Mike Trout once again proved in 2019, why he is the best player in Major League Baseball and once the calendar hit August, many people believed that Mike Trout was the runaway Most Valuable Player in the American League.
Many believed that because no one had anything close to the numbers that Trout had and even heading into September there was no one really close, but once he got removed from a game with a foot injury in Early-September that changed. The belief was that Trout would be able to play again after his foot injury but he ended up missing the final 3 weeks of the season and that allowed Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros to catch up to Trout’s numbers. The Houston SS/3B helped make it a close call for who the MVP of the AL will be.
BOLD indicates that the player-led that category between the Trout and Bregman.
Angels’ Mike Trout
- 134 Games
- 470 At-Bat’s
- 110 Runs
- 137 Hits
- 27 Doubles
- 2 Triples
- 45 Home Run’s
- 104 Runs Batted In
- 11 Stolen Bases / 2 Caught Stealing
- 110 Walks
- 120 Strikeout’s
- .291 Batting Average
- .438 On-Base Percentage (Led MLB)
- .645 Slugging Percentage (Led MLB)
- 1.083 On-Base Plus Slugging (Led MLB)
- 185 OPS+(Led MLB)(Park Adjusted with 100 being average)
- 303 total bases
- 5 Grounded Into Double Play
- 16 Hit By Pitch
- 4 Sac Flies
- 14 Intentional Base on Balls (Led MLB)
- 8.3 bWAR (Baseball-Reference Wins-Above Replacement)
- 8.6 fWAR (Led MLB) (Fan Graphs Wins-Above Replacement)
- 190 wRC+(Led MLB) (Weighted Runs Created Plus, 100 is average)
- Win Probability Added 5.62
Houston Astros’ Alex Bregman
- 156 Games
- 554 At-Bat’s
- 122 Runs
- 164 Hits
- 37 Doubles
- 2 Triples
- 41 Home Run’s
- 112 Runs Batted In
- 5 Stolen Bases
- 1 Caught Stealing
- 119 Walks (Led MLB)
- 83 Strikeout’s
- .296 Batting Average
- .423 On-Base Percentage
- .592 Slugging Percentage
- 1.015 On-Base Plus Slugging
- 162 OPS+(Park Adjusted with 100 being average)
- 328 Total Bases
- 9 Ground Into Double Play
- 9 Hit By Pitch
- 8 Sac Flies
- 2 Intentional Base On Balls
- 8.4 bWAR (Baseball-Reference Wins-Above Replacement)
- 8.5 fWAR (Fan Graphs Wins-Above Replacement)
- 168 wRC+(Weighted Runs Created Plus, 100 is average)
- Win Probability Added 4.99
Even though Trout played in 22 fewer games than Bregman it is truly impressive with how close they are in many categories. The voters for the AL MVP had a tough decision to make as the ballots were already submitted a couple of weeks ago and it does seem like it could go either way. Although in wRC+ and WPA Trout is ahead by quite a lot and that may have grabbed the attention of the voters as they may no longer vote based on whether or not the player played for a contending team.
If Trout does indeed win the MVP that would be the first time that a player missed the final 3 weeks of the season and won the award.
Featured Image: Yi-Chin Lee / staff photographer
