By Mike Rifkin
On Saturday, the biggest contract given out in professional sports was signed. Shohei Ohtani decided to stay in California, but instead of staying in Anaheim, he took the I5 to Los Angeles and played for the Dodgers, who is saying no to 10 years and 700 million dollars. We can discuss who is the biggest loser of this deal, but nobody is a bigger loser than the Angels. They lose the best player in Baseball, the best show in Baseball, and to make it worse, he’s going to your in-state rival. But let’s go back to the trade deadline, where the Angels had an opportunity to move Ohtani but instead doubled down and tried to make a run at the playoffs.
The Angels acquired pitchers Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Dominic Leone, first baseman CJ Cron, and outfielder Randal Grichuk. Giolito was 1-5 with a 6.89 ERA before being claimed on waivers by the Guardians, Lopez was 0-2 with a 2.77 ERA in 13 games before also being claimed by the Guardians. Leone had a 5.54 ERA in 11 games before being claimed by the Mariners. Cron had one home run, five RBIs, and a slash line of .200/.259/.260 in 14 games. Grichuk had eight home runs and 17 RBI, along with a slash line of .216/.264/.412 in 54 games as an Angel. Outside of Lopez, all of these players are still free agents.
The Angels have two massive contracts on their books: Anthony Rendon and Mike Trout. Rendon signed a seven-year 245 million-dollar contract with the Angels after he won the World Series with the Nationals in 2019. In four years since, Rendon has played in 200 games and has 22 home runs and 111 RBI with a slash line of .249/.359/.399. Rendon has been often injured since signing with the Angels, but that hasn’t prevented him from being immature off the field. Last season, he got into a heated argument with a fan in Oakland that got him suspended. Late last season, while out with an ankle injury, reporters asked for an update, and Rendon said, “No habla Ingles today.” Rendon’s contract is one of the worst the Angels have signed up there with Josh Hamilton, CJ Wilson, etc.… Rendon will make 38.6 million dollars per year until 2026.
As for Trout, he will make 37.1 Million Dollars per season until 2030. Trout, when healthy, is still one of the many faces of Baseball. Injuries have been consistent for the former three-time MVP. Trout was limited to 82 games last season. General Manager Perry Minasian said at the Winter Meetings, “Mike Trout will not be getting traded.” “100 percent.” Mike Trout has made the playoffs once in his future Hall Of Fame career, which should be considered a sin in its own right, and he didn’t make the playoffs with Shohei Ohtani as his teammate.
Now, the Angels love to act as a big market team. Sometimes, the contracts work out for Ohtani, Trout, and Albert Pujols ( they only signed him for the milestones, so it worked out; don’t look at overall numbers). But most of the time, it hasn’t Josh Hamilton, CJ Wilson, or Anthony Rendon. Let me ask Angel fans two questions: 1) Are you surprised Ohtani left? 2) What is a real expectation for this team in 2024? If you answered that no, you’re not surprised, and you don’t know what to expect, that puts you in one of the worst spots in sports, the middle. So here’s the thing: going all in at the trade deadline backfired in the worst way possible, and no, Ohtani is gone, but now you HAVE TO CONSIDER moving Trout. It’s an unpopular opinion, but one of the things you have to ask is how far away this team is. How much did the trade deadline set them back? It backfired.
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