Trout: I’m stayin’ put37
Mike Trout doesn’t want to follow Shohei Ohtani out of Anaheim.
Trout on Monday stressed his desire to remain with the Angels, despite the team’s perpetual shortcomings and, now, the enormous void left by the hitting-and-pitching sensation Ohtani.
“The easy way out is just ask for a trade,” Trout said at spring training in Tempe, Ariz. “There might be a time, maybe. I really haven’t thought about this, but when I signed that contract, I’m loyal. I want to win a championship here.”
Trout, 32, has seven years and $248.2 million remaining on the 12year, $426.5 million extension he signed in 2019 with the Angels, whom he came up with as a 19-year-old in 2011.
Despite the annual excellence of Trout – a three-time AL MVP with 368 career home runs – the Angels made only one playoff appearance during his first 13 MLB seasons and none since 2014.
That playoff drought includes all six seasons Trout played with Ohtani, a two-time AL MVP who left in the offseason for a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers.
“The overall picture of winning a championship or getting to the playoffs here is bigger satisfaction (than) bailing out and just taking the easy way out,” Trout said. “That’s been my mindset. Maybe down the road if some things changed, but that’s been my mindset ever since the trade speculations came up.”
Injuries have limited Trout to 119 games or fewer in each of the past three seasons, including in 2023, when a hamate fracture in his left hand held him to 82.
Trout, who hails from Millville, N.J., hopes the Angels can compete in 2024 and urged his front office to make roster additions before the season.
Several of the top remaining free agents have Southern California ties, including left-hander Blake Snell, who pitched the past three seasons for the Padres, and slugger Cody Bellinger, who spent six years with the Dodgers.
PHILS, ZACK TALKING
The Phillies have spoken to former Met Zack Wheeler’s representation about a new contract as the pitcher heads into the final season of a $118 million, five-year deal.
Wheeler said last week he prefers reaching an agreement before the season starts March 28.
“Zack would not mislead you. Of course, we’ve talked,” president of operations Dave Dombrowski said Monday. “It is a priority. We would love to get that deal done.”
A 33-year-old right-hander, Wheeler has a $23.6 million salary this season. He was 13-6 with a 3.61 ERA last year and 1.08 WHIP. His 2.42 ERA in the postseason is sixth-best among pitchers with 10 or more starts.
IT’S UCONN, UNANIMOUSLY
UConn became the first unanimous No. 1 in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll this season, while Washington State jumped into the rankings Monday at No. 21 to end a 302-week drought stretching back to the 2007-08 season.
The Huskies remained atop the poll for the sixth consecutive week after a blowout of DePaul and an impressive 81-53 win over then-No. 4 Marquette over the weekend. They received all 62 first-place votes from a panel of national media members, scooping up the 16 first-place votes that Purdue lost when the Boilermakers fell to Ohio State on Sunday.
UConn is riding the second-longest streak at No. 1 in school history behind a 10-week stay during the 1998-99 season, when the team won the national championship.