The discussion for Most Valuable Player has included Los Angeles Angels centerfielder, Mike Trout, for a majority of the time he’s been a Major Leaguer, and manager Phil Nevin believes he’d be in line for another if not for injuries.
Trout has only played 102 games as of Sept. 16 this season, and as a whole, he’s posted a .280/.368/.626 slash on the year. But since returning off of the injured list, he’s been one of the hottest hitters in all of Major League Baseball.
Since Aug. 19, Trout has a wRC+ of 202, including 11 home runs and 19 RBI, including a record-tying seven straight games with a homer.
Given that Trout has looked the best he has in a long time, Nevin says the discussion for MVP would include his star centerfielder if injury didn’t shorten his season, via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:
“I would make the argument he’d be close to 50 now, and the whole discussion about the MVP would be different,” Nevin said. “I’ve been on record that [Ohtani] is the best player and the most valuable player in our game right now. I’m going to stay with that. I love Judgey like a son, but until someone else does something like Shohei, I just don’t see it. And if Trout was healthy, he’d be approaching Judge in home runs. I know the facts are that he hasn’t played all year, I get it, but I think it would be a different discussion about Shohei right now.”
Trout and Shohei Ohtani are the two big bats for the Angels, and unfortunately, the club has fallen to the depths of irrelevance with how poor their record is.
Ohtani currently stands in second place behind Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees due to his incredible home run pace.
Andrew Velazquez thinks Ohtani should be MVP
Throughout the season, there has been a small segment of baseball fans who believe that Ohtani — and not New York Yankees star Aaron Judge — should win the American League MVP award. Angels shortstop Andrew Velazquez believes Ohtani has the edge.
No one can deny how remarkable Judge has been this season. He is making a real bid for the MLB home run record and leads baseball in a number of major hitting categories. But Ohtani has arguably been better in 2022 than he was when he won the award in 2021.