ANAHEIM, Calif. — Energetic chants of “M-V-P! MVP!” filled the warm night air here this week. Pinstripe Yankees fans dominated the crowd in appreciation of Aaron Judge and what may be to come for the outfielder. With much less enthusiasm, beleaguered Angels fans answered these questions of the M.V.P. pleads for Shohei Ohtani as a respite from his grim reality.
Stuck in a string of summer disappointments and after team owner Arte Moreno's surprise announcement last week that he was exploring selling the club, the future of Ohtani's Angel is more uncertain than ever.
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Baseball's only two-way star can become a free agent after the 2023 season, and Angels fans have been on edge since he issued what sounded like an ultimatum after last season's home finale: Love the fans and the team atmosphere, Ohtani said, but he wants to win most of all.
"That's the most important thing for me," he said at the time. “I'll leave it at that.
Eleven months later, even though the Angels are cornered, they are still unable to pass. Come October, Ohtani will be waiting to see if he can win a second straight MVP award as he watches the postseason from afar.
Moreno's Angels are coming off a club-record seventh straight loss. Only once before, from 1971 to 1978, had this organization lost so much for so long.
What makes today's game so different from the Angels' game in the 1970s is that the club has produced four AL MVPs in the past eight seasons: Mike Trout (2014, 2016, 2019) and Ohtani (2021). And yet the loss continues. The Yankees' performance here this week serves only as a reminder that the Angels haven't won a playoff game since beating the Yankees in Game 5 of the 2009 American League Championship Series, a series New York eventually won.
Since then, Moreno has thrown more and more good money after bad, signing high-priced free agents like Albert Pujols (10 years, $240 million), Josh Hamilton (five years, $125 million), and Anthony Rendon (7 years, $245 million). The team has no postseason success for those millions.
It's always a question mark because you don't know who's going to step in,” Trout said of the club's suddenly uncertain direction before Tuesday night. "We'll see how it goes. Of course, I still have many years left in my contract."
Trout are in it for the long haul. Before the 2019 season, he signed a 12-year, $426.5 million contract with the Angels through 2030.
Meanwhile, Ohtani, the team's best pitcher and best hitter outside of Trout, has one more season after this season before he hits free agency.
Things have come a long way since Ohtani announced his decision to join the Angels after the 2017 season. His arrival was so exciting that Billy Eppler, the team's general manager at the time, completely lost his chair and collapsed to the floor while trying. absorb news. Since then, the team has had little joy and many turnovers.
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