The Los Angeles Angels are slowly losing Mike Trout

Mike Trout is easily the best baseball player on the planet and is keeping the Los Angeles Angels relevant; although that may not be the case in a few years.

Only one team in baseball gets to boast the best player on the planet. Not only do the Los Angeles Angels get that in Mike Trout, the team gets the best player of this generation.

If it was not for Barry Bonds, Trout already would be in discussing for the best player of this century. When it is all said and done, at this pace, Trout will be challenging Bonds for the greatest player of all-time.

Much like Bonds, Trout has not found postseason success despite being head and shoulders above his peers. And while his career is still young, it may be Bonds’ past that pushes Trout out of Anaheim.

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The Los Angeles Angels have not won a postseason game since 2009 when the team made it to the ALCS and lost to the New York Yankees in six games. What makes matters worse, the Angels had the best record in the entire MLB in 2014 only to be swept by the Kansas City Royals in the ALDS.

Los Angeles, with a 54-53 record, currently sit 12.5 games out of Houston Astros in the AL West and 9.5 games out of the second wild-card spot. Even after landing Shohei Ohtani and a myriad of other offseason pieces, the Angels cannot stay healthy and win baseball games.

It is safe to say that the Angels will miss the postseason. If Trout plays all 162 games, which he is on pace for, it will be just under 1,100 games played for Trout without a postseason win.

Although Bonds did have some postseason experience under his belt as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates early in his career, he did not win a playoff series until 2002. At that point, Bonds had 2,439 games under his belt.

Ironically, that was the only year that Bonds ever had a postseason series win, making it to the World Series, where the San Francisco Giants lost to the California Angels in seven games.

Mike Trout seems like a smart guy and there is going to be massive money available no matter where he goes. By the time his contract expires after the 2020 season, the Angels may not even have a chance at re-signing him.

Heck, he could even be traded before then as a deadline rental piece.

Los Angeles is obviously turning into sellers by trading catcher Martin Maldonado and infielder Ian Kinsler. While those trades make sense, the Angels have no real long-term security to bank on to convince Trout to stay.

Albert Pujols will still be on the payroll with his massive salary and will only be slowing down as time goes on. Justin Upton is playing fine now, but his contract gets much uglier in the later years. Garrett Richards is a free agent after this season, Andrelton Simmons the same year as Trout and young arms such as Tyler Skaggs and Andrew Heaney are injury prone.

To make matter worse, at this current pace, Shohei Ohtani may eventually need Tommy John surgery, completely derailing his MLB career and further prolonging his return to the mound.

With massive contracts on the books such as Upton, Pujols and Zack Cozart, the Angels cannot be huge spenders.

The farm system is getting better but is still not great and the Angels are not a huge free agent destination. While the team did land Pujols and Ohtani, Pujols was over the hill, Ohtani has not panned out thus far and we all remember the tragedy that was signing Josh Hamilton.

There have been so many bad decisions, so much bad luck for an Angels team that has the best problem you possibly could; surrounding the best player in the world with talent.

Next. How much would a Mike Trout trade be worth?. dark

Before you know it, we are all going to be looking back at when Mike Trout was on the Los Angeles Angels. Because as it stands now, the Angels are hurting the only chance at contention.

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