This week’s mailbag addresses a potential Mike Trout trade, valuing Luis Arraez, how the White Sox and Cubs move forward, what an Elly De La Cruz extension might look like, Brett Baty‘s future, MLB’s popularity, and much more.
Fred asks:
With the ever increasing annual salaries MLB stars are receiving, $36M just isn’t what it used to be. Assuming he is amenable to a trade, is this the offseason someone (here’s looking at you, Dave Dombrowski) takes a chance on Mike Trout’s still tremendous upside? His salary could be offset with a bad contract or two (hello Taijuan Walker). He is far less expensive than Juan Soto will be.
$36MM is still a very large salary in MLB, currently tied for seventh all-time. The actual CBT hit for a new team on Trout’s remaining six years and $212.7MM would be similar at $35.45MM.
As an aside, four players signed contracts with $35-36MM AAVs in 2019: Trout, Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, and Anthony Rendon. Five years later, only five players have managed to push into the $40MM realm, moving the needle modestly in this regard.
Trout said before the season that asking for a trade would be the “easy way out,” but he also didn’t rule out a future change of heart. The Angels are on pace to lose about 95 games this year, they haven’t been to the postseason since 2014, and there’s little reason to expect the team to be good next year. Despite his longstanding loyalty, it’s plausible Trout could change his mind at some point.
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