Any surprise? Ohtani, Trout named to All-MLB Team

SAN DIEGO -- Angels superstars Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout were named to the 2022 All-MLB Team on Monday, as Ohtani made it both as a hitter and a pitcher for the second straight year and Trout made it as an outfielder for the first time since '20.

Ohtani, who finished second in the balloting for AL MVP and fourth in the voting for the AL Cy Young Award, was a First Team All-MLB selection as a starting pitcher and a Second Team selection as a designated hitter. Last year, Ohtani was a First Team selection at DH and a Second Team selection as a starting pitcher. He’s now been an All-MLB Team selection four times, which is tied for the most selections with Freddie Freeman, who has either been First Team or Second Team at first base in all four years of the honor’s existence.

• All-MLB Team presented by Arm & Hammer and OxiClean

Trout, a three-time AL MVP and 10-time All-Star, was named as a First Team selection in the outfield for the third time in his career. The All-MLB Team was created in 2019, and Trout didn’t make it in '21, when he was limited to 36 games because of a right calf injury.

Ohtani, 28, had another incredible season to follow up winning the AL MVP Award unanimously in 2021. The two-way star batted .273/.356/.519 with 34 homers, 30 doubles, 11 stolen bases and 95 RBIs in 157 games. He also went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA and 219 strikeouts over 166 innings in 28 starts. He became the first player to qualify for the statistical leaderboards as both a hitter (minimum 502 plate appearances) and a pitcher (minimum 162 innings) in the same season.

Ohtani finished behind Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, the First Team selection, at designated hitter. Alvarez also won the AL Silver Slugger Award at DH, but Ohtani won the Edgar Martínez Outstanding Designated Hitter Award for the second straight year.

Ohtani joined Miami's Sandy Alcantara, Houston's Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez and Toronto's Alek Manoah as the First Team starting pitchers. Alcantara won the NL Cy Young, while Verlander won the award in the AL. Ohtani finished fourth in the balloting for AL Cy Young behind Verlander, Dylan Cease and Manoah.

Trout, meanwhile, rebounded from injury for a strong season, batting .283/.369/.630 with 40 homers, 28 doubles and 80 RBIs in 119 games. Trout, 31, missed roughly a month with a back injury he sustained in mid-July, but he finished well, most remarkably by hitting a homer in seven straight games from Sept. 4-12. He was one of four players in the Majors to hit 40 homers.

Trout joined the Yankees' Aaron Judge and the Dodgers' Mookie Betts as the First Team outfielders. Trout and Betts have each made the All-MLB Team three times, but Betts was a Second Team outfielder in 2019. Judge, who won the AL MVP Award over Ohtani, was a First Team outfielder for a second straight year.

The All-MLB teams were determined with 50% of the vote coming from fans and 50% coming from a panel of experts after nominees at each position were announced in early November. The winners were announced on MLB Network on Monday. Taylor Ward was the only other nominee for the Angels, but he didn’t finish among the top six to make the First or Second Team for outfielders.