played a full, healthy season since 2022, nor has he been a two-win player since 2023. His own recent history and the general track record of players in their mid-30s indicates that he\u2019s probably going to get hurt again.<\/p>\n
Once that happens, the opportunity to trade him vanishes.<\/p>\n
To a contender, especially a team sitting on the bubble of a playoff spot, a two-win player isn\u2019t worth $37 million \u2014 well, unless he\u2019s replacing a negative two-win player, I guess \u2014 but a four-win player would be. If this revenant Trout is going to stick around for a year or two, and you had some reason to believe he\u2019d stay off the injured list for any extended stretches, you could take on most of the contract and probably be satisfied with the return, as long as you\u2019re not giving up any prospects.<\/p>\n
The problem for the Angels is that they really need the prospects, or young big-leaguers, more than they need the cost savings. Owner Arte Moreno has been willing to spend money, often to his detriment and that of Angels fans. He has not been willing to wait, to be patient or to demonstrate object permanence where he might close his eyes and the Angels will still be there tomorrow, probably losing another game.<\/p>\n
If the Angels do this \u2014 and I accept that we are well into highly speculative territory here, I read a lot of fiction, I know how much suspension of disbelief I\u2019m asking of you all \u2014 they need to pay a large chunk of what Trout is still owed so they get players back. It\u2019s buying prospects de facto, since doing it de jure is against the rules. Paying a third of the remaining money, about $59-60 million, makes Trout a $25 million a year expense, and that gives the acquiring team a chance to get surplus value for as long as Trout keeps hitting like this.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s rare, but we have seen players with huge contracts that might be underwater traded for returns that included real prospects and\/or young big leaguers, including most recently in the Rafael Devers trade.<\/p>\n
Devers brought back four players, including a former first-rounder who has since become a top 100 prospect in James Tibbs III and a former top 25 prospect who hadn\u2019t had big-league success yet in Kyle Harrison. Devers was still owed over $270 million at that point, with the Red Sox paying just the salary for Jordan Hicks (about $25 million), who came back as part of the return. (This deal does not look so hot for the Giants right now.)<\/p>\n
The most obvious trade partner is the Phillies, who need help in the outfield corners and would get an immediate bump from bringing a local star (he\u2019s from Millville, New Jersey, not too far from Philly, and is a diehard Eagles fan) back home. Their GM, Dave Dombrowski, has always loved acquiring big-name players, and isn\u2019t afraid to trade prospects to try to boost the major-league team. The Phillies just fired manager Rob Thomson, which doesn\u2019t exactly change their outlook for the season but does signal that they\u2019re in win-now mode. And they can probably take on a good portion of Trout\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n The Phillies make sense as a destination for Mike Trout. It helps that Trout is a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan. ( Bill Streicher \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
Philadelphia\u2019s prospect capital for trades is thin at the moment, with Aidan Miller hurt and Andrew Painter a critical part of the major-league rotation already, but I could see the Phillies parting with one of Justin Crawford or Dante Nori, both outfielders, along with some prospects from their low minors, perhaps even right-hander Gage Wood, who is throwing well in Low A as a college product.<\/p>\n
The Rangers seem like a great fit, although the whole \u201cdon\u2019t trade within your division\u201d canard might still apply. (I always thought that was dumb. Would you really refuse the best deal just because you\u2019re afraid the players you trade might do well against you later and hurt your feelings?) They could make Trout their primary DH, as he\u2019s a below-average defender in a corner now, and their DH situation is abysmal.<\/p>\n
With Joc Pederson as their primary designated hitter, the Rangers are getting a .234\/.331\/.408 line from their DHs so far that I suppose is at least an improvement over 2025\u2019s .195\/.274\/.33 line. Evan Carter has been hurt quite a bit since his stellar debut in the Rangers\u2019 run to the title in 2023, and I\u2019m not sure the Rangers would or should sell low on him, but I wonder if putting him in a deal, plus one of the Rangers\u2019 top pitching prospects would move the needle.<\/p>\n
The Giants showed last year they weren\u2019t afraid to take on a big contract when they sent four players to the Red Sox for Devers, who is now part of their DH problem. They\u2019ve gotten some production from Casey Schmitt, a good defensive third baseman who has power but doesn\u2019t walk and chases too often to see him as a long-term regular at an offensive position. It does seem like throwing good money after bad to go acquire another big-contract DH, though.<\/p>\n
The Yankees could get creative here with some of their own big contracts and perhaps slot Trout in as their DH. They still owe Giancarlo Stanton, who is nominally their DH in his brief interludes between IL stints, about $40 million through the end of 2027, including the buyout on his 2028 team option. They could send Stanton to the Angels to offset some of Trout\u2019s remaining contract, and have enough second-tier prospects after George Lombard Jr., and Dax Kilby to put together a compelling package.<\/p>\n
(I\u2019ve long been a skeptic about Spencer Jones\u2019 hit tool, but the Angels are the sort of team that can hand him 500 PA and see what happens \u2014 or, more specifically, see what happens beyond the 25+ homers he\u2019ll accidentally hit.)<\/p>\n
I considered the Mets, but they don\u2019t seem like a great fit. Rookie Carson Benge has not hit so far this year, although his future is still quite promising; they really need a first baseman, which Trout hasn\u2019t played, and putting him at DH doesn\u2019t necessarily improve their offense enough right now and potentially blocks that spot for Juan Soto for several years.<\/p>\n
The same goes for the Tigers, who have seen Kerry Carpenter get off to an alarming start with a 36.5 percent whiff rate following a decline in his overall production last year; Trout would be an improvement, but if we assume Carpenter hasn\u2019t gone over the cliff at age 28, it would be an incremental one.<\/p>\n
The Padres could find a place for his bat, but they don\u2019t have the prospects the Angels should be demanding, and I\u2019m not sure their new owners want to take on yet another long-term contract.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s quite possible that Trout will get hurt again, as he has in almost every year since the pandemic season, and obviate any discussion of his trade value. It\u2019s quite probable that Moreno won\u2019t allow GM Perry Minasian to even entertain trade offers. And there\u2019s certainly a chance, albeit small, that Trout\u2019s rally to start 2026 is a mirage \u2014 maybe just flukey, maybe a rare time when he\u2019s in such good physical condition that he can remind us of the player he once was, and some minor ailment will bring him back to earth.<\/p>\n
The Angels\u2019 future is bleak with or without him, however. Sometimes trading the best player in the franchise\u2019s history is the right move for the franchise\u2019s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Trout is having his best season since 2022, as he\u2019s fully healthy and producing like a star…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":773758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1285,1266,2083,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-773757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-los-angeles-angels","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116519225418858156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}