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

By Alfonso Cerna |
Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
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Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /

Through 12 games this season, the Angels (7-5) sit in first place in the AL West and they’ve established themselves as a top-10 MLB offense. When you look deep into the numbers, it’s a bit misleading as a few players have done most of the heavy lifting, two of them being Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. The duo has gotten off to a great start this season and if they continue their current trends, it’s possible the AL MVP award will be decided between the two Anaheim stars.

It’s a rare occurrence for MLB’s Most Valuable Player voting coming down between two players on the same team. The last time teammates finished first and second in MVP voting was during the 2000 season, with Jeff Kent (1st) and Barry Bonds (2nd) for the San Francisco Giants.

In that season, Kent slashed .334/.424/.596 with 33 home runs and 125 RBI in 695 plate appearances with a 7.2 WAR. Meanwhile, Bonds slashed .306/.440/.688 with 49 home runs and 106 RBI over 607 plate appearances with a 7.7 WAR.

A few players in the National League finished better statistically that season, as Sammy Sosa finished with more home runs (50), Todd Helton RBI (147) and WAR (8.9). However, the Giants finishing with the best record in the NL (97-65) likely played a factor as it usually does.

Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani give the Angels two potential MVP candidates.

Roughly 21 years later, both Trout and Ohtani are making their case to rewrite history. If the Angels continue winning games and their stars are putting up big numbers, the AL MVP will come out of Anaheim

Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images) /

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.

Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) /

The second-half of the Angels two-headed offensive monster is their two-way phenom, Shohei Ohtani.

Hopefully he can stay healthy, because the things we’ve seen from Ohtani so far on the mound and at the plate are truly remarkable. In his first start of the season, Ohtani threw the league’s hardest pitch and hit the hardest ball in the bottom half of that same inning. A nagging blister injury forced him to miss his last start and the Halos will closely monitor him before deciding when his next outing will be.

Angels: Shohei Ohtani is already established as MLB’s best all-around player.

Luckily, it hasn’t slowed Ohtani down at the plate. The 26-year-old is slashing .340/.380/.745 with four home runs and 12 RBI in 50 plate appearances. Ohtani sits behind Trout for the Angels lead in WAR (0.7) and is 13th in the league with a 207 wRC+.

In advanced statistics, Ohtani retook the mantle for the league’s hardest-hit ball on Monday.

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Like Trout, Ohtani ranks in MLB’s top-10 in the following Statcast categories:

  • Barrel %: (26.5-1st)
  • Avg. Exit Velo: (94.2-8th)
  • xISO: (.430-3rd)
  • xwOBA: (.460-6th)
  • xSLG: (.754-5th)

There’s a long ways to go, but if Ohtani begins pitching well on a consistent basis and continues the offensive production we’ve seen so far, I think that’d make him an easy MVP favorite.

If any player puts up All-Star numbers as both a pitcher and a hitter, I find it extremely hard to believe there are others who will be considered ‘most valuable’ over Ohtani.

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I’ve mentioned how lethal this Angels offense has been with just Ohtani and Trout. There’s also Jared Walsh (195 wRC+) who’s been playing well and Anthony Rendon who has yet to put up his usual offensive production.

The Angels will need their role players to produce more than we’ve seen thus far, but right now this team has the makings of one of the best lineups in baseball headlined by two early AL MVP candidates.

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