The Mike Trout trade chatter that seems to surface every offseason may finally be headed for the exit.
With longtime Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno entering into an agreement to sell the team to billionaire businessman Stan Kroenke, there figures to be plenty of change coming to Anaheim. But the biggest shift for fans might be the simplest one: no more constant speculation about moving Trout.
That rumor mill has never really stopped. Winter, trade deadline, random point in between - someone always seems ready to float a scenario that sends Trout elsewhere. Now, those ideas should dry up.
The reason is simple. Trout owns a full no-trade clause, so the Angels cannot move him unless he agrees.
Even so, that has not stopped some in the media from pushing the idea that he should chase a different path. The logic usually centers on one thing: how can a player this great finish his career without a championship?
But that line of thinking leaves out a lot. Ernie Banks, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, Ichiro Suzuki, and Ken Griffey Jr. never won a World Series either, and all of them ended up in the Hall of Fame.
Trout, for his part, has consistently said he wants to finish his career with the Angels. He has never shown interest in waiving his no-trade clause to go ring-chasing. Now, with Kroenke taking over, the ring may be something Trout can actually pursue without leaving.
Kroenke’s name alone has already created buzz about what the Angels could become. Even Tarik Skubal, a free agent to be, acknowledged the possibility when he told the LA Times, "It is likely that players that might not have considered signing with the Angels might now do so.”
Whether he was talking about himself or not, the broader point is hard to miss. Without Moreno in charge, the Angels may have a real shot to reshape how they’re viewed and maybe even become a destination that competes with the Los Angeles Dodgers for top-tier talent.
For Trout, that could mean staying exactly where he is and still having a better chance at the kind of ending people keep assuming he needs to leave to find. He’s under contract through 2030, and now he may be able to spend the rest of that deal without hearing his name tied to trade rumors every few months.
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