The Los Angeles Angels and star outfielder Mike Trout have agreed to a 12-year contract, the club announced Wednesday evening. The club did not immediately disclose the terms of the deal, but MLB.com reported that Trout's new contract adds 10 years to his current deal, which is set to expire following the 2020 Major League Baseball season. The total contract is worth $426.5 million, the largest deal in North American sports history. Trout had been due $66.5 million over the next two seasons under his previous deal, a $144.5 million, six-year agreement that took effect for the 2015 season. "This is where I wanted to be all along," Trout said in a statement released by the Angels. "I have enjoyed my time as an Angel and look forward to representing the organization, my teammates and our fans for years to come." The team announced that Trout would hold a news conference in Anaheim on Sunday afternoon. "This is an exciting day for Angels fans and every player who has ever worn an Angels uniform," owner Arte Moreno said. "Mike Trout, an athlete whose accomplishments have placed him among the greatest baseball players in the history of the game, has agreed to wear an Angels uniform for his entire career." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Trout's extension tops the new $330 million, 12-year contract between Bryce Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies, and Trout's $35.5 million average annual value would surpass pitcher Zack Greinke's $34.4 million in a six-year deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks that started in 2016. The contract also would best Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez's $356 million deal with sports-streaming service DAZN. Trout, 27, has been an All-Star in each of his seven full big league seasons and hit .312 with 39 homers, 79 RBIs, 24 steals and 122 walks last year. He has led the major leagues in OPS in each of the last two seasons. The Associated Press contributed to this report.<doc-sep>To say that Mike Trout sold himself short—even if accurate—is to misunderstand why the game's foremost talent plays and loves baseball. It does, however, reveal the power that owners keep gaining over players. If it can be said that handing one ballplayer $430 million is a bargain—what it cost recently to buy an entire hotel chain (Kimpton) or a clothing company (Perry Ellis)—the Los Angeles Angels got one in buying the next 12 seasons of Mike Trout. Trout is the best player in baseball by miles. He produces WAR, the coin of the front office realm these days, at the rate of Manny Machado and Bryce Harper combined. And yet he sold his prime free agent years for an average annual value ($35.8 million) that is only 4% greater than what the Arizona Diamonbacks gave Zack Greinke three years ago. Trout will play for the only team he has known until he is 40 years old after the Angels added 10 years at $36 million per year to the two years left on his current deal. He has $430 million guaranteed coming on top of the $78 million he’s already earned— which vaults him past Alex Rodriguez ($441 million) as baseball’s career earnings champion and its first half-a-billion-dollar man ($508 million). That’s all good news for Trout, the Angels and baseball fans, because one-team iconic players are an important part of the game’s history. But this extension also is a statement about the decline of free agency and how owners have regained leverage over players. Trout should have broken the $40 million a year barrier. “Very underwhelming,” one agent called the Trout extension. “It had nothing to do with his WAR value … He should be well over 40 per year. He is the king of WAR.” That Trout took less and did so two full years from free agency dovetails with the many stars before him just in the past three years that sold their free agent rights rather than exercising them (Stephen Strasburg, Giancarlo Stanton, Clayton Kershaw, Jose Altuve, Nolan Arenado, Aaron Nola, Luis Severino, et al). Owners have keenly slow-played free agency and weaponized WAR enough—while, let’s face it, tempting players with supersized sums—to convince players not to push the envelope. “They are taking all the guys out of the system,” said another agent. “This has been their plan for years and well-executed.” The only imminent test case up next is Boston outfielder Mookie Betts, who can become a free agent after the 2020 season. Betts has resisted an extension and is said to be the rare player who may want to be the flag bearer for the elite market. “If he turned down 10/300 he might have just bought himself two more years or gets to demand Arenado AAV,” the agent said, referring to Arenado’s $32.5 million average annual value. The other element in play is that the numbers at the top of the market have grown extreme enough that the risk-reward calculus of “pushing the envelope” isn’t what it used to be. When Rodriguez reached free agency in 2000 his original team, Seattle, offered him “only” $92 million over five years. The Rangers gave him $252 million over 10 years. The Angels put another $360 million in Trout’s hands. That’s a long way from $92 million. Would you risk $360 million to earn more, get your true WAR value and earn an AAV that begins with a four? Do you want to be the guy to carry the union forward, pulling up the others behind you, the way it was in the 1990s? Those days, that kind of militancy, are gone. The contracts of Greinke, Albert Pujols and Robinson Canó, when free agency was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, seem like ages ago. It’s only been a few years. “I’m not sure how many more of those are coming unless guys are willing to take the last dollar and possibly switch teams to do so,” one of the agents said. Trout wasn’t the kind of guy to push the system, anyway, just as neither were Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken, Derek Jeter or Ken Griffey Jr., who never saw free agency in their primes. Trout has been treated well by the Angels and it is the only team he ever has known. It was the one team that took a chance on a high school outfielder from Millville, N.J. when 22 other teams passed on him in the draft. Trout has never