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It has been a record setting year for contract $ doled out for players.  When you factor in the player extensions, we are talking about 7 contracts registering in the top 50 Player contracts in the history of the game.

Robinson Cano, Clayton Kershaw, Masahiro Tanaka, Jacoby Ellsbury, Freddie Freeman, Shin-Soo Choo and Homer Bailey have inked deal for between $105 MIL to $240 MIL.

Now there is word the Angels are working on an extension with Mike Trout, to the tune of 6 YRs/$150 MIL,  from 2015 – 2020.  This would be the 22nd highest contract in MLB History.

For the record, Trout’s deal for 2014 is already set at $510 K, and any extension wouldn’t have Luxury Tax Ramifications until his new deal would start in 2015.

Mike Trout is one of the best young players in the game of baseball today. The outfielder plays great defense by using his tremendous speed to track down fly balls. He is also a great hitter that can hit for both power and a high average. With Trout’s arsenal of talent, he could command way north of $30 MIL per year, if the Angels extend him, they would buy 2 – 3 years worth of Free Agency away for about that amount per year. This is a good idea.

I like the idea of buying out 3 Free Agent years for the 22 Year Old.

Since Trout is due Arbitration from 2015 – 2017, probably at a record rate of at least $55 – $60 MIL anyway, he would be making about $90 – $95 MIL for the years of 2018 – 2020.

The dollars would be about $31 or $32 MIL per year during that time, but it is a great deal when you can only imagine what would happen for the guy to hit the open market.

Albert Pujols will be tied into his deal still, having his contract officially ending after the 2021 year.

Okay, so here are the other players to have signed deals this offseason.  There has been 2.4 Billion Dollars forked out for 140 Players in Free Agency and extensions on this list.

Atlanta has been the lining the pockets of its youngsters since the new stadium plans were revealed. Freeman (8 YRs/$135 MIL), Teheran (6 YRs./$32.4 MIL), Simmons (7 YRs/$58 MIl), Heyward (2 Yrs/$13.3 MIL) and Kimbrel (4 YRs/$42 MIL) almost represents $300 MIL to their core talent on the team this offseason. This makes up for their lack of movement on Free Agency.  Atlanta’s management has their top guys all pretty much signed when they will enter their new stadium in Cobb County, GA in 2017.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com ***

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A big thank-you goes out to Our ‘Chief Writer‘ Hunter Stokes for preparing today’s featured article.  Hunter is a Baseball Writer for MLB reports.

Hunter grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia and played baseball with Sheldon Bream (Sid Bream‘s son) at Liberty University in the NCAA.

His favorite player is Brian Wilson (how could you guess?), and he hates when people can’t think outside the box!

His favorite expression – is ‘ this At Bat is about ten seconds away from a Toe – Tag!

You can reach Hunter on Twitter  Follow @stokes_hunter21

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