Mike Trout is going to retire as one of the greatest baseball players who has ever lived.

Not one of the greatest players of his generation. One of the greatest players ever. One of my first blog posts I ever posted on this site was about comparing the start of his career to the all-time greats. We all knew we’d end up here. Yet, barring some miraculous turnaround over the next few years, his postseason résumé will likely consist of exactly one playoff appearance, a three-game sweep in 2014, and just 12 career postseason plate appearances.

Think about that for a second.

I’ve always believed loyalty matters in sports. I respect players who spend their careers with one organization. There’s something special about icons wearing one uniform from beginning to end—Derek Jeter, Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr., Chipper Jones.

But Mike Trout has reached the point where I honestly hope he finishes his career somewhere else, and I know I’m far from the only baseball fan who feels that way. I have absolutely no faith that the Los Angeles Angels know how to build a winner around him.

At some point, loyalty stops being admirable and starts becoming tragic. The Angels have failed Mike Trout in virtually every conceivable way.

For years, they neglected the most important part of roster construction: pitching. Outside of occasional bright spots, they haven’t fielded anything resembling a championship-caliber rotation since the early years of Trout’s career, when Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson anchored the staff.

Instead of building sustainable pitching, the front office repeatedly tried to solve every problem by writing massive checks to aging stars. It didn’t work.

Then came Shohei Ohtani.

Somehow, the Angels managed to have Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols in the same lineup and still couldn’t reach October. That’s almost impossible to comprehend.

The most frustrating part wasn’t even losing Ohtani. It was everything that happened before they lost him.

The baseball world saw exactly two logical paths at the 2023 trade deadline. If you truly believed you could contend, go all in. If you didn’t, trade Shohei Ohtani and replenish a farm system that desperately needed elite talent.

Instead, the Angels somehow managed to choose both…and neither. They refused to trade Ohtani, but they also didn’t make the kind of aggressive moves that would transform them into legitimate contenders. They added just enough to say they were trying, but not enough to actually move the needle.

Predictably, Ohtani walked.

Ironically, this year’s club actually has something it’s lacked for quite a while: an offense. Going into June 24 (at the time of writing this), the Angels rank 10th in Major League Baseball in runs scored. They’re finally getting enough production to win games.

Unfortunately, everything else continues to let them down.

The rotation has a couple of encouraging pieces in José Soriano and Walbert Ureña, but beyond that it remains inconsistent. The bullpen, meanwhile, has become an outright disaster—the worst in baseball. Nowhere was that more obvious than June 19 against the Athletics.

The Angels led 11-4 entering the bottom of the sixth inning.

They lost 12-11 in ten innings.

That wasn’t simply one bad night. It was a microcosm of the last decade of Angels baseball. Good players being let down by inadequate roster construction, poor pitching depth, and an organization that continues to chase shortcuts instead of building sustainable success.

At some point, the blame has to reach the people making the decisions.

Arte Moreno has owned this franchise since 2003. John Carpino has served as team president since 2009. General managers have come and gone, yet the results remain remarkably similar. Different executives. Different managers. Same outcome.

Mike Trout keeps putting on an Angels uniform, and the Angels keep missing the playoffs. That isn’t bad luck anymore. It’s organizational failure.

Honestly, the Angels’ front office should be embarrassed.

For years, they’ve watched one of the greatest players the game has ever produced spend October at home while other organizations consistently find ways to compete. Maybe baseball needs to start holding owners more accountable. Players get blamed. Managers get fired. General managers lose their jobs. Owners rarely face meaningful consequences, even when years of poor decision-making leave franchises spinning their wheels. At some point, that has to change because this isn’t just about Mike Trout anymore.

It’s about Angels fans.

They deserve better. Baseball deserves better. And perhaps most of all, one of the greatest players to ever pick up a bat deserves far more than 12 postseason plate appearances.

UPDATE: Between the time of writing this and when it will be published, the Angels announced they have moved on from general manager Perry Minasian and named veteran GM John Mozeliak as the interim successor. It remains to be seen whether Mozeliak’s role is just to get Los Angeles through 2026, or if the plan is for him to be the proper successor, but Mozeliak’s resume speaks for itself. For the last 20 years, he served as the GM for the St. Louis Cardinals, winning 3 NL pennants and 2 World Series titles. In that time, he has shown prove of both developing talented prospects and acquiring Major League star power in the service of winning. I for one, hope this is more than just a temporary band-aid, but until we have that answer, it is reassuring to see the Angels taking action from within.