Trout to Kiermaier: The richest signing of all 30 MLB teams
By Bill Felber
1. Los Angeles Angels
The Angels made Mike Trout the game’s richest player when they signed him to a 12-year, $426.5 million extension prior to the 2019 season. The contract runs through 2030, and will pay Trout $37.117 million in 2023.
At an average of $35.5 million per season for the duration of the contract, Trout also leads the Angels when recalculated for average annual value. That AAV, however, has now fallen to third in the game with recent signings that exceed it.
Angels owner Arturo Moreno has always been accommodating when it comes to spending on talent, sometimes recklessly so.
Shortly after purchasing the team about 20 years ago, Moreno made Vlad Guerrero the second richest player in franchise history, signing him away from the Montreal Expos for $70 million over five years. (Mo Vaughn got $80 million over six seasons from the Autry family in 1998.)
When Torii Hunter signed on for five seasons at $90 million in 2008, he topped Vaughn’s franchise record. The Albert Pujols signing – 10 years, $240 million – set the record that Trout’s extension broke.
Moreno also famously signed Anthony Rendon in 2020 for $245 million spread across seven seasons, the richest contract the Angels have ever handed to a player not already in their system.
The obvious irony is that neither the Rendon nor Pujols signings returned anything close to the value – in terms of on-field production – one might expect from that sort of payout.