Mike Trout is a juggernaut best compared to players like Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, heck, even Babe Ruth. He hits for average, for power, he can run, and he can field better than anybody. It’s almost not fair how good he is.
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Mike Trout is so good, he’s finished in the top 5 in the AL MVP voting in each of his last SEVEN big league seasons. He’s finished in the top 2, SIX out of those seven times. His career slash line of .307 BA, .416 OBP, and .573 OBP compare with some of the greatest players to ever live.
In 2012, Trout won the Rookie of the Year award. That same season, It took a triple-crown by Miguel Cabrera to beat Mike Trout in the MVP voting. Still and all, Trout (10.5 bWAR) was worth more wins than Cabrera (7.1 bWAR) was, according to Baseball Reference.
At just 27 years of age, it makes sense that the Los Angeles Angels would want to lock up Mike Trout for the remainder of his career. I mean, who wouldn’t want the best baseball player in the world in their possession for as long as humanly possible?
It is because of this that on Tuesday, March 19, 2019, Mike Trout agreed to a record-breaking 12-year, $430M deal with the Angels, making him the richest player ($35.83M AAV) in MLB.
This caps off an offseason in which four players accounted for $1.32 BILLION (with a “B”) in contracts, sending glimmers of hope to the next batch of great players, Mookie Betts and Aaron Judge.
Will they eclipse Mike Trout? I highly doubted. I also didn’t think there was chance four teams would combine to spend over a billion dollars on four players.