Stephen A. Smith Says Mike Trout Needs To Stop 'Chilling in Southern California,' Demand Trade
ESPN's lack of baseball awareness shows up with crazy Mike Trout take.
For some inexplicable reason, ESPN has decided to decrease its investment and interest in Major League Baseball.
Despite the NBA seeing ratings stagnate or decline, and tanking becoming a catastrophic, historic competitive disaster, ESPN gave the league billions to secure future broadcasting rights. When it comes to MLB, though, they've backed out of Sunday Night Baseball and lost the Home Run Derby to Netflix.
With that in mind, it should come as little surprise that they aren't exactly up on their awareness or knowledge of the inner workings of modern baseball. For example, the fact that they have Stephen A. Smith on to talk about baseball and current players, despite his obvious lack of interest in following the sport.
During a recent interview on ESPN, Smith talked about Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout, and the fact that he's spent his entire career in Anaheim. In the process, he unwillingly revealed that he has little understanding of how baseball contracts work and Trout's current standing in the game.
Mike Trout during a game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Angels. (Getty Images)
Stephen A. Smith Doesn't Understand Mike Trout's Contract
Trout has gotten off to a hot start in 2026, hitting five home runs in his first 17 games with a .388 on base percentage and a 154 weighted runs created plus where 100 is the league average. He's also been somewhat unlucky, as his expected statistics, based on contact quality, are all significantly higher than his actual statistics.
He's also on the Angels, and though they're 9-9 and the American League West seems to be up for grabs, they currently have the longest postseason drought of any team in Major League Baseball and the second-longest drought of any team in major domestic professional sports leagues. But Trout turns 35 later this year, is still making over $35 million per year, and is signed through the 2030 season.
Smith, though, thinks this hot start, and the Angels' failures, mean he should request a trade.
"Can we call Mike Trout out," Smith said, "This is one of the greatest talents we have ever seen in the history of baseball. Yo Mike Trout, we love you, we can't get enough of watching you, when you're healthy, which seems to be rare these days. Cause that's what we see you do. Can you demand a trade? Can you get tired of giving the impression that you're just chilling in Southern California?"
Here's the problem with this: MLB players don't really demand trades, because of the way their contracts work. And if Trout demanded a trade out of Anaheim, there's a real possibility the Angels wouldn't get anything in return.
Full credit to Smith for knowing that Trout is one of the best players in baseball history and that his career has been unfortunately wasted by an organization that has not been able to consistently build a competitive roster. But the very issue he brings up, Trout's health, is the reason why he almost can't be traded at this point in his career.
He hasn't played more than 130 games since 2019. That's seven years ago. He hasn't played 150 games since 2016. 10 years ago. He was so good in 2022 that he had six wins above replacement, per Fangraphs, but thanks to his age and the injuries, he's no longer an above average defensive player, and he struck out 32% of the time in 2025. Were Trout fully healthy, at his peak, and making his current salary, yes, a trade could make sense.
But with four more seasons and $142 million guaranteed after 2026, his inability to stay healthy, age, and declining defense, the Angels would have to send a significant amount of money to another team for Trout to have any value at all. True baseball reporters would know that. Stephen A. Smith isn't one of them.