Another record-breaking contract took Major League Baseball by storm on Tuesday with the news of outfielder Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim reaching an agreement on a monster 12-year extension worth a whopping $430 million in total value.
Trout’s new extension easily marks the most lucrative contract in North American professional sports history. The overall salary surpasses that of outfielder Bryce Harper, who signed a 13-year, $330 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies less than a month ago.
Many players and coaches from around the league have reacted to Trout’s record-setting extension with mostly positive feedback.
Among those happy for Trout include Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who believes the 27-year-old will go down as one of the best baseball players in history at the end of the pact, via Jorge Castillo of the L.A. Times:
“The best player I ever played against was Barry Bonds and I think that with his ability to play center field, [Trout is] in that conversation,” Roberts said. “And it’s a conversation of two, for me. I haven’t seen a player as well rounded. Now you bake in what he does off the field, I can’t recall a player that has impacted or continues to impact the game more than Mike.
“When I learned of the deal, my first thought was it’s a great thing for Mike and for baseball,” Roberts said. “He is a once-in-a-generation-type player who does things the right way and he’s great for our game. It just shows baseball is in a very good place right now.”
Since debuting in 2011, Trout has established himself as the unquestioned best player in all of baseball, accumulating 64.3 WAR (Baseball-Reference) in just eight seasons.
Trout’s extension with the Angels comes on the heels of another MLB superstar reaching a long-term agreement to stay in the only uniform he’s ever known.
Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado recently re-upped with the organization for another eight seasons, preventing the Dodgers from potentially making a run at him in free agency next winter.
Roberts also spoke highly of Arenado, and deemed him staying put in the National League West for the foreseeable future considerably makes the Dodgers’ goals more difficult.
