Mike Trout set the sports world on fire Tuesday when he agreed to an earth-shattering 12-year, $430 million extension that will keep him with the Los Angeles Angels for seemingly the rest of his Hall of Fame career.
The value of Trout’s deal does not come as much of a surprise, given how much success the 27-year-old has had in his already illustrious Major League career. What did come as more of shock was how quickly the extension came about.
It was just a couple weeks ago that Philadelphia Phillies fans were all but penciling Trout into their lineup cards starting 2021, assuming the center fielder would ditch the Angels, where he has been to the playoffs just once, to join forces with Bryce Harper on his hometown team. Harper himself made his intentions of luring Trout back East very clear as well.
That speculation did not last long, however, as Trout inked his record deal that will make him the highest-paid professional athlete of all-time and dwarfing Harper’s own monumental signing.
But Harper doesn’t seem to be too upset about the possibility of teaming up with Trout going by the wayside.
“I’m very excited for him,” Harper told reporters Wednesday, via MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. “He made the best decision for him and his family. The Angels made a great decision, making him the face of their franchise for a long period of time.
“I didn’t know the contract was coming. If you’re a team and can lock up a franchise guy like that, of course you want to be able to do that. When I talked to him this offseason it was like, man, I want to get as much as I can so that you can blow me out of the water pretty much. And he did. I’m excited for him. I’m excited for Mookie (Betts) to see what he gets when he goes about it. (Aaron) Judge as well.”
Harper’s contract stood as the biggest in professional sports for about three weeks, but the right fielder doesn’t seem to be sweating the No. 2 spot.
“I got the contract I wanted,” he said. “I got the length that I wanted. All the money and things like that, I’ve got more money than I’ll know what to do with. Once I knew Trout was going to sign, it’s inevitable. He was going to be the highest-paid player in the game in all of sports.”
Turns out $330 million is not a bad consolation. Go figure.
