Could this really happen in the age of the A-rod contract fallout and even with Trout’s own teammate in Albert Pujols showing why longterm mega-deals bite teams? It absolutely can.
While we’re a ways away from any announcements made between the Angels and Trout, contract talks have begun and the consensus is that Trout will definitely see a boost in salary.
With talks of multi-year deals in the air, one would be remiss to not at least ponder the chances of Trout getting a mega-deal. At 22-years-old with 2 seasons for the ages under his belt, if anyone is deserving of a 10 year deal surely it is Trout.
Fangraphs, too pondered this and the possibility of this occurring doesn’t seem farfetched at all:
As good and as young as Kershaw is, the reality remains that Trout is significantly better, projecting for roughly +4 WAR per season more than Kershaw going forward. In fact, Trout’s forecasts suggest he is, by himself, as valuable as Kershaw and Freeman put together, and they combined to sell their FA years for pretty close to that $54 million per year mark. While we could put together a reasonable argument that Trout is worth $50M per year for his free agent years, he’s not going to get that; it’s just too far removed from the norms of the day….
Pricing those free agent years at $40 million apiece, in addition to the $60 million he’d be getting for his remaining years of team control, would bring the total deal to $260 million over nine years. The deal would fall short of being the largest contract in baseball history, but would easily be the largest deal for any player still under team control.
If they want to avoid a bidding war that might eventually push Trout’s total contract up near $400 million, they should get him signed sooner than later. 9/$260M or 10/$300M might sound insane, but really, it would represent Trout taking a bit less than what he’s actually worth. That’s how good he is. And that’s why this deal is going to have to be enormous.
Essentially, as Trout moves closer and closer to free agency without an extension the more extending Trout will cost the Angels, and if that almighty 10th year is added he could surpass the mark A-Rod set.