Dustin Bradford/Getty Images2024 Salary: $35.45 million
Contract for 2025 and Beyond: 6 years, $212.7 million
2023 Stats: .263/.367/.490, 18 HR, 44 RBI
The Contract: $35.45 million in 2024, $35.45 million in 2025, $35.45 million in 2026, $35.45 million in 2027, $35.45 million in 2028, $35.45 million in 2029, $35.45 million in 2030
You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the questionable contract.
Mike Trout is still an annual All-Star, and not just because he's a household name picked on ballots around the world regardless of his performance in that season. Since the start of 2021, he has triple-slashed .283/.382/.579, averaging 45 home runs and 97 RBI on a 162-game basis.
He has also missed more games (249) than played (237) during that time, and he was diagnosed with a rare back condition in 2022 that had people speculating the superstar's career might be over.
Trout did return a month after that diagnosis and went on an absolute tear over his final 40 games with 16 home runs. However, Trout was nowhere near his usual self this past season, posting his worst marks in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage since his 40-game pre-AL ROY audition in 2011.
Granted, those worst-for-Trout marks (.263/.367/.490) were still solid, identical to what Triston Casas gave the Red Sox in 2023. And he was heating up in a big way in the weeks before suffering the hand fracture that cost him the second half of the season.
But it has been so long since we've seen anything close to a full season from Trout that the seven years and $248.15 million left on his contract are at least on the verge of getting problematic.
It's only because teammate Anthony Rendon's contract has been so far worse and because Shohei Ohtani was so entertaining in recent years with the Angels that we've yet to really reckon with whether this has become a bad contract. But Trout should get at least one more year before we even begin to consider mentioning his 12-year deal in the same breath with Giancarlo Stanton's 13-year contract.
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