The Angels are signing players, but what can they expect from Mike Trout?

In the NFL, Patrick Mahomes makes your team a contender. In the NBA, Nikola Jokic makes your team a contender.

As the Angels and their fans know all too well, one player in baseball does not make your team a contender. Over the last decade, Mike Trout couldn’t do it all alone, and he and Shohei Ohtani couldn’t do it all alone.

The Angels agreed to a three-year, $63 million contract with pitcher Yusei Kikuchi on Monday, according to a person familiar with the deal but not authorized to comment publicly. The team has not announced the deal because Kikuchi has not yet completed his physical exam.

With the deal, the Angels surpassed $100 million in holiday spending before Thanksgiving and acquired six players in their 30s: Kikuchi and fellow starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks, designated hitter Jorge Soler, backup catcher Travis d’Arnaud, backup Infielders Scott Kingery and Kevin Newman.

For Kikuchi and Soler it’s about impact, for the others it’s about depth. But when it comes to real contention, the Angels are all about the trout again.

How good are the angels really? They lost 99 games last season, the worst team in franchise history. They have resisted a complete rebuild, and the best young player to emerge – shortstop Zach Neto – will have shoulder surgery and may not be ready when the new season begins.

No team made the playoffs with fewer than 86 wins last season. Could the Angels really go from 63 to 86 wins in one year?

The Kansas City Royals went from 56 wins (and 106 losses!) two seasons ago to 86 wins last season and made the playoffs.

The Royals’ most important picks in free agency: starting pitchers Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha. It couldn’t have worked out better: Lugo and Wacha each finished in the top 10 in earned run average in the American League, and the duo combined to pitch 373 innings.

The Royals’ starters ranked second in the league in ERA at 3.55. The Angels starters finished last with 4.97.

Kikuchi and Hendricks combined for 306 innings last season. Hendricks has posted an ERA below 4.00 once in the last four seasons; Kikuchi has done that once in his six major league seasons, but after a trade from the Toronto Blue Jays to the Houston Astros last summer, he posted a 2.70 ERA in 10 starts.

The Angels bet $39 million on Tyler Anderson after he posted a career year for the Dodgers. They’re now betting $63 million on Kikuchi after he had a brilliant two months for the Astros. That’s the price of consistent, if not spectacular, pitching.

The Angels still have significant needs: more starting pitching, even more relief pitching, infield, big bat. Their lineup is thin, their bullpen thinner.

It’s uncertain how much more owner Arte Moreno will spend this offseason. Including Soler, who was acquired in a salary sacrifice deal, the Angels took in $107 million this month. The number of teams that spent more than $110 million on free agents last winter: five (three of them in the National League West: the Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants).

Let’s go back to the Royals for a moment. Their pitching was good; It wasn’t her crime. The Royals had four players with at least 300 tackles and an OPS+ above 100, better than league average. The same applies to the angels.

The difference: Only one of those eight players was even 20% above the league average: Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., second only to Aaron Judge as the AL’s most valuable player. Witt batted .332 with 32 home runs and had an OPS over 171 – 71% better than league average.

Soler had an OPS over 121. That helps.

But what the Angels really need are elite hitters like Witt. Moreno has already signed two. He needs them to play, and play well.

The Angels are not counting on Anthony Rendon. If he earns playing time in spring training that’s great, but he hasn’t hit a home run in 513 days.

That brings us back to Trout, the three-time MVP who hasn’t even played 120 games in a season since 2019. When Trout plays, he remains an elite hitter.

His OPS+ last season: 140 – 40% better than league average. Over a full season, that would have put him in the top 10 in the AL. He played 29 games last season.

No one really knows how many games Trout will play next season. Even the angels seem confused. Their promotional calendar is usually highlighted by Trout giveaways: bobbleheads, replica jerseys, t-shirts and even fish hats.

On Monday, the Angels announced their 2025 recruiting calendar. The five bobbleheads are all blank faces that will be announced at a later date.

The Angels have gone 10 years without a postseason appearance, the longest such drought in the majors. This offseason doesn’t seem to be much different than the Angels’ past offseasons: patch a few holes, add some depth, hope for a run at .500, and then some luck.

Happiness would come from within your own home. Mike Trout, a nation of angels turns their lonely eyes to you.