forgotten that. Trout also is a happy soul. There is nobody in the game who represents the game better than Trout. He signs autographs for kids every day and plays hard and well and with a smile on is face. Greatness rarely looks this good. He is so good that his best comps are dead. Trout has the highest WAR through his age-26 season (64.3) than any player in history, just ahead of Ty Cobb (63.4) and Mickey Mantle (61.4). The best player in baseball is exactly the kind of role model you want at the top of the game; shame on the celebrity-obsessed, gossip-chasing, snark-fueled growth market that knocks him for lacking “an edge,” “personality” or “controversy.” With Trout, it’s very simple. It’s not about pushing the market. It’s about keeping his life simple and happy, and remaining loyal to an organization that has become family to him, his wife and his parents. The cynic will point out that Trout just signed away the rest of his career to a team that never has won a playoff game since he made his major league debut in 2011. The Angels are one of only eight teams without a playoff win during those eight years. For the past three years they have fielded losing teams that finished at least 21 games out of first place. They haven’t developed a 200-strikeout pitcher since Jered Weaver was drafted in 2004. In 2021, the Angels will spend $88.8 million on Pujols, Trout and Justin Upton, a ridiculous percentage of a payroll on three players, which makes it more difficult to build a winning team.<doc-sep>Kelvin Kuo/Associated Press The Los Angeles Angels and outfielder Mike Trout have come to terms on a 12-year, $430 million contract extension that's the richest in both Major League Baseball and sports history, the Angels announced Wednesday night. Angels owner Arte Moreno released a statement on the deal, per MLB.com's Mark Feinsand: The 27-year-old eclipsed the contract Bryce Harper signed earlier this offseason by $100 million. Harper agreed to a 13-year, $330 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies. Trout is now locked in with the Angels through the 2030 season. Already one of the greatest players in modern baseball history, Trout has been named an All-Star seven times and won two MVPs—though many would contend he deserved one or two more. Since Trout's first full MLB season, he has put up 64.9 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs. No other hitter has more than 47.3 WAR (Buster Posey). Among position players, Trout's career already sits at No. 80 in the history of baseball, per the WAR metric. He'll pass the likes of Tony Gwynn, Manny Ramirez and Derek Jeter, among others, and likely climb into the top 40 this season—provided he continues performing at his 2018 level. "It's well-deserved," Albert Pujols told reporters of his teammate. "I don't think there's anybody in baseball besides him that deserves that [contract]. Trout is the best, and the numbers speak for itself." Video Play Button Videos you might like "I got mine in my time, and [I'm] just really excited, really pumped up for him and his family, for his mom and dad ... just real exciting," he continued. "To sign and be here hopefully for the rest of his career is gonna be pretty special, too." Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images Trout has done all this and still kept a low national profile, something that's been a source of consternation around baseball. ESPN did not rank him among the world's 100 most famous athletes in its 2018 rankings. As MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, Harper deserves more recognition: "It's hard for me not to imagine that him not being recognized in that fashion is part and parcel of how we as an industry promote. I believe there are opportunities to move our game and our players back into the forefront of the conversation and to do so in such a way that benefits the industry as a whole. "Mike is doing things that our game has rarely seen. It would be fantastic if more people knew about it." Harper (No. 99) was the only baseball player on the World Fame 100 list. Trout may not be the most well-known name in baseball, but now he's the highest-paid in its history.<doc-sep>Baseball’s best player (maybe ever) will sign baseball’s biggest contract, and it’s the rare deal that should make everyone happy. Mike Trout gets paid according to his otherworldly talents. The Los Angeles Angels keep their franchise player without any drama. The players union and agents everywhere have a new ceiling on contracts. And Major League Baseball gets a data point for its dubious case that free agency isn’t broken. What could go wrong? Trout’s new contract with the Angels, as reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN, is for $430 million over 12 years. It replaces the remaining two years and $66.4 million Trout had on his current deal and adds another decade at a higher rate. The deal sets records for the largest total contract and highest annual value. (The deal is still being finalized, but current reporting suggests it will not include any opt-outs.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the numbers here are astronomical, they represent fair value for Trout’s services. The market value of a win above replacement is a moving target, but if we use a reasonable estimate of $7 million per win, we can approximate his value. According to Fangraphs, Trout was worth nearly 10 wins over a replacement-level player in 2018. That means he provided roughly $70 million in additional value. By the most basic of calculations, Trout needs about 61 WAR over the course of his deal to be worth $430 million. That’s doable. He’s accrued 64.9 WAR so far in his career—and he’s only 27. No player has done so much by his age. With three more Trout-like seasons, he’ll be nearly halfway to earning his massive deal with nine years left on the contract. Advertisement Trout will not be a free agent until he’s 39, and after the last two offseasons, that fact will make the players union and MLB breathe easier. The 2017–18 offseason saw free agent values collapse, particularly for the “middle class” of solid veterans. The big names still ended up with solid contracts, but some had to