The Baseball Phanatic

As a lifelong Phillies fan, my initial reaction to Mike Trout signing a 12-year deal with the Angels was not a happy one. I’ll admit I was a bit bitter at first knowing that my hopes of having Mike Trout in a Phillies uniform were dashed. Even though I feel a bit guilty be upset about the signing especially since the Phillies have added so many stud players over the offseason. I know that the Phillies are a good team and have the potential to be a great team even without the possibility of Mike Trout signing in two years. 

After my bitterness subsided, I tried to objectively think about how this signing will impact the Phillies. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I believe the Mike Trout signing was a great thing for the Phillies. My first thought was, at least no National League team will sign Trout. Therefore, the Phillies won’t have to stress about playing against him multiple times a season. Second, no competitive American League team signed him. Trout will not be a part of the Yankees, Red Sox, or Astros. In reality, nothing really changes. Trout has been with the Angels his whole career and, in reality, has had little to no effect on the Phillies organization, which will obviously continue for the foreseeable future. In essence, the best player in baseball, will not negatively impact the Phillies. 

The more immediate impact that this signing has on the organization is that it allows the Phillies organization to spend money elsewhere. They don’t have to worry about saving money to possibly sign Trout in two years. They can spend it now on players that can impact the team now. The most important use of this extra money should be to sign J.T. Realmuto to an extension ASAP. The other possibilities are pitching upgrades. The team has a slightly questionable starting rotation, and I feel that there will be a need to spend on starting pitching sooner rather than later. Though pitching help could come in the form of trades, payroll flexibility does not hurt. Furthermore, players like Rhys Hoskins will be looking for a payday in the near future, as well. Tying up potentially $750 million dollars on Trout and Harper probably would not have been the healthiest decision for the franchise in the long run.  

Adding Trout would have also caused a logjam in the outfield. Though, I am not saying I would have minded having this problem if Mike Trout had decided to join the Phillies organization. Mike Trout is currently a center fielder with the Angels, but as he gets older, it seems like a fair question to ask whether he would continue to be a successful center fielder. If he had to move, he would probably move to right field where Harper is now. Of course, none of this really matters since Trout will not be a Phillie, but the point is the team could use players at other positions more. Center field is a need for sure, but as mentioned before, I don’t know that Trout would have been the center field option the team was looking for in the long run. Third base is also potentially a concern for the future. Maikel Franco is holding down third base for now, but I don’t necessarily see him as the third baseman of the future, though I hope I’m wrong. Finally, I know I have already mentioned it, but it doesn’t hurt to mention again that the starting rotation is going to need some upgrades in the near future. 

Though Mike Trout signing with the Angels was not my first choice, I am quite happy that if he was going to sign with the Angels eventually, that he chose to do so sooner rather than later. If Trout would have waited two years only to then sign with Angels, it would have caused the Phillies more issues. They make have chosen not to sign a player for fear of spending possible Trout money. Now everyone knows what the future holds for Trout and that the Phillies are not part of that future. 

Taking off my Phillies hat for a brief moment, I am disappointed in the Trout signing for baseball. The fact that arguably the best player in baseball has committed the entirety of his baseball career to a team that I feel is mediocre at best does not help grow the game. The fact that Trout has not played in a winning postseason game is seriously unfortunate. Being objective, I find it hard to believe that the Angels will be a contending team any time soon, which makes it even more upsetting to think about Trout on this team for the next 12 seasons. This signing does not seem like it will help MLB goal better marketing players especially with the fact that the Angels are not overly excited with Trout participating in most MLB events such as the Home Run Derby or the Baseball Classic. I fear that Trout will continue to excel on a mediocre team and will slowly become less relevant in the larger baseball world. Imagine if Babe Ruth had played for the St. Louis Browns, would his career have been seen as prolific. I am sure he would have still been a Hall of Famer, but I don’t see his fame reaching the same heights had he not been a Yankee. I fear this may be the case for the career of Mike Trout. I do not doubt that he will one day be in the Hall of Fame, but I can only imagine what his career would have been like if he were on a different team. 

In the end, I am happy for Trout. I, genuinely, believe that he deserves to be paid. His is one of the best players that baseball has seen for some time and he should be paid like the best, as well. However, I am still disappointed by the fact that he will be playing his career with an average team with a bottom third farm system. Who knows, maybe the Angels will surprise us all and win a World Series with Mike Trout at the help. If not, it will be a travesty to the game and an unfortunate end for one of baseball’s greatest.