Analysis: Mike Trout, baseball’s $430 million man, is actually underpaid
Is $430 million enough for Mike Trout? Not quite. By Dave Sheinin Dave Sheinin National baseball writer Email Bio Follow March 19 at 2:10 PM Mike Trout’s nearly completed 12-year, roughly $430 million contract extension with the Los Angeles Angels, which when finalized would set a new benchmark for North American sports, will undoubtedly spark a new round of complaints and criticism, not exactly unfounded, that athletes are egregiously overpaid relative to their contributions to society.
But it is when you place Trout in the context of his own era that his value to the Angels is revealed. Since the start of 2013, Trout’s first season playing more than 150 games, he has been worth 54.1 WAR. Second place in that span is third baseman Josh Donaldson at 35.7. Trout’s average WAR of 9.0 for those six seasons is a mark only two other players have reached in a single season in that span.
Trout was due to reach free agency at the end of the 2020 season, at which point his availability was expected to set off a frenzied chase potentially led by some of the biggest spenders in the game: the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies, among others. Trout has never been one to seek the spotlight and presumably was not the type to milk every last dollar out of his limited window of opportunity as an athlete. His decision to forego free agency and sign away his future to the Angels capped an offseason that saw baseball struggle to recalibrate the notion of value, causing an ominous rift between the league and the union over the direction of free agency.
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