Mike Trout hasn't appeared in a postseason game since 2014, the longest active drought for any player of his caliber as the three-time MVP enters the final stretch of his career with the Los Angeles Angels.

The 34-year-old center fielder owns an 87.5 WAR, the highest ever for a modern player who hasn't won a postseason game. Trout and the Angels have not returned to the playoffs since losing to Kansas City in a three-game ALDS sweep in 2014. The franchise hasn't won a postseason game since 2009, the year Trout was drafted.

Trout signed a 12-year, $426 million extension in March 2019, then the richest contract in North American sports history. The deal still has approximately $190 million remaining and runs through 2030. Multiple sources told The Athletic that Trout would never request a trade from the Angels, calling it "the easy way out."

"I've got (five) more years on the contract," Trout told The Athletic in September. "That's what fuels me. I feel like I've got a lot left in my tank. And I know when it's right, I can be the best."

Former teammate Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in December 2023 and has won World Series titles in each season since leaving Anaheim. Trout and Ohtani were teammates for six seasons but appeared in the lineup together in just 46.6 percent of Angels games, with the team going 194-211 during that span.

"He was the best player out there, and he was so young and he had all the tools, the passion for the game. He was Mike Trout and it kind of disappeared, which is sad," said former Angels third-base coach Dino Ebel. "Not making the playoffs, not being in big moments, not in October … he kind of got left behind."

Trout averaged 145 games per season through 2019 but has missed significant time in each of the last five years. He suffered a strained calf in 2021 that cost him 122 games, a back injury in 2022 (30 games), and a fractured hamate bone in 2023 that ended his season. Last year, he played 130 games but posted the worst offensive numbers of his career.

"I think his body may give out before the contract runs out," said former Angels broadcaster Victor Rojas. "But if he can hang on and the Angels can do it — I know it's a long shot — it will be so great for Mike and for the entire sport."

The Angels have cycled through five managers and four general managers since Trout was drafted. Owner Arte Moreno remains the only constant in the organization. Trout fell out of MLB's top 20 in jersey sales last year and wasn't voted an All-Star by fans for the first time since 2012.

"I don't want his career to end like this," Ebel said. "I'm still pulling for him. I think a lot of people are."