Mike Trout now holds longest streak of top 5 AL MVP finishes in MLB history

Nine full MLB seasons, nine top-five AL MVP finishes. We get it Mike Trout, you’re good at baseball.

Mike Trout. AL MVP contender.

The two go together like cheese and wine, a bagel and cream cheese or peanut butter and jelly. Just feels right. Since his first full MLB season with the Angels in 2012, Trout has placed no lower than 5th in the AL MVP voting.

If you were wondering what other big names come close to his MVP niche. Barry bonds, 11 top 5 finishes in the NL, Albert Pujols 10 top 5 fives between the AL and NL. Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Ted Williams nine top-five finishes in their respective leagues. Not a bad list to be a part of.

The shortened 2020 season, however, was Trout’s worst finish, placing behind Jose Abreu, Jose Ramirez, DJ LeMahieu and Shane Bieber respectively.

In 53 games Trout hit .281, with a .390 on-base percentage and a .603 slugging percentage, according to baseball-reference.com. Not too shabby for a 5th place finish.

Trout received four third-place votes and even one 9th place vote. Finishing just one point behind Bieber for 4th place with 172 points.

Trout wrapped up the second year of his 12-year, $426.5 million dollar deal in 2020, the second-largest contract in professional sports behind Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

The scary thing? He’s not even 30 yet. How many top 5 MVP vote finishes he could rack up before the end of his career is insane to think about, especially if he is able to stay healthy.

Will Trout play 25 seasons like Hall of Fame outfielder Rickey Henderson? Probably not. But 19 seasons like greats Torii Hunter or Ichiro Suzuki isn’t that far out of the realm of possibility.

Trout missed a significant amount of time through the 2017-2019 seasons, missing a large chunk of 2019 due to foot surgery. But playing in 53 of the 60 games during the 2020 season is a step in the right direction.

Don’t be shocked to hear Trout’s name in AL MVP races for years to come.