Mike Trout Contract Caps off $1.32B Spent on Four MLB Players
By Manny Gómez
What started off as one of the slowest offseasons in recent memory is suddenly capped off by Mike Trout‘s record-breaking MLB contract.
This MLB offseason can be defined as somewhat of an enigma. It started off with weeks of absolute nothingness, then suddenly, within a couple of weeks four players (Manny Machado, Nolan Arenado, Bryce Harper, and Mike Trout) received a grand total of $1.32B.
Baseball is known for it’s insanely rich, guaranteed contracts. Lately, however, with the advent of analytics, those head-scratching deals seemed to happen with less frequency.
Before this offseason, Giancarlo Stanton was the last to receive such a massive contract. By comparison, his 13-year, $325M deal before the 2015 season looks quite meek now.
Before Stanton, Alex Rodriguez had gotten the massive, record-breaking deal… twice.
The first in 2001, when he doubled the highest paid American professional athlete, Kevin Garnet’s salary. That season, A-Rod signed a 10-year, $252M deal with the Texas Rangers. Then, after the 2007 season, A-Rod signed another 10-year deal, this one worth $275M.
With MLB seeing an increase in revenue every season and ballplayers seeing a decrease in pay, it was starting to feel like the supersized deal was rapidly becoming a thing of the past. In 2019, however, they’re only becoming more lucrative.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the four record-breaking contracts signed this offseason, in the order that they occurred.