According to the Los Angeles Times, outfielder Mike Trout is in negotiations for a contract extension with the Angels. Though baseball’s luxury-tax rules mean any deal likely would not be announced until after Opening Day, if and when the day arrives, it could very well give Trout the largest contract of any player in professional sports.
The largest deal to date is the 10-year, $275 million one Alex Rodriguez signed with the Yankees before the 2008 season — after A-Rod opted out of the second largest deal to date.
Salaries in baseball have inflated since Rodriguez signed his deal, and Trout at age 22 is a way better bet to maintain his excellence for another decade than Rodriguez was at 32. The only reason Trout won’t blow past A-Rod whenever he signs an extension is that the Angels still control him through arbitration through the 2017 seasonl
At Fangraphs, Dave Cameron compares Trout’s situation to those faced by Clayton Kershaw before his recent $215 million extension and Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman before his $135 million deal and finds some eye-opening facts:
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.
As Cameron notes, the closer Trout gets to free agency without an extension, the more an extension will likely cost the Angels. And if Trout and the Angels decide to tack on a 10th year, he should surpass A-Rod’s mark and will possibly clear $300 million.
That’d be great for Trout, but also great for educating whatever remaining fans that don’t yet appreciate how good Trout is: He’s the best all around player in baseball by far, and the first two full seasons of his career were arguably the top rookie and sophomore years in baseball history.
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Mike Trout could soon become baseball's first $300 million man (BLOG) Updated at :
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Thursday, February 13, 2014
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