Often times we forget or take for granted that we are literally watching the greatest player of our generation play baseball.
One of my favorite exercises, popularized by former Fangraphs author Jeff Sullivan, was to see where Trout ranked on the Wins Above Replacement (WAR) leader board. Well, in the period spanning from 2006 to 2018, Mike Trout leads all players with 64.9 WAR. Following Trout, we have Miguel Cabrera, Adrian Beltre, and Robinson Cano.
All great players in their own right yes, future Hall of Famers, also yes for the first two. Now, realize that Mike Trout debuted in 2011. That’s right, Mike Trout leads all players in cumulative WAR over that time span despite him not even being in the league for those 5 extra years.
This just shows how incredible he really is. Last year, he had the highest wRC+ in baseball at 191 meaning he was 91% better than league average. After Mookie Betts‘ 185, the next closest in the league was J.D. Martinez‘s 170, and his only job is to hit. But Trout is the complete player, watch this video of his defensive highlights from last year.
Don’t let a day go by where you take his excellence for granted.