Angels GM: ‘Mike Trout is not getting traded, 100%’

While Shohei Ohtani’s future with the Los Angeles Angels hangs in the balance, another multiple-time AL MVP apparently isn’t going anywhere.

Meeting with the media at the MLB Winter Meetings in Nashville Tuesday, Angels general manager Perry Minasian said that Mike Trout “100%” is not going to be traded, according to Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register.

There had been speculation that with Ohtani set to hit free agency after a 73-89 season, Trout might finally ask for a trade to a contending team. In parts of 13 seasons with the Angels, Trout has made 11 All-Star Game appearances, won nine Silver Sluggers and been voted the AL MVP three times. And yet, the Angels have made the playoffs just once in his career, getting swept in the ALDS by the Kansas City Royals in 2014. The Angels have posted eight consecutive losing seasons since going 85-77 in 2015.

However, just because the public believes it’s past time for Trout to be traded doesn’t mean that the player or team agree. Trout is due just over $248 million through the 2030 season, and it’s possible he intends to play out that contract with the Angels, however bleak the team’s chances of hoisting a World Series trophy over the next seven seasons appear currently.

Perhaps if Ohtani does indeed leave the Angels for the Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays or another suitor, Trout will change his tone and ask owner Arte Moreno for a trade. But he may be comfortable in his surroundings and content to spend the entirety of his career with the Angels, even if the rest of the world believes he’s already wasted too much time with the Halos.

From the perspective of the Angels, they probably missed the chance to get a generational-type return for Trout. He’s 32 years old, and has played in 237 of a possible 486 games over the past three seasons. If the Angels ate some money, they could probably still get a nice return for Trout. Or, they could take back a minimal return if a team was willing to absorb most or all of Trout’s remaining contract.

But it appears more likely than not that the Angels are going to lose the second-best player in the history of their team this offseason in free agency. Do they really want to respond to that by turning around and trading the greatest player they’ve ever had?

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