Category Archives: Opinion

Mike Trout 2025 season review

Out of Right Field – 2025 Season Review

“I haven’t really felt like myself in the last few years. I don’t know exactly how it got off track. Just over time, I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it is. But when it’s on track, it feels like my old self.” – Mike Trout

Mike Trout started the year telling reporters that he didn’t always feel like his old self. That statement seemed to sum up his entire season. Between moments of brilliance that reminded everyone of the “old Mike Trout” were frustrating droughts at the plate and the lingering effects of a bone bruise that kept him out of the field.

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Mike Trout talks with reporters about his knee injury

Meniscus – 2024 Season Review

To say that Mike Trout’s 2024 season was a disappointment would be an understatement. With less than 30 days under his belt, Mike tore the meniscus in his left knee. He immediately underwent surgery to repair the tear. Then while rehabbing in a July Salt Lake Bees game he felt continued pain. It was soon revealed that he had suffered another tear on the same knee. This cut his season to the fewest games he has ever played in a season. He was leading the league in home runs when his injury struck

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Mike Trout 2023 season review

The Backhand – 2023 Season Review

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.

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Mike Trout Cowboy Hat

In the Ribs – 2022 Season Review

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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.

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It Didn’t Even Happen – 2021 Season Review

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Mike Trout’s 2021 season will hopefully be remembered as the worst of his career. In the pandemic shortened 2020 season Trout only played in 53 games. To everyone’s shock that would not be the lowest game total in his career. On May 17th, while playing the Cleveland Indians, Trout pulled his right calf while running from second to third base on a 2-out pop-up. He immediately knew he was seriously hurt upon returning to the dugout. He later explained that he felt a pop while pushing off.

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Mike Trout 2020 Season Review

The Mad Dash – 2020 Season Review

Mike Trout’s 2020 season ended with MLB’s playoffs once again lacking the best player in a quest for a championship. A shortened season caused by a global pandemic casts a sense of proportion on the disappointment, but in baseball terms. . . this is getting old.

The 2020 season offered a lot of promise for the Angels to reach the finally reach the playoffs for the first time since 2014. Anthony Rendon signed a free-agent contract and would provide sufficient lineup protection for Trout. Shohei Ohtani would be able to rejoin the meager pitching staff. Top prospect Jo Adell would be waiting in the wings to join the team, and the league would open up the playoff structure so that half of the total teams would make the playoffs. For the Angels to miss the playoffs in that situation the team would have to seriously underperform. Sadly, that is exactly what happened.

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The Best Yet – 2019 Season Review

The 2019 season ends with Mike Trout turning in what he considers his best season to date. It’s hard to argue with his assessment and impossible to argue against his place as the best in the game.

The season began with Mike Trout signing the largest contract in MLB history. $426.5 million over 13 years with an average annual value of $36.5 million, the contract effectively insures Trout will remain an Angel for the rest of his career. He showed that he was absolutely worth every penny by outperforming the contract once again. His value to his team for the year could easily have been worth as much as $60-80 million as compared to other free agent signings.

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Mike Trout 2019

Settling In – 2019 and Beyond

After signing a career forming contract that will likely leave him in an Angels uniform for the rest of his career, Mike Trout sets out to lead his team into the playoffs. Most pundits and projection systems have the Angels as a slightly improved team from 2018 that is one of the last teams to miss the playoffs. While there is some chance that the Angels out-perform these predictions a lot will ride on players not-named Mike Trout. Most notably the starting pitching staff will have to exhibit greater resilience to injury than it has shown in the last several years. Other players such as Justin Upton and Shohei Ohtani will need to return from injury with the power to impact the offense in ways that prevent teams from intentionally walking Trout.

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Trout’s Next Contract

This offseason has seen the signing of contracts of three of Mike Trout’s contemporaries. Manny Machado signed a ten year deal with the Padres. Nolan Arenado remains with the Rockies for potentially another 8 years. Bryce Harper just completed terms with the Phillies, locking him up for 13 years. In addition Giancarlo Stanton is in the midst of a 13 year contract with the Marlins/Yankees. These four contracts represent the best available information about what kind of extension the Angels might offer Trout and/or what kind of deal he might expect on the open market after the 2020 season. While none of these players offer the same performance value as Trout, in fact he might be as good as any two of them combined, they represent the elite talent at the same age.

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