wait until the season had nearly started. The trend continued this offseason. Superstars Manny Machado and Bryce Harper eventually got their $300 million deals—Harper’s $330 million deal briefly held the record for largest in MLB history—but it took until spring training. Two of the top pitchers on the market, Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel, remain unsigned. Tensions between the players union and MLB are high, but now neither has to worry over a nightmare scenario in which the game’s best player is a grumbling free agent on opening day two years from now. Advertisement Get Slate Culture in Your Inbox We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. The Angels no longer have to fear the leering eyes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, and every other team that was ready to make a play for Trout’s services following the 2020 season. Their franchise player may never wear another jersey. The team can now tie its brand to Trout the way the Orioles did with Cal Ripken Jr. and the Yankees did with Derek Jeter. Those two players are remembered differently. Ripken famously showed up to work every day, played in a mind-boggling 2,632 consecutive games, and delivered excellent results—but he made the playoffs only three times. Jeter is known as much for the teams he led as for his individual accomplishments. He captained the Yankees to 16 playoff appearances and five World Series victories in his career. To date, Trout’s career has been more Ripken than Jeter, which is to say that the Angels have been more Orioles than Yankees. Whether that changes will shape how this contract plays out. Advertisement Trout has yet to win a playoff game, and one way Tuesday’s deal goes bad is if baseball’s transcendent player spends his prime watching October baseball. Now that the Angels have a long-term commitment from Trout, the question is: Can they put a ring on it? The team has acquired plenty of talent over the past few years in search of Trout’s first playoff win, including Andrelton Simmons, Justin Upton, Zack Cozart, and two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani. But they don’t have much else. The lineup is filled out with role players, and the rotation and bullpen are more interesting than intimidating. This season, projection systems see Los Angeles in a scrum for the last playoff spot with the Oakland A’s, Tampa Bay Rays, and Minnesota Twins. Like every team with a low-80s win projection, the Angels could be a playoff team or a trade deadline seller. Advertisement Advertisement The Angels also currently employ the most glaring example of how huge deals can go bad. Albert Pujols still has three years and $87 million remaining on the 10-year, $240 million contract he signed before the 2012 season. At the time, Pujols was the undisputed best player in baseball. Since then, he has gone from good to adequate to below-replacement level. Were he a free agent this year, he likely would have signed a minor league deal. Pujols is an imperfect comparison for Trout, though, because he was four years older when he signed his deal. As a first baseman, Pujols also had nowhere to go on defense as he became less mobile. Trout, still a good center fielder, can move to an outfield corner as he slows down, and eventually first base or designated hitter if needed. This won’t be the Pujols deal. Advertisement It may, however, be the A-Rod deal. Alex Rodriguez was another generational talent who contributed as a monstrous hitter and a plus defender. A-Rod held up his end of the bargain on the 10-year, $252 million deal he signed with the Texas Rangers heading into 2001, finishing sixth, second, and first in MVP voting in his first three years of the contract, but it wasn’t enough to propel the Rangers out of last place.<doc-sep>
More than 24 hours after news broke of his record-breaking extension, Mike Trout was officially made an Angels player for life Wednesday night. The Angels announced that Trout, a two-time MVP and the club’s star center fielder, agreed to the terms of a 12-year, $426.5-million contract. The 27-year-old will remain in Anaheim through the 2030 season. “This is where I wanted to be all along,” Trout said in a team press release. Trout returned to Tempe Diablo Stadium on Wednesday, played in a minor league game and hit a home run in one of his seven plate appearances. But as he wandered the Angels’ spring training complex, Trout did not address his extension with the media. He will not publicly do so until Sunday at Angel Stadium, where the team will hold a public press conference at 3 p.m. ahead of its Freeway Series opener against the Dodgers. “I have enjoyed my time as an Angel and look forward to representing the organization, my teammates and our fans for years to come,” Trout’s statement said. “I want to thank [owner] Arte and Carole Moreno for their efforts. Their leadership and commitment to winning played a key role in my decision. Thanks also to my teammates, coaches, [president] John Carpino, [general manager] Billy Eppler and his baseball operations staff, the entire front office and Angels fans for all their support. It has made a tremendous difference not only for me, but for my family as well!” Trout’s contract, which absorbs the final two years of his previous six-year deal, has an average annual value of $35.54 million. His annual salary will change beginning this year, according to a source who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Under his previous contract, Trout was due to earn $33.25 million each of the next two seasons. By the end of the new contract, Trout will have played in an Angels uniform for 20 seasons. He would be the longest-tenured Angels player in franchise history, a mark currently held by Garret Anderson (1994-2008) and Tim Salmon (1992-2006). “This is an exciting day for Angels fans and every player who has ever worn an Angels uniform,” Arte Moreno said in a statement. “Mike Trout, an athlete whose accomplishments have placed him among the greatest baseball players in the history of the game, has agreed to wear an Angels uniform for his entire career.” Sign up for our daily sports newsletter » maria.torres@latimes.com