The Contractual Eclipse of Mike Trout

Have you ever seen an eclipse? Blood moon? The red sphere overtakes the moon while the sky turns maroon. It can be an awe inspired religious experience at times. Kind of like hearing voices. Don’t worry, we aren’t going there. But we will go here; LA Angels Stadium, Anaheim… picture it.

Sitting near the rocks at Angels Stadium by yourself you can almost hear them: not on a stage, not when it is packed, not during the game or even shortly thereafter, but when calm, serene, when it’s just you and the environment.

When the sound of Rojas fades into the Sportscenter stat line, and the concessions are closed. After the shops roll down their cages, the players are gone, and the field team has perfected its angelic nightly routine. Only then… voices echo into the epitome of night in Anaheim.

Listen: “Best in baseball”; “a one man show”; “the second coming of Mantle”; “most influential player in Angels history”; “record-breaking Phenom”; “how did he do that!?”; “Trout again!”; “what can’t this guy do…”: well… can you hear it?

The sound of what is and could always be. Iconic reverberations of a once in a lifetime player, replaying like notes in a symphony, but for how long? Maybe the majesty of such nights and contributing factors can help us answer that question.

You see, when the moon eclipsed itself in 2014; the planets aligned in a once-in-forever instant in the sun, granting a 144 million dollar contract extension for another run. It was his first major deal, and by all accounts a very team friendly one that was done early to expedite what already appeared to be a legendary career contract process. Avoiding a bigger eclipse for years to come, and they have nearly come.

Yet, here in 2019 gravity balances… the universe and media speak for all but one… who stays silent. Whispers of what-if’s from East to West. Meanwhile Angels faithful daydream about a sequence that will be poetic within a tour de force of magic in the cloud rich red palette sky; a fantasy with every person in Halo Nation standing in awe of the annihilating wonder that makes them reach further into space and time every game.

Absolute brightness will caress the lithosphere or seat upon which each one of them stands; some will see it as a new beginning, while holding each other’s foam fingered hands. With hope… in praise; of a new contract, of continued echo’s after the game, again and again!

Angels fans imagine a long career that ends with success in the face of temptation, not to do it somewhere else, or to ever leave Halo Nation. They don’t want even talk of such fret, but the facts remain lost in more than a homerun catching Trout net…

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2014:
Angels; 98-64, 1st AL West
MT; .287BA, .377OBP, .561SLG, 36HR, 111RBI

2015:
Angels; 85-77, 3rd AL West
MT; 299BA, .402OBP, .590SLG, 41HR, 90RBI

2016:
Angels; 74-88, 4th AL West
MT; .315BA, .441OBP, .550SLG, 29HR, 100RBI

2017:
Angels; 80-82, 2nd AL West
MT; .306BA, .442OBP, .629SLG, 33HR, 72RBI

2018:
Angels; 80-82, 4th AL West
MT; .312BA, .460OBP, .628SLG, 39HR, 79RBI

Cosmically, a retraction of light will signal when the seconds on his current deal have expired; all the while his stats are like the sun, still shining, never worn or tired. Batting average, on base, and slugging all on a meteoric rise, pressuring the Anaheim club to value in dollars and his growing size. Hurling toward them with fiery delight, will they cower in the moment, or stand with a Trout contract new and bright?

As the MVPs (2), runner ups(4), and top 5’s pile up like space debris, the Angels look at a crossroads of should-be’s. Should resign a generational stud. Should have the money to secure him for his following so beloved. Should make him a staple of their eternal team. Should not be cheap, and build around while paying him; but can it be?

Are they fading beyond a horizon never to be viewed again; telescoping a catalog in memory to terrestrial stories that can only be relived? This once, even a star can amaze another; when interplanetary matter stops interstellar dust from its druthers. When the pen writes so elegantly on a dotted line; “Mike Trout” printed underneath with the words “Halo… until the end of time”.

Enter 2019.

And still as the jaws return from the ground; voices only a prelude to the comet behind a decision that remains Angel bound. Delight pauses to move over for the smell of methane; on track to a course that will eliminate even the reddest galactic plain. Speeding in an unstoppable velocity like a volcano off his bat erupting; careless to consider the Angel fan imagination that soon it might be destructing.

2014 Contract Expires… in 2020…

A beauty remains, even in its approach; evolution is the nucleus of power, majesty, and an abundance of Phenom quality hope. More than words layer our cosmic Halo nebula; a crater of contract far deeper than the defects reflected in a lesser players replica.

Do Eppler and Arte dive all-in like an ante that’s surely must win; or do they leave us with less and promises to later contend? Are all these one year deals bait in some type of lunar pull of funds to make a bigger splash? Will it be in time to keep our favorite Astronaut from feeling that the space between Angels and contending is too vast?

The contract eclipse has begun; 2019 is the fuel that could speed us into or away from our astronomical whims. For now, sit back and listen to the voices again.

Only source for stats, MLB.com / Angels Baseball Addicts