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James A. Pittman-Imagn Images<\/p>\n\t\t\t\tJames A. Pittman-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
On Monday morning, The Athletic\u2019s Ken Rosenthal did what he does best. He unleashed a major trade deadline scoop<\/a>. As it was a full week after the deadline, though, Rosenthal\u2019s scoop wasn\u2019t about who got traded where for what. It wasn\u2019t about how the trades came together. It was, in fact, the opposite of the breathless deadline reporting and transaction analysis that can so often encourage us to view ballplayers as commodities rather than human beings who have little control over where they live and work. Rosenthal wrote about the emotional and logistical toll of being traded.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of that going around these days. The day after the deadline, Jacob Calvin Meyer of the Baltimore Sun<\/a> reported that Adley Rutschman<\/a>, Colton Cowser<\/a>, Ryan Mountcastle<\/a>, and Gunnar Henderson<\/a> had been at the theater, about to see the new Spider-Man movie, when Rutschman found out he\u2019d been traded to the Red Sox. \u201cIt was pretty emotional,\u201d Cowser said. The foursome decided against watching the movie, which was probably for the best, as it\u2019s about a talented young man with a powerful swing whose best friends have forgotten about him entirely after a move to Boston. Rosenthal\u2019s article was about the team the Orioles faced the very next day.<\/p>\n On Sunday, August 2, the Angels broke a five-game losing streak with a win over the Brewers, then flew down to Baltimore. Monday, the day of the deadline, was an off day for both the Orioles and the Angels. Roughly a dozen Angels, plus assorted coaches and staffers spent the day in Vineland, New Jersey, playing a round of golf at Trout National \u2013 The Reserve. At Mike Trout<\/a>\u2019s golf course, they had what would no doubt have been a delightful day of fun in the sun if not for the fact that every couple holes, storm clouds showed up in the form of interim GM John Mozeliak, who was calling up another player to inform him that he\u2019d been traded away. Oh, and there were literal storms too, so reliever Ryan Zeferjahn<\/a> got his call while everybody was packed in a hut to stay out of the rain.<\/p>\n Those are just the Cliff\u2019s Notes. You should read the whole article, and I don\u2019t want to spoil it for you. It\u2019s wild, and Rosenthal managed as well as anybody could have to report the facts and avoid editorializing without downplaying the over-the-top absurdity of the situation. Instead, what I\u2019m going to do here is answer some of the more pressing, sillier questions raised by the story. It\u2019s a sad story, but it\u2019s also deliciously awkward. It\u2019s absurdist comedy of the highest order. A third of the players who made the trip to Millville found out on the golf course that they\u2019d been traded, because Trout planned a team-bonding event for the exact time when the team\u2019s bonds would be dissolved with hydrochloric acid. Let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n Mike Trout has a golf course?<\/p>\n No. Mike Trout doesn\u2019t just have a golf course. In April, he opened a world-class, invitation-only golf club two miles from where he grew up. It cost $100 million. Tiger Woods designed it. It\u2019s got a state-of-the-art training center, a lighted par-3 course named The Bullpen, and a 30,000-square-foot putting area. It\u2019s got a spa, a barber shop, a bowling alley, a 2,500-bottle wine cellar, and a fitness center designed by Trout. It\u2019s got a clubhouse named The Clubhouse. It\u2019s got five-star accommodations that include two lodges, five cottages, and at least one hut. It\u2019s got two comfort stations. One of them is called The Dugout, and it\u2019s designed to look like a major league dugout (without the sunflower seeds, presumably). It\u2019s got a freaking helipad.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s important to set the scene, but this is actually the least fun part of the story. As much as Millville loves Mike Trout, it does not love his 288-acre Shangri-La. Just a few weeks ago, Patrick Lanni of NJ.com<\/a> wrote a deeply reported story highlighting the disconnect involved in building such a thing in Cumberland County, \u201cwidely considered New Jersey\u2019s poorest county, with the state\u2019s highest poverty rate, lowest median household income and an 8% unemployment rate.\u201d Trout hasn\u2019t necessarily gone out of his way to integrate Trout National \u2013 The Reserve into the community either. \u201cIt\u2019s pure golf,\u201d he told Golf.com<\/a>. \u201cYou don\u2019t see any houses.