Mike Trout NEEDS To Request A Trade From The Angels
Mike Trout is definitely at a crossroads in his career. It’s safe to say that he’s past his prime in large part because of injury. The Los Angeles Angels are about to lose Shohei Ohtani to free agency. It will be a struggle for them for the next several years. While Trout is not what he once was, he’s still an excellent player when he sees the field. There were some rumors of him potentially being traded This off-season. It appears that those rumors have been squashed. Trout has always been a relatively laid-back personality, but I think he needs to put his foot down. Mike Trout needs to request a trade. 
Loyalty is worth extra points in sports. I have a ton of respect for players who choose to stay in one environment as long as possible. Baseball is obviously a little bit different. The idea of assembling a super team isn't a thing like it is in the NBA, but no one is questioning Mike Trout's loyalty. He's been more loyal to the Los Angeles Angels. He's had any right to be. If he retired tomorrow, he'd be a first-ball Hall of Famer. Diehard baseball fans know him as one of the greatest baseball players ever. For a solid decade, he put up numbers that we haven't seen in years.
People may get out the torches and pitchforks after I say what I'm about to say, but I think it's true. Casual baseball fans don't hold my Trout in as high a regard as diehard fans do. Casual fans watch the postseason. They want to see guys on teams that win divisions, win playoff series, and are playing deep into October. I don't blame Mike Trout for any of this. Mike Trout has only been on one team that was good enough to make it to the postseason, and that team got swept. He stayed loyal to the Angels and gave it the old college try. It hasn't worked out.
Who knows if Aaron Judge will be a star player throughout the entirety of his massive contract that he got from the Yankees, but at the very least, he chose to stay in a big market with a team whose number one goal is winning the World Series every year. Even if they come up short, he guarantees himself a spot as one of the premier faces of baseball. Mike Trout cannot ensure that same exposure if he continues to play on 90 loss Angeles teams until he's 40.
There's a potential that Mike Trout will end up being this generation's Ken Griffey Jr: A transcendent talent who will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer but also left something on the table because of all the injuries they racked up. While Griffey never won a World Series, he at least had that run with the Mariners in 1995, and he was even a part of the White Sox American League Central championship in 2008. Mike Trout has had no such moments. He can't go his entire career playing for a team that's going nowhere. Even if he's riding as a passenger, he owes it to himself to at least see the field again in October. He's not getting any younger. The Angels would probably have to eat some of his deal to get a solid return, but that's their fault. They're the ones who put Trout in this awful position. They're an organization that probably needs to be rebuilding anyway. Do not make Mike Trout part of that rebuild. He should request a trade.