MLB: All-Time Greats on All-Time Terrible Teams

Mike Trout might be the best player in MLB, but he’s stuck on a struggling team. What other players have starred for clubs circling the cellar?

Two weeks ago, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels celebrated his 25th birthday in a most inauspicious way, putting on a golden sombrero in a 3-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners. That the Angels dropped the game has become a theme in Trout’s fifth full season, as the team find itself in dead last in the American League West, some 20.5 games behind the frontrunning Texas Rangers.

Despite the piling up of losses, though, Trout is currently on pace to do something no one else has ever done in MLB history. His 7.9 bWAR entering play on Thursday leads the majors, and if that lead holds, it would mark the fifth straight time he has done so. No other player has led the league in this statistic five consecutive times to open their career.

Trout is having another standout season, with a slash line of .312/.430/.553, 27 doubles, 24 home runs, 78 RBIs, 21 stolen bases, and an OPS+ of 170. The picture made by his numbers suggest a second AL MVP is well within his grasp, but as the Angels continue to struggle, that possibility seems to shrink.

There have been others in MLB history like Trout. Players who dominated the game individually while their teams wallowed in mediocrity. Hall of Famers who missed out on the feeling of winning big, raising trophies, and having their contributions recognized as they should have been.

So who were the best players on bad teams?

Next: Controversial MVP