Mike Trout has been the best player in baseball for at least the last five years, if not longer. He’s won two AL MVP awards and has finished second in MVP voting four other times. Despite all that previous success, 2019 is shaping up to be his best offensive season ever.
Trout smacked a two-run home run in the bottom of the third inning on Saturday night to put his Los Angeles Angels up 5-0 on the Seattle Mariners. That was his 30th home run of the season, and he accomplished it in his 89th game of the season (the team’s 93rd), which is the fastest an Angels player has ever reached 30 homers in a season (besting his previous mark of 98).
As The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya noted, Trout is posting his highest weighted runs created plus per at-bat mark of his career.
Mike Trout is currently having his best offensive season ever on a per at-bat basis (193 wRC+ in 399 plate appearances). So there’s that.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) July 14, 2019
Trout current leads the American League in nine categories: home runs (30), RBIs (75), walks (77), on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.670), OPS (1.128), OPS+, total bases (207) and intentional walks (11). The most categories he’s previously led the league in is five (2017 and 2018).
The slugging percentage and OPS are the highest marks of Trout’s career, and he is on pace for a career high in home runs (his previous is 41 in 2015). He is the runaway favorite to win AL MVP this year.