\u201d<\/p>\n To be clear, the golf course is situated right next to many houses. You don\u2019t see them because Trout National is surrounded by a stone wall that stands 15 feet tall. It\u2019s built on an old silica salt mine and onetime farmland, but that wasn\u2019t quite enough space. The developers also bought up at least 15 single-family homes for their land. Many neighbors now have a giant wall bordering their backyards. Some residents who refused to sell found their properties walled in on three sides. The Old Vineland Tavern sticks out like a sore thumb, but luckily Danny\u2019s Pizza Pizzazz across the street is safe.<\/p>\n One resident told Lanni, \u201cI\u2019ve heard from the city council that everything is going to be so good for the community\u2026. The club is its own thing. You go there, and you stay there. You don\u2019t go to downtown Millville.\u201d It\u2019s hard to imagine the golfers arriving and departing by helicopter are going to spend all that much time outside walls of the compound, except maybe to duck into Danny\u2019s for a pizza (and some pizzazz).<\/p>\n It may sound like the name of a fish stick company that went bankrupt in 1989, but Trout National has staked its brand on exclusivity and opulence. Its website<\/a> doesn\u2019t feature all that much copy, but whoever wrote it raided the thesaurus for \u201ccurated,\u201d \u201cluxurious,\u201d \u201cluxury,\u201d \u201cprivate,\u201d \u201cupscale,\u201d \u201cmasterfully crafted,\u201d \u201crefined,\u201d \u201csecluded,\u201d \u201ccustom,\u201d \u201chigh-end,\u201d and \u201cluxury\u201d one more time. Rosenthal didn\u2019t provide any details about the hut where Zeferjahn found out he\u2019d been traded, but I think we can safely assume it\u2019s one of the fancier huts ever constructed.<\/p>\n Another Vineland resident told Lanni, \u201cI think everyone understands that none of us will ever see inside of those walls.\u201d Doing so would take quite an investment. Membership is limited to 227 people, a nod to Trout\u2019s uniform number, 27. Mike\u2019s brother Tyler told Golf.com that membership will be composed of athletes, young business professionals, and entrepreneurs. The fees aren\u2019t public, but comparable ultra-exclusive courses have reported initiation fees in the vicinity of half a million dollars, along with annual membership fees around $200,000. And the place is literally called The Reserve; you know, as in an area that people are kept out of.<\/p>\n Mike Trout and his partners bought out more than a dozen people in his hometown in order to build a five-star golf paradise that no one in his hometown will ever be able to see. He surrounded it with a 15-foot wall so that none of his customers, 227 of the richest people on the planet, would be subjected to the sight of his hometown. You don\u2019t have to be a resident of Millville to be offended by this kind of excess.<\/p>\n This is the setting for the day\u2019s events. This is Trout\u2019s fantastical chocolate factory, and much like Willy Wonka, his visitors kept getting whisked away one by one throughout the day. I\u2019m sure you have more questions.<\/p>\n Oh yeah, when exactly did all the trades go down?<\/p>\n I\u2019m so glad you asked. Not only can we timestamp the day\u2019s events based on when the trades broke, but Rosenthal also told us what hole everyone was on when they got traded. Let\u2019s update our scorecard, shall we?<\/p>\n First Hole: Brent Suter<\/a> to the Braves This must have all been so weird.<\/p>\n Uh, yeah.<\/p>\n So\u2026 did Mike Trout not know when the trade deadline was?<\/p>\n Well, Trout planned the outing back in the spring. He saw a day off on the east coast on the schedule, and he went for it. It\u2019s not surprising that he didn\u2019t immediately realize it was the trade deadline. August 3 is unusually late, a result of the fact that August 1 fell on a Saturday and the deadline can\u2019t be on a weekend. It probably wasn\u2019t top of mind anyway. He couldn\u2019t know that early on that the Angels \u2014\u00a0a team that despite being bad for years has never embarked upon the type of teardown we saw this season \u2014 would be selling at the deadline. Plus, he\u2019s Mike Trout. He\u2019s never had to worry about getting traded.<\/p>\n But he figured it out eventually, right?<\/p>\n Yes. Mike Trout learned that the trade deadline was on August 3 prior to the morning of August 3. In fact, Mozeliak briefed him on the team\u2019s deadline strategy a few days beforehand.<\/p>\n Oh yeah! Trout was part of the trade deadline war room, right? Didn\u2019t he know his teammates were going to get traded away?<\/p>\n Trout has said this report was blown out of proportion, but\u2026 yes. Mozeliak and Trout met a few weeks before the deadline and established that he wouldn\u2019t be traded, Then, a few days before the deadline, he was invited into the war room. \u201cPeople were blowing it up,\u201d he told MLB.com<\/a>. