For a long time Mike Trout was generally considered the best player in baseball, and in recent years he has been joined by Shohei Ohtani, who is now widely considered the best player in baseball. Despite all this greatness, the Angels have not had a winning season since 2015, and have not made the playoffs since the Royals swept them in the 2014 ALDS. The phenomenon of generational talent on a losing ballclub was best captured by a 2021 tweet:
every time I see an Angels highlight it's like "Mike Trout hit three homes runs and raised his average to .