The Angels are entering a pivotal offseason, as they recently hired Ron Washington as manager and are at risk of losing Shohei Ohtani in free agency. However, Angels star Mike Trout is not going anywhere despite the rest of the team’s changes.
General manager Perry Minasian guaranteed that Trout will be on the team entering the 2024 season.
“Mike Trout is not getting traded,” Minasian said, via MLB.com’s Rhett Bolinger. “100 percent.”
Trout signed a 12-year, $426 million contract in 2019, and he has seven years left on the contract worth $35.4 million in base salary per year. He has a full no-trade clause that runs through the end of his contract, so any trade would require his approval first.
The 32-year-old has won three MVPs and made 11 All-Star games in his career, but he has battled injuries in recent years. Trout only played in 36 games in 2021, then after appearing in 114 games in ’22, missed 80 games in ‘23.
In 82 games last season, the outfielder totaled 18 home runs and an .858 OPS—the first time he registered an OPS under .900 since his rookie season.
Ever since Trout debuted in 2011, the Angels have only made the playoffs one time—a 2014 appearance that ended in a three-game sweep by the eventual American League champion Royals.
Los Angeles is tied with the Tigers for MLB’s longest active playoff drought, despite having five of the past 10 AL MVPs on its roster in Trout and Ohtani.