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t what everybody\u2019s saying. Basically, just going over everything. It wasn\u2019t like I was telling him, \u2018Oh, trade this guy, trade that guy.\u2019 It was basically just a plan. It was just Mo trying to build a relationship with me in the couple weeks he\u2019s been here. Just being transparent. I think that\u2019s the biggest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n All of this would seem fairly standard. Trout is the face of the franchise, and he\u2019s under contract through 2030. It only makes sense to get him on board with the vision for the future of the team, especially before a teardown. But it gets weird when you factor the golf outing into the equation. By Trout\u2019s own admission, Mozeliak told him the team\u2019s plan for the deadline, which clearly involved trading everything that wasn\u2019t nailed down. They went over everything \u2013 Trout\u2019s own words \u2013 so at the very least, he had to have had an idea that some of his guests would cease to be his teammates.<\/p>\n So why didn\u2019t he cancel?<\/p>\n That\u2019s the hundred-million-dollar question, and only Mike Trout knows the answer. Rosenthal described the situation in hilariously deadpan language. \u201cTrout came to realize, as he organized the outing, that it might be an unusual day. The group, he said, had an idea that trades were coming.\u201d All the same, I can think of plenty of reasons that might have pushed to keep this particular tee time on the books.<\/p>\n If I\u2019ve learned one thing about Mike Trout in researching this article, it\u2019s that the dude really<\/a> loves golf. When baseball was shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, he would finish his baseball workout, then go play 36 holes of golf, then hit the driving range or the putting green to work on his game. Now that it\u2019s over, does Trout wish he\u2019d just cancelled the whole thing and organized a team outing to go see the new Spider-Man movie?<\/p>\n We\u2019ll never know for sure, but my guess is no. Rosenthal came as close as he could to asking this question without being rude. Asked whether the day went as he had envisioned it, Trout said, \u201cIt was just different. We were all enjoying a round of golf. It was different, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Can we back up and talk logistics for a second? Is Millville even convenient to get to?<\/p>\n Millville is extremely convenient to get to. From Philadelphia.<\/p>\n From Baltimore, not so much. Assuming there\u2019s no traffic whatsoever, it\u2019s a two-hour drive away from Baltimore. The team flew from Milwaukee to Baltimore, then roughly a dozen players hopped on a bus bound for New Jersey. Several coaches and staffers arrived on their own bus in the morning. I\u2019ve run all the numbers here, and this was a hectic day for the Angels.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the most optimistic timeline I can possibly imagine. Sunday\u2019s game in Milwaukee ended at 2:45 PM Central. Let\u2019s say everybody really hustled in the shower and the bus left the ballpark at 3:15. It\u2019s a 15-minute drive to the airport, and we\u2019ll assume no traffic (not even airport traffic) and just 15 minutes to get the plane loaded and the wheels up. The flight from Milwaukee is an hour and 55 minutes long, and you lose an hour to time zones. We\u2019ll give everybody another five minutes to get off the plane and on the bus, and then it\u2019s a two-hour bus ride to Millville (again assuming no traffic whatsoever). That would put everyone in Millville at 8:45 PM Eastern at the very earliest. In reality, I\u2019d bet they arrived closer to 11 or 12. This timeline doesn\u2019t even account for the fact that they presumably ate dinner at some point.<\/p>\n Then they had a full day of golf, starting around 11:00 AM and wrapping up a bit before 6:00 PM, which means they didn\u2019t get back into Baltimore until 8 at the earliest.<\/p>\n So where did everybody spend the night? At the golf club?<\/p>\n No. Rosenthal reported that the dozen or so players \u201cstayed overnight at Trout\u2019s home.\u201d<\/p>\n Must be a pretty big home.<\/p>\n
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Suter got the first call right before everyone teed off. Some players were still warming up on a putting green; some were at the first tee box. ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan<\/a> broke the news at 11:26 AM. As Passan said on Effectively Wild<\/a> last year, he never breaks trade news until he\u2019s sure the players involved have already been informed, so Mozeliak must have called Suter to deliver the news a bit beforehand. \u201cCan I finish the round?\u201d Suter asked. \u201cCan I golf?\u201d Mozeliak said yes, which makes him sound very magnanimous until you realize that he was no longer Suter\u2019s boss.
