MLB Looking into Yankees After Randy Levine Makes 10-Year Contract Comment About Mike Trout

Mike Trout might, in the near future, wind up the longest (and largest) contract in baseball history. He’s under team control until 2017, but since the Angels — his current employer — are tied up with big deals to both Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton there’s plenty of speculation Trout might end up somewhere else such as, say, the Bronx.

Friday, at the Yankees introductory press conference for Jacoby Ellsbury, Yankees President Randy Levine made these comments when asked about the 10-year contract handed out to Robinson Cano by the Seattle Mariners.

"“If it was Mike Trout, I’d offer him a 10-year contract,” Levine told reporters in New York. “But for people over 30, I don’t believe it makes sense.”"

Now MLB is looking into those comments from Levine and whether or not they constitute tampering. It’s a safe bet, nothing will likely come from this investigation beyond a stern talking to from the commissioner’s office. It’s pretty clear Levine was using Trout as an example.

MLB is looking into Randy Levine's comment re: Mike Trout and a 10-year deal to see if the Yankees president broke any tampering rules.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) December 13, 2013

Levine is right however, if you’re going to hand out a 10-year contract it should be for a player like Trout, who is 22 years old and put together a .314/.404/.549 line in 336 career games over three seasons. Trout is going to want a bump in salary soon enough, since he only made $510,000 in 2013. He’s not even eligible for arbitration until 2015. The good news for the Angels? Hamilton’s is due $32 million in 2017, but then his five-year, $133 million deal is off the books. (Pujols is still locked up until 2021 when he’ll pocket $30 million.)

Figure Trout has a new deal well before then.