Fansided

MLB: 5 players who could steal the MVP from Mike Trout

By Ed Carroll

Jul 15, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; American League outfielder Mike Trout (27) of the Los Angeles Angels holds up the MVP trophy after after the 2014 MLB All Star Game at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 15, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; American League outfielder Mike Trout (27) of the Los Angeles Angels holds up the MVP trophy after after the 2014 MLB All Star Game at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports /
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September 20, 2014; Anaheim, CA, USA; Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout (27) is presented the Angels MVP award by team owner Arte Moreno before playing against the Texas Rangers at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Mandatory Credit: Gary A.Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
September 20, 2014; Anaheim, CA, USA; Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout (27) is presented the Angels MVP award by team owner Arte Moreno before playing against the Texas Rangers at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Mandatory Credit: Gary A.Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /

With only a few games left in the MLB regular season, this time of year signals two significant, overlapping seasons in the sport; in addition to the MLB playoffs, this time of year is when most members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America finish their end-of-the-year-awards ballots, as the MVP, Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year and Cy Young awards are based entirely on regular season performance.

The Los Angeles Angels’s Mike Trout is, for the third time in three years, the best player in the game in terms of overall performance. If you care about Wins Above Replacement at all (and while WAR certainly isn’t the end-all of baseball statistics, it’s still useful, and therefore you should care about it), Trout is actually having a far worse year in 2014 (8.0 fWAR) than he had in 2013 (10.5 fWAR) or 2012 (10.1 fWAR), but when you’re in the eight-win range for fWAR, it’s kind of hard to be mad at all. Trout leads all of MLB in terms of WAR this season (Clayton Kershaw is at 7.2 fWAR, highest in the National League, and Trout’s closest AL competition is Corey Kluber at 7.0 fWAR).

If you prefer traditional statistics, Trout has you covered there, too. This year, he either leads the league or is tied for the lead in runs (114), RBI (110) and total bases (334), while hitting 35 home runs, 39 doubles and nine triples for a total of 172 hits, which doesn’t lead the league but is still a crap-ton of hits.

Trout is the favorite for MVP this year, but as we’ve seen before, the BBWAA isn’t always the most logical of awards committees. Yes, Trout was a rookie in 2012, and Miguel Cabrera had the triple crown, so of course the award went to Cabrera cause the triple crown a massively overrated and slightly arbitrary crown, and writers got this silly notion stuck in their heads that they were forced to give the award to Cabrera. Last year, the Angels failed to make the playoffs, though no fault of Trout, so the LA center fielder was penalized for this in the MVP voting (even though being on a team qualifying for the playoffs is not criteria to the MVP ballot and is also a pretty illogical way to vote on an award). But another player “stealing” Mike Trout’s 2014 MVP award is possible, and here are five candidates to do so, all having the unfortunate luck of having an MVP-caliber season in the era of Trout.

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