The Los Angeles Angels will be at a crossroads this offseason, and Mike Trout wants to talk with the team’s management about it.
The Angels are expected to lose two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani in free agency this offseason. Should the Angels lose Ohtani, they will be without the player who has carried them the last three seasons.
The Angels haven’t had a winning season since 2015 and couldn’t even win more than 77 games despite Ohtani playing at MVP levels. The team just traded away several prospects at the deadline in an effort to push for the playoffs, but they played poorly in August and sold away their players.
Where do the Angels go from here? A rebuild is the only sensible thing, though owner Arte Moreno has refused to do that for the last decade. The result has been 6 fourth-place finishes in the AL West over the last eight years.
Trout said Friday that he plans to talk with the team’s management to see what the Angels’ direction will be.
“There are going to be some conversations in the winter, for sure. Just to see the direction of everything and what the plan is,” Trout said, according to the OC Register’s Jeff Fletcher.
Trout also refused to answer a question about whether he would seek a trade. The former three-time AL MVP has seven years and $252 million remaining on his contract. He has a full no-trade clause.
Trout can still hit and play well in the outfield, but he can’t stay healthy. He missed most of the 2021 season due to a calf strain. He missed over 40 games last season with a back injury. And he’s missed half of this season due to a broken bone in his hand.
If the Angels were to actually rebuild, that would start with the team trying to find a taker on Trout, whose contract isn’t looking so good. The team is locked into paying a combined $75 million per year for Trout and Anthony Rendon from 2024-2026. Trying to shed big contracts and rebuild properly is the only thing that makes sense, but Arte Moreno has never been known to do the sensible thing.
