Where Mike Trout's contract ranks among the worst in baseball once 2026 season ends

There was a short time this season when it was easy to forget that Mike Trout's massive contract extension could be a future problem. He was hitting bombs at Yankee Stadium, walking more than he struck out, and playing center field. It felt like the version of himself Los Angeles Angels fans hadn’t seen in years.

Trout then hurt his hamstring and found his way back to the IL. The same old questions came right back. And that’s what Trout’s career has become. His talent has never been the question, and it flashes periodically. You remember why he got what is still one of the largest contracts in baseball history. But his body reminds you why it is not aging particularly well.

Once this season is over, he’ll still have four years and just under $142 million owed to him. That runs through his age-38 season in 2030. We know he can still do things well, but that’s a lot of money for the Angels to pay a declining player.

Trout is not a player without his positives, even in his age-34 season and even with all the injuries. He’s walking more than he has since 2021. His strikeout rate has been elevated for a few years, but it remains fine. He has an OPS in the .800s and a wRC+ that hovers around 130. He’s still producing at a well above league average rate.

That part is still there, though not at the level it was at his peak. That’s not a fair comparison considering his peak was one of the best we’ve seen. But his contact quality is still elite, even if he hasn’t maintained the hot start to the season when he approached a 1.000 OPS in the first month.

The issue comes elsewhere. He moved back to center field this year, but the results haven’t been great. He’s put -7 Outs Above Average (OAA) and -3 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS). He wasn’t great in right field last year, but the numbers were at least better in his limited time. He’s still fast, but his speed has decreased from elite in his younger days to very good now. 

That’s a byproduct of a body that has dealt with its share of blows, from thumb issues to calf issues to back issues and more. That injury history has become a pattern, and the hamstring injury didn’t keep him out long, but it's the newest entry. He just turned 35 earlier this month, which is certainly not old by human standards, but for a baseball player, it’s way up there. 

Where does that put the contract itself? It could absolutely be worse, but there aren’t a lot below it at this point. The actual basement belongs to players who simply have zero production.

Mike Trout's contract with the Angels is quickly approaching the worst in MLB

Kris Bryant still has two years and $52 million left on his contract after this season, and he’s only taken 712 plate appearances in four years for the Rockies while playing in just 170 games. Javier Baez isn’t that bad because he’s down to the last year in 2027 at $24 million, but that’s been a disaster deal for the Detroit Tigers. And the Angels don’t even need to look outside their own clubhouse. Anthony Rendon’s deal is one of the worst in baseball history. 

These are all dead-money deals. Trout is in no way that. He still produces when he’s in there, which is why it’s not that bad of a contract. But it’s on par with a couple of former MVPs like Corey Seager and Bryce Harper (this may seem odd, but hang tight). Those two deals are getting tested from different angles. 

Seager is about halfway through his 10-year deal he signed with the Texas Rangers just before the lockout in 2021. He’ll earn $31 million per year over the final five seasons for a total of $155 million. He’s played more than 123 games just once in the first five years and will barely pass the 100-game mark for the second straight year if he plays in all of their remaining games. He had a concussion in June, which was his latest injury, but what’s concerning to Texas is that his production has started to wane. He’s hitting .224/.321/.413, so he has a durability and a production problem. 

Harper is different in that he’s actually been pretty healthy over the last few seasons while tracking to play most of the games this year. But his risk is positional. He moved to first base in 2023 to protect his elbow, and he’s now back playing right field to accommodate the acquisition of Luis Arraez at the deadline. But there’s some risk there, even if it’s only for a few months. And he’s shifted from being an elite hitter to one who is very good. That could shift again with age.

The Trout contract is probably about in the same range as Kyle Tucker, Framber Valdez, Francisco Lindor, Manny Machado, Mookie Betts, Christian Yelich, and Trea Turner. If their teams could get out of the deals, they would, but if they can’t oh well. It’s not the realm of Bryant or Baez or Xander Bogaerts. 

They’re all sort of the same math. Teams are paying superstar money for a version of the player that they aren’t guaranteed to get in the back half of a deal. This isn’t to blame Trout (or any of the stars who signed big deals that aren’t working out). Nobody forced him to get hurt, and nobody should be upset that he took a massive contract offer when it was offered to him. 

The Angels knew the risk. Outside of a few years when players may have had a little help, when you sign someone to a long-term deal, you usually get those post-peak years too. And now the Angels have four more years of a Trout who they hope can be on the field more often than not because he can still hit when he’s out there. They just have to hope they can figure out how to keep him healthy for four more years and enjoy what he gives them when he is.

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