Per MLB.com‘s Alden Gonzalez, Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout signed a six-year, $144.5 million contract Friday, marking the second-largest deal in MLB history for a player with less than three years of service time, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
That Trout’s contract is only the second-largest such deal may come as a surprise, but his six-year pact easily outweighs Buster Posey’s nine-year, $167 million contract in terms of average annual value.
Trout’s new contract—which runs from 2015-20—pays him approximately $24.08 million per season, good for the ninth-largest average salary in all of baseball, per ESPN.com. Posey’s contract averages a mere $18.56 million, falling $5.52 million short of Trout’s.
Furthermore, Trout can become a free agent when he’s 29 years old, while Posey won’t be able to do the same until he’s either 34 or 35, depending on whether the Giants ultimately exercise the catcher’s team option for 2022.
Trout’s contract is a nice bargain for the Angels, but we can’t forget that the team bought out three of his arbitration years and only three years of free agency.
Comparing Trout’s contract to the 10-year, $292 million deal recently signed by Miguel Cabrera is apples-to-oranges, and there’s little doubt that Trout would annihilate Cabrera’s contract if the 22-year-old was allowed to hit free agency today.
His deal may not be as impressive as Cabrera’s on paper, but it still proves that Trout is the most valued commodity in the game.
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