After 10 years of Mike Trout, what's next?
Celebrate the holiday, baseball fans: today is the 10-year anniversary of Mike Trout.
Ten years ago, on July 8, 2011, Trout made his MLB debut for the Angels. Just 19 years old, Trout started in center field and batted ninth against the Mariners at Angel Stadium. He went 0-for-3.
What's happened since? He's only become the best player of his generation and put himself on track to become one of baseball's all-time greats and a surefire Hall of Famer.
Here are just a few of the highlights of Trout's amazing first 10 years in the big leagues.
He's in rare MVP air
Trout is already on a short list of players in Major League history to win three MVP Awards (he was the AL MVP in 2014, '16 and '19). Only 10 other players have done it: Barry Bonds, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Mike Schmidt.
He's also been the AL MVP runner-up four other times, and a top-five MVP finisher for nine straight seasons -- which is an MLB record, per the Elias Sports Bureau.
His career is already Hall of Fame-worthy
Trout has accumulated 76 Wins Above Replacement in his career, per Baseball Reference. That already ranks 75th all-time … right ahead of Paul Molitor.
His WAR total puts him right in the middle of Hall of Fame position players -- the average batting Hall of Famer has 67 WAR. Only 41 Hall of Fame hitters have a higher career WAR than Trout.
There's also this: only five players ever amassed more WAR than Trout through his first 10 MLB seasons (2011-20). Those five are Ted Williams, Pujols, Rogers Hornsby, Musial and Mantle. Trout tied with Bonds at 74 WAR.
His power-speed combo is historic
Here's the list of players in MLB history with 300 home runs and 200 stolen bases through their first 10 years as a Major Leaguer:
Mike Trout.
Trout's alone. (Willie Mays did get to 300-200 in the first 10 seasons he played with the Giants, it was just over an 11-year span from 1951-61 -- he was serving in the military in 1953.)
Even if you lowered the threshold to, say, 250 homers and 200 steals, only six other players have done it (Bonds, Bobby Bonds, Darryl Strawberry, Mays, Sammy Sosa and Alfonso Soriano).
Trout hit 302 homers and stole 201 bases from 2011-20 -- in other words, averaging a 30-20 season. And actually, he's already one of only 25 players ever with 300 homers and 200 steals in their career.
His slash line is as good as it gets
Trout has a career .305 batting average, .419 on-base percentage, .583 slugging percentage and 1.002 OPS. Again, those numbers are for his career.
He's the active leader in the last three of those categories, on-base percentage, slugging and OPS.
Trout hasn't won a batting title … yet … but he's led the league in on-base percentage four times, slugging percentage three times and OPS four times.
His trophy case is stuffed
Even beyond Trout's three MVP Awards, there's … everything else.
He was just named an All-Star for the ninth time in his 11 seasons.
He was the AL Rookie of the Year in 2012, when he hit .326 with 30 home runs and a Major League-leading 49 steals and 129 runs scored.
He's an eight-time Silver Slugger, winning the award eight times in nine seasons from 2012-20.
He was named the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year for the AL in 2012.
He's even a two-time All-Star Game MVP, winning in both 2014 and '15 to become the first player ever to be the MVP of back-to-back Midsummer Classics.