Trout
Reminder that throughout October — as the baseball playoffs kick into gear — I’m going to do a bunch of quick hits that I hope will bring a little joy to your mornings. Let’s get to it!
These have been a few tough years for Michael Nelson Trout. He has not played 150 games in a season since he was 24 years old. Each season since then — six years and counting — has been altered by something, a nagging injury, a major injury, a worldwide pandemic, something.
This year he had a back problem so severe that there was some talk about it being career-ending.
Mike Trout put up a .999 OPS anyway.
That’s just what the man does.
It’s easy to be blinded by the brilliant season Aaron Judge had or the otherworldly and incomparable play of Shohei Ohtani … but Mike Trout is still the best damn hitter in the world. His body breaks down. His speed declines. He doesn’t walk as much. And he’s still better at hitting a baseball than anybody.
That .999 OPS is the key — it’s not like OPS is the ultimate statistic or anything like that, there are various mathematical problems with it. But OPS is stubbornly effective at identifying great offense, and here are Mike Trout’s OPS numbers going back to when he was 23 year old.
2022: .999
2021: 1.090
2020: .993
2019: .1.083
2018: 1.088
2017: 1.071
2016: .991
2015: .991
Extraordinary. His career OPS is 1.002, and only one other player in the last 60 years has put up a career OPS over 1.000 — that’s Barry Bonds.
In 2022, Trout played in only 119 games — and he was reasonably healthy for fewer than 100 of them. He still finished second behind Judge with 40 home runs, second behind Judge with a .630 slugging percentage, third behind Judge and Yordan Alvarez with a 178 OPS+. The first 50 days of the season, he hit .320/.422/.673. The last 40 games of the season, after returning from injury, he hit .308/.370/.686.
The time in between he either endured through intense back pain or rested because of it and simply made the best of it.
A healthy Mike Trout might have challenged 61 home runs, too.
Through age 30, he has already cemented his place in Cooperstown — his 82.4 WAR is about the same as Ken Griffey Jr., more than Pete Rose or Joe DiMaggio, and a good Trout season away from George Brett, and maybe Jimmie Foxx and Al Kaline, too.
There’s a touch of sadness surrounding Trout’s career. Sadness that his Angels never contend. Sadness that you almost never see him on television without making an extreme effort. Sadness that he can’t stay healthy enough to put up a full season’s worth of numbers.
But this is the glory of Mike Trout: He shines through all of that. He just goes out there and never complains and plays his heart out and crushes baseballs and talks about the weather with his family.
My baseball wish for 2023 is my baseball wish every season: Let Mike Trout be healthy. Let him play on a good team. Let America discover him all over again.
Hey, if you feel like it, I’d love if you’d share this post with your friends!
To the contrary I am making my case based on hard data while you are trying to argue that the benchmarks that applied to every position player in the HOF are no longer valid and that instead Trout should be judged by a standard that values walks the same as hits and does not penalize a player for striking out and not putting the ball in play. And a valuation system that you can’t explain;WAR. And what seems to be consistent with all you Fanboys of Trout is that you provide no hard facts to support your contentions. And I really don’t have time to explain all of the defects in Trout’s offense so I suggest you read my initial post in that regard (strikes more than any of the all time greats he is compared to by a lot; has terrible clutch hitting stats 40-50 points for his career below Mays, Aaron, Mantle, Pujols. But let’s just look at your contention that Trout is even close to Mays ; I know you can’t hear it but there is a cosmic laugh rolling across the baseball universe at this point to that absurd contention! Here are a few hard facts to help you realize this. So great defensive outfielders routinely have a significant number of outfield assists per season Mays routinely had 20+ outfield assists per season, the great Clemente would have have as many as 25 per season; even recent GG outfielders like Hunter Pence would have between 17-20+ a season; Trout has never even had double digits in outfield assists in any season (highest 7) and that is due in part because his arm is considered at best average; then there are putouts which is an indication of range; Mays 14 years plus of 400 putouts per season; Trout 1; Trout has been criticized from the beginning about his path to the ball but when he was younger his speed could make up for his poor judgements; but no longer! And of course he has never won a GG and has only been a finalist one year. take care now but I suggest you do a bit more homework before jump into something you actually know very little about
I don't get all the hyperbole with Trout. Yes, he's had a great start to his career but his career value is no where NEAR that of guys like Griffey. If Trout continues to put up great numbers for awhile then yes we can compare him to Griffey or Mantle. But he's just not there yet. Just for kicks: Mike Trout has fewer hits than Mark McLemore, fewer doubles than Mark Loretta, fewer HRs than Greg Vaughn, and fewer RBI than Mike Sweeney. Let's not get too carried away here just yet.