I'm sure the Angels made a ton of mistakes. But I wonder how big a % of the problem was signing Albert Pujols to such a massive contract. These super long term deals just never ever seem to work out for the team no matter how great the player was the first half of their career. It's tough in baseball for one player to have that big of an impact on such a team sport no matter how great they are, Trout is a perfect example.
Is any player worth $30mil+ per year? Probably not. I think it makes some sense to pay that much for 3-4 years maybe while "going for it" during a teams "window" But it's just insane for teams to be paying that much for 10 year deals, like Trout, Harper, Machado etc etc.
The biggest contracts in baseball almost never work out for the team. Players that come to mind are AROD, Pujols, M. Cabrera. Even AROD with the Rangers, he was still in his prime and performed as expected but still was a bad deal for the team. The Yankees were able to win with ARod because they had unlimited payroll. Other teams just don't seem to win when saddled with these huge contracts.
Is any player worth $30mil+ per year? Probably not. I think it makes some sense to pay that much for 3-4 years maybe while "going for it" during a teams "window" But it's just insane for teams to be paying that much for 10 year deals, like Trout, Harper, Machado etc etc.
The biggest contracts in baseball almost never work out for the team. Players that come to mind are AROD, Pujols, M. Cabrera. Even AROD with the Rangers, he was still in his prime and performed as expected but still was a bad deal for the team. The Yankees were able to win with ARod because they had unlimited payroll. Other teams just don't seem to win when saddled with these huge contracts.