\nSeventh Hole: Jo Adell<\/a> to the Guardians
Jon Heyman broke this news<\/a> at 12:19 PM. \u201cI was in shock,\u201d Adell said. He finished out the front nine, then left. I honestly don\u2019t know where Adell went or how he got there. I can\u2019t imagine he went all the way back to Baltimore. The Guardians were at home at the time, so maybe he called an Uber for the 45-minute ride to Philadelphia, then caught a flight to Cleveland.
\nHole Indeterminate: Reid Detmers<\/a> to the Cubs (Not Real)
So an incorrect report had Detmers going to the Cubs around 2:45 PM. That rumor made it to Detmers, but his foursome, which included Trout, quickly gathered that it was inaccurate. \u201cI think it was good he was golfing,\u201d said Trout. \u201cIt took his mind off it.\u201d Detmers, however, told MLB.com<\/a> that even after confirming with his agent that no trade had taken place, he didn\u2019t feel safe until 30 minutes after the trade deadline. Based on the timing, we can assume Detmers was somewhere around the 10th hole.
\nTwelfth or 13th Hole: Ryan Zeferjahn to the Cubs (For Real)
At 3:46 PM, Passan broke the news<\/a> that Zeferjahn really would be traded to the Cubs. As you know, when Zeferjahn got the call, he was gathered in a hut with all his teammates to avoid the rain. He had no privacy. On the bright side, all his teammates who had played in Chicago were able to brief him about his new organization.
\nNineteenth Hole: Kirby Yates<\/a> to the Pirates
This was the buzzer-beater move of the day. It came just as everyone had finished up the round and was getting ready to leave. Rosenthal broke it himself (along with colleague Will Sammon)<\/a> at 6:00 PM. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I had a chance,\u201d Yates told Rosenthal. \u201cI did not think there was a market for a 39-year-old throwing 90 mph.\u201d In the final ironic twist of the day, the Pirates were about to kick off a series against the Brewers, so Yates had to fly right back to Milwaukee. He ended up making three straight appearances against the Brewers.<\/p>\n
\nTrout National took years to build, and I\u2019m sure Trout is very, very proud of it. He was probably really excited to show all his buddies his opulent little city-state. He planned this whole trip, and he was reluctant to give it up.
\nRemember when I mentioned that Trout saw a day off on the schedule and he jumped on it? That\u2019s a bigger deal than you might realize. Last year, the Angels didn\u2019t have a single off day on the east coast. You can understand why he wanted to hold onto this one.
\nI don\u2019t subscribe to this notion, but if you want to be really, really cynical, you could also posit that he viewed this little trip as a recruiting venture for prospective members.
\nI imagine that baseball works a little differently for Mike Trout than for most players. He\u2019s never been traded. He\u2019s never been at risk of being traded. Considering how terrible they\u2019ve been during his tenure, the Angels have done a surprisingly small amount of selling at the deadline. I don\u2019t want to accuse him of a lack of empathy or anything, but the toll of this particular part of the game may just be a bit harder for Trout to grasp than for players who have lived through it or who enjoy less job security.
\nIn that same vein, I\u2019m sure Trout didn\u2019t pressure anybody into coming on the trip \u2013 Jos\u00e9 Soriano<\/a> found out he\u2019d been traded in his hotel in Baltimore because he\u2019s not a golfer \u2013 but he also may not have realized how hard it would be for his teammates to turn down that invitation. That\u2019s just human nature. He may not fully comprehend the amount of authority he has in the clubhouse simply by virtue of being Mike Trout.
\nTrout may well have figured that cancelling would have just traded one form of awkwardness for another. He couldn\u2019t exactly go around the clubhouse telling everyone they were uninvited because the deadline was going to be a bloodbath. But it would have been really weird to cancel without giving some excuse. Everybody knew he\u2019d been briefed on the team\u2019s deadline plans. They probably would have figured it out.
\nMaybe he just thought spending the day golfing with your buddies would be a better way to deal with the stress of getting traded than moping around Baltimore and waiting for your phone to ring (though he\u2019d have probably felt differently if he had known about Bergers cookies<\/a>, the Baltimore delicacy that can turn any rough day around). \u201cI guess if you\u2019re going to get news like that,\u201d Mozeliak told Rosenthal, \u201cyou might as well be having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n