SIMPLY THE BEST
Trout isn’t just midseason MVP, he is among greatest Hardball has seen
MIKE TROUT is the AL MVP at the halfway mark.
No disrespect to Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez. They are tremendous players. But they have each other and the rest of a Red Sox infrastructure good enough to have Boston vying for the majors’ best record.
Trout has the decaying careers of Ian Kinsler and Albert Pujols, a Relievers Anonymous bullpen and the most crowded DL in the majors, which includes Shohei Ohtani.
Apologies to Andrew Heaney, Andrelton Simmons and Justin Upton, but Trout is simply not surrounded by enough talent again.
He is the halfway AL MVP because he is the best player in the world, playing better than he ever has despite so much rot around him. But I have a bigger question, a personal one that I have been asking the duration of this season: Is Trout now the best player I have seen in my lifetime?
Just so you know the parameters, that begins toward the tail end of the careers of Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. Until now, the best full careers I have seen are Mike Schmidt
and Barry Bonds, and I am talking those first 13 years of Bonds’ career before he swelled unnaturally — that period when Bonds was as brilliant on the bases and defending left field as hitting.
Has Trout done enough in his sevenplus seasons to reach this status? Maybe he needs a bit more to nudge by Schmidt and Bonds atop my pantheon. But I am thinking about it more than ever because Trout keeps excising bad elements of his game and elevating his strong points. As an example, in 2014 — a year he won the MVP, by the way — he struck out 184 times and walked 83. It was 72 and 72 this season going into Saturday. His defense in center might never have been better, the same for his baserunning.
Trout does not cave to the disappointment around him. He keeps r a i s i ng hi s game — the best keeps gett i ng better. It would be nice if he is supplied a team at some point worthy of his genius. 2. Betts. 3. Jose Ramirez, Indians. 4. Martinez. 5. Aaron Judge, Yankees.