REPORT: Mike Trout Would Sign with Phillies in Exchange for Season Tickets, Probably

Dude looks good in red. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

At a time when a youth movement would be incredibly beneficial, the Phillies have learned that their biggest fan is also a shoe-in for AL Rookie of the Year and currently contending for MVP as well.

Mike Trout, the Millville, NJ-born, most astoundingly talented youngster in the game since Henry Rowengartener, is currently leading the Angels to not quite a playoff spot, despite his double digit WAR and his inability to not be on everyone’s mind.  At 21 years old, he is exactly the kind of five-tool phenom the Phillies could use in their lineup.  Which is also true for baseball’s other 29 teams.  But none of those team’s are Trout’s clear favorite.

So, what would it take to sign him this offseason?  Or, right now?  Sure, I’ll bet he has a “contract” in “place” with the “Angels,” but these are the kind of things that Ruben Amaro knows how to get around, like luxury taxes and the West Virginian cultural barrier.

Professional players don’t often end up on the team they rooted for as a kid–they can’t all be Jamie Moyer!  And by the time they’ve logged some career years in the Majors, a “favorite team” isn’t even a concept anymore.  Baseball is their job, and if they maintain the competitors’ mindset that helped get them to this level, then they are “rooting” for the team they are on, whatever it is.

But Mike is still young.  Perhaps somewhere in that recently-legal mind of his is the notion that he could one day play on a roster with Roy Halladay and Ryan Howard and Laynce Nix.  Perhaps after only one year in the bigs, he still possesses a childlike sense of wonder at seeing the red pinstripes climb so high–then fall so low, needing a young hero more than ever.

Will Dom Brown be that hero?  Will Darin Ruf?  We don’t know.  But we do know that now… maybe they won’t have to be…

**looks up at the sky wistfully, gets big thumbs down from Baseball Jesus**