LA Angels: Will AL MVP race be decided between these 2 Halos?

It’s a scary thought for the rest of the league, but it’s possible we have not seen the best of Mike Trout.

Three MVP awards, a career .305 batting average, and 1.002 OPS over 11 seasons is the tale of the tape. It’s hard to believe anyone can top that, but Trout is doing his best efforts through his first 12 games of 2021.

Angels: Mike Trout is getting better with age.

The 29-year-old is slashing .381/.509/.762 with four home runs and eight RBI in 53 plate appearances. Trout also leads MLB (as of Thursday) with 11 walks.

It won’t be accounted for in MVP voting, but, per usual Trout is blistering baseballs which emphasizes how much he’s locked in at the plate.

Trout currently ranks in MLB’s top-5 for the following Statcast categories:

• Barrel %: (25.9-2nd)
• Avg. Exit Velo: (95.3 MPH-4th)
• xISO: (.420-4th)
• xwOBA: (.517-2nd)
• xSLG: (.789-4th)
• xBA: (.369-3rd)

Trout also currently ranks 2nd with a 1.1 WAR. Perhaps the most impressive non-tradional stat is Trout’s Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+). It’s a statistic used to take runs created and adjusts that number to account for important external factors like a ballpark or ERA.

The league average for wRC+ is 100, and right now Trout is on pace for the highest of his career with MLB’s fifth-best (242 wRC+).

The traditional statistics show it, and the advance metrics prove it as well. Mike Trout is not slowing down any time soon.