MLB: Players Who Played at Least 20-Years with One Team
By Bill Felber
Mike Trout’s new contract could make him a 20-season veteran with the Angels. If he gets there, he’ll join an elite roster of some of the all-time greats in MLB.
With his agreement to a 12-year, $430 million contract extension, Mike Trout has set himself on a course that will eventually lead to a rare distinction in MLB.
Assuming he is not injured and plays out the full length of the deal, which would keep him in an Angel uniform through 2020, Trout will play his entire 20-season career with just one team. That would make him the first Angel, and only the 19th player in MLB history, to do so.
The distinction is so rare that only three franchises can boast of having more than one such player in their history. Neither of the game’s two oldest ongoing franchises, the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves, have ever produced a 20-year, one-team product.
Trout came up in 2011 after the Angels made him the 25th pick in the 2009 draft. He won the 2012 Rookie of the Year Award and was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player in both 2014 and 2016.
Assuming he makes it to 20 seasons with the Angels, Trout would join one of the most distinguished lists baseball can produce, one absolutely loaded with franchise icons. The first player to complete 20 seasons with one franchise did so in 1927, the most recent in 2014.
Among the 18, four were pitchers. Collectively they won 1,154 games for their franchises. The 14 position players weren’t a bad lot, either. They won a collective 11 Most Valuable Player awards, appeared in more than 175 All-Star games, and amassed more than 42,000 base hits. Nine surpassed 3,000 hits in their careers.
Of the 18, 16 have been enshrined in the Hall of Fame, 10 on the first ballot. A 17th will be when he becomes eligible in 2020.
Here’s a quick look at the careers of the 20-year, one-team players Trout is now on a course to join. The 18 are listed in the order of the number of games they played. But we begin with a trivia question. As noted above, 17 of the 18 either have been enshrined in Cooperstown or are not yet eligible. Among those eligible for enshrinement, who is the only player in MLB history to have spent an entire career of at least 20 seasons with just one team yet not have been elected to the Hall of Fame?