Angels' all-time best seasons by hitters

MLB.com is ranking the top five individual seasons by a position player for each club, but the Angels are a unique case due to the sheer dominance of superstar Mike Trout.

Trout has won three American League MVP Awards and owns the top five seasons in wins above replacement by position players in Angels history, per baseball-reference.com. So with that in mind, only Trout’s best season was considered, giving an opportunity for others to make the list of the top five individual offensive seasons in Angels history:

1) Mike Trout, 2016
It’s almost impossible to pick Trout’s best season, but it's hard to argue with 2016, when he batted .315/.441/.550 with 29 homers, 100 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. He also led the league with 123 runs scored and posted 10.5 WAR, which is tied for his best in a single season with his rookie year in 2012. Trout didn't win the MVP in '12 -- finishing second to Miguel Cabrera -- but he did win it in '16, giving that season the slight edge as his best.

2) Shohei Ohtani, 2021
Ohtani had a historic season as a two-way sensation in 2021, as he became the fourth Angels player to win an AL MVP Award, joining Trout, Vladimir Guerrero and Don Baylor. There's a case it was the best season in Halos history because of what he did as both a pitcher and a hitter, but he couldn't quite match Trout's top season in wins above replacement. Ohtani was worth 9.1 WAR as both a hitter and a pitcher, which led the Majors by a sizable margin, but Trout reached 10.5 WAR in 2016. But it was still an incredible season in which Ohtani reached numerous milestones and set multiple records. He hit .257/.372/.592 with 46 homers, 26 doubles, eight triples, 26 stolen bases, 103 runs scored and 100 RBIs in 155 games.

3) Darin Erstad, 2000
Erstad had several strong years for the Angels, but his best was undeniably in 2000, when he batted .355/.409/.541 with 25 homers, 100 RBIs, 28 stolen bases and 121 runs in 157 games. He led MLB with 240 hits that season, which are tied for 13th most in Major League history. At the time, Erstad’s 240 hits (along with Wade Boggs) were the most since 1930. He posted 8.3 WAR that season, the most by an Angels position player not named Mike Trout.

4) Jim Fregosi, 1964
Fregosi often gets overlooked despite ranking second on the club's all-time WAR list behind Trout. But he did just about everything well and put it all together in 1964, batting .277/.369/.463 with 18 homers, 22 doubles, nine triples, eight stolen bases, 72 RBIs and 86 runs scored in 147 games while being one of the top defensive players in the league. Fregosi posted 7.9 WAR that year, which ranked second in the American League, yet he finished 13th in the balloting for AL MVP.

5) Vladimir Guerrero, 2004
Guerrero made an immediate impact in his first year with the Angels, batting .337/.391/.598 with 39 homers, 39 doubles and 126 RBIs in 156 games to win AL MVP honors. Advanced statistics didn't like his defense that year, which is why he finished with only 5.6 WAR. Other notable Angels have put up better seasons, according to WAR, such as Troy Glaus in 2000 (7.8 WAR) and Andrelton Simmons in 2017 (7.8 WAR), but Guerrero was the league's MVP and he won it in convincing fashion, receiving 21 out of 28 possible first-place votes.