MLB's Expanded Playoffs Should Basically Guarantee Mike Trout a Chance at an October Legacy

Not only does the MLB have to reckon with the fact that Mike Trout, a three-time MVP and one of the most statistically proficient players of the last few decades, isn't as marketable as they would have hoped given his lack of braggadocious behavior, but they have to watch postseason after postseason roll by with Trout sitting on his butt at home.

The latest proposal that could prompt the MLB to return to play in 2020, however, might finally change all that, as three more teams in both the AL and NL will make the postseason, raising the number of playoff teams from 10 to 16.

Trout's Angels, who usually hover around the .500 mark while the Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics end up making the postseason, will finally have an avenue towards postseason play.

Trout went 1-12 in the 2014 ALDS, his only playoff exposure to this point. While his legacy as a Hall of Famer is pretty much secure by this point, the league has to be audibly frustrated with the fact that the Angels can't surround Trout with enough competence to even break .500 most years.

There will always be a small sect of small-minded MLB fans who will use Trout's lack of postseason success to poke holes in his legacy, and he has the chance to shut them all up should he make the playoffs in either of the next two years.

A Trout World Series win would be massive for the league as a whole, as the sport's premier player would finally have a ring on his finger after years of futility. Luckily, Anthony Rendon and an expanded playoff field might have just arrived in the nick of time.