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BOB NIGHTENGALE
Mike Trout

As Angels struggle amid Mike Trout's greatest season, one number - 2020 - looms larger

Mike Trout has already surpassed 60 Wins Above Replacement for his career.

ANAHEIM - It’s late in the evening, after the latest Los Angeles Angels defeat, and a horde of reporters gather around Mike Trout’s locker as he slowly dresses.

This is one of the greatest weeks of his career, in what’s emerging as his most spectacular season yet, and Trout can’t bear to look at the statistic that eats away at him.

“I’m not going to look,’’ he says, softly. “It’s too early. I can’t. I just can’t.’’

This has nothing to do with his own numbers, leading the major leagues in everything from homers (23), runs (60), total bases (176), extra-base hits (42), walks (62), and a mind-blowing 1.152 on base plus slugging percentage. He’s on pace to surpass Babe Ruth and everyone else who ever played the game for the greatest Wins Above Replacement season ever produced.

This has everything to do with the standings.

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The Angels are in a free-fall, losing seven games in the standings in just nine days, plummeting to 10 ½ games behind the AL West leading Houston Astros and eight behind the Seattle Mariners for the second and final wild-card spot.

“This has been one of those crazy, weird years,’’ Trout says. “I can’t even explain it.’’

The Angels have had a franchise-record 15 players simultaneously on the disabled list, employed a major-league leading 46 players, a franchise-record 25 pitchers through 73 games, and breath-taking rookie Shohei Ohtani may have thrown his last pitch of the season with a torn elbow ligament.

Hello misery, it’s the Angels again.

“I’d give up everything I have, all of the individual awards I’ve ever won,’’ says Trout, a two-time MVP and six-time All-Star, “for a World Series. It would be so sick to win the World Series, ride around with that trophy, and see everyone so happy. That’s something you dream about.

“But I know you’ve got to get to the playoffs first.’’

Trout will be playing his 1,000th career game on Thursday, and already is on a collision course for Cooperstown.

Barry Bonds didn’t have 224 homers in his first 1,000 games. Ken Griffey Jr. didn’t have as high as Trout’s .308 batting average. Only Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez hit at least .300 with 450 extra-base hits and 150 stolen bases, and no one in baseball history had racked up more than his 60.5 WAR.

My God, since he became a regular in April 2012, he has never gone longer than two games without reaching base. In the last week alone, he reached base 25 times in seven games, with a double, four homers and seven RBI.

In the history of baseball, only five players have a higher career batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage than Michael Nelson Trout: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Rogers Hornsby and Jimmie Foxx.

“I always tell myself if you’re in the same conversation as Hall of Fame guys,’’ Trout says, “it means you played the game the right way, played the game hard and makes you think you’re doing something right.’’

Yet, despite perhaps the most spectacular first seven seasons by the 20,000 men who ever played major-league baseball, the loneliest number of all is 3:

The total number of postseason games Trout has played.

The Angels went three-and-out in the 2014 AL Division Series against the Kansas City Royals, and are still looking to win their first postseason game since 2009.

“It was short, we ran into a hot team that got every big hit and made every big play, but it was so much fun,’’ Trout says. “That was probably my funnest season, just getting to the playoffs, and winning the division. Celebrating with the fans, it was crazy. I even saved my goggles from that celebration.

“It makes you want to go back as quickly as you can and do it all over again.’’

In Anaheim, anyway, time is running out.

Trout has only 413 games left until he’s eligible for free agency after the 2020 season, and there have been no contract talks, with no negotiations scheduled for at least the rest of this year.

“I don’t think about that stuff,’’ Trout says. “It will all play out the way it’s supposed to be. I can only control what I can control. I got two more years left.

“Let’s see what happens.’’

There are no indications that Trout is interested in departing the only organization he has known, but if the Angels don’t reach the postseason before 2020, it could dramatically alter his thinking. Trout, 26, is fiercely loyal, remembering the Angels chose him after every team passed him up until the 25th pick in the 2009 draft. And he has a strong relationship with owner Arte Moreno, president John Carpino, GM Billy Eppler and manager Mike Scioscia.

Trout, who married Jessica Cox, his high-school sweetheart, in December, loves his Orange County lifestyle, living in Laguna Beach during the season, just steps from the ocean. The off-season is spent back home in Millville, N.J., where he and Jessica are building their dream house on 300 acres, near both of their families.

"Let’s see what happens," Mike Trout says about his future in Anaheim beyond 2020.

“This organization, from top to bottom, has treated me great,’’ Trout says. “The fans are great. The West Coast. You’re on the beach. What more can you ask? We get a little spoiled out here living by the beach and enjoying this weather every day.’’

And yet, for a guy who has never missed more than five games in a season until tearing his thumb ligament last year, the season is far too short.’

“We all want that for him, at least to get a taste of it,’’ says former All-Star outfielder Torii Hunter, Trout’s close friend and former teammate. “He deserves it. The world deserves it. There’s so many people that have heard of Mike, but never got to see him play.

“Put him on the national stage, in postseason, and you’re going to see just how crazy good he is. You’re going to witness greatness.’’

David Ross, who spent 15 years in the big leagues as a .229-hitting back-up catcher, and played in 12 postseason rounds and won two World Series, believes the baseball world would lose its mind seeing Trout in the postseason.

 “As a fan, you want to see the best player on the biggest stage, right?’’ said Ross, an ESPN analyst. “I want to see him there. I want to see under the bright lights in a playoff series against the Yankees in New York. Can you imagine?’’

Certainly, it’s the Angels’ dream, too. It’s why they strongly pursued Kansas City Royals closer Kelvin Herrera, before he was traded Monday to the Washington Nationals. They remain immersed in talks with multiple teams for pitching. They may be in a free-fall, but knowing there’s no guarantee that Trout will be around past 2020, they’re not about to sacrifice any season.

“It’s a responsibility that myself and my staff take very seriously,’’ Eppler says “getting this club into the postseason. It's inherent in human nature to always want to look ahead, or look behind, people don’t really like to look at now. We’re looking at today.’’

And, at least for now, Eppler and his staff are trying to do everything they can to take advantage of one of perhaps the greatest player of his generation.

“Growing up, I idolized Ken Griffey Jr. because he was having so much fun on the baseball field,’’ Eppler said, “and Mike is the same way. He’s always playing the game with a smile, and always seems to be having more fun than anybody on that baseball field.

“I didn’t know the man behind the curtain until I got here, but once you get to know him, understand what makes him tick, and what kind of human being he is, you hold him even in higher regard.’’

Trout, the first baseball player since Griffey to have his own line of Nike shoes, has no interest in saturating the market with endorsements. You see him in precious few commercials. He shuns the spotlight, letting the others participate in the All-Star Home Run Derby, while he sits back and enjoys the show with his teammates. His idea of good nightlife is carrying a flashlight with him on his hunting trips with his high-school buddies.

In due time, there will be negotiations. There will be debates how much to pay the greatest player in the game. And there will always be the ultimate question whether Trout will even want to stay if the Angels’ postseason drought continues.

“I just want to get to the playoffs,’’ Trout says. “I saw first-hand what the [Philadelphia] Eagles can do for a city. Just sitting in the stands that day, being a fan of the team winning it all, was pretty special.

“I can’t imagine being the guy holding that trophy up in the air. It’s something that I always think about in the back of my mind.

“Winning a World Series, how cool would that be?’’

Just reaching the playoffs again wearing an Angels uniform would be a start.

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