Ok, will Mike Trout ever be a Phillie?
Read more about his visit here.
It’s well documented how much Trout loves the Eagles. It’s also pretty well documented that Trout rooted for the Phillies; he was tailgating with us in 2008, just three years before beginning his major league career. (And in that career he’s registered a .306/.405/.557 career line with 168 home runs and 497 runs batted in. Again, he’s 25.)
So it begs the question (which was asked plenty of times yesterday and has been asked plenty of times before that): Will Trout ever be a Phillie?
Trout will earn nearly $123 million over the next four seasons with Los Angeles; he becomes a free agent after the 2020 season, when he’ll be 29. But it’s possible the Angels could trade Trout – the team is rebuilding and has little leverage, other than the hands-down best baseball player in a generation.
And if Trout were available, maybe no team is better set up to nab him than the Phils. For one, they have plenty of payroll reserved for even Trout’s enormous payday (we could see $40 million per year or more going to the outfielder by his free agent contract). Second, Trout is our guy. His family is here. The region would obviously bend over backwards for Trout. And one has to wonder if Trout thinks about raising a championship trophy inside Citizens Bank Park while wearing red pinstripes.
Look, it would take a monster deal to haul in Trout (say goodbye to a few of your favorite top prospects, for one), but could it happen? Is it a foregone conclusion that, at some point in the guy’s career, he’ll come home?
What do you think? Will Mike Trout ever be a Phillie? And if so, when?
