Another disappointing year for the Angels and for superstar Mike Trout comes to a close. With the impending free-agency of Shohei Ohtani, it seemed to be a critical year for the Angels to improve and display their ability to be a playoff bound team. Sadly that was not in the cards for the team. For the ninth straight year the Angels failed to make the playoffs and for the eighth straight year the Angels finished the year with a losing record. For Trout, he finished his third straight year with a major injury that left him off the field for a significant amount of time.

A common trope on Twitter has been “Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani do something amazing as Angles lose 5-3.” Once again the “stars and scrubs” approach to building a roster has failed the Angels’ hopes of making the playoffs for the first time since 2014. The disappointment fans felt this year was similar to taking a fastball to the ribs. The Angels came out of the gate with a strong promising start that seemed to be a sure sign that this was a playoff team. Those dreams ended when the team lost 14 games in a row and manager Joe Maddon was fired. “How could this happen again?” is the question that surrounds fans of Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels.