Michael Nelson Trout (born August 7, 1991) is an American professional baseball center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). Trout is a nine-time MLB All-Star, three-time American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) (winning the award in 2014, 2016, and 2019, while finishing second in the 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2018 votes), and is an eight-time winner of the Silver Slugger Award.
The Angels selected Trout in the first round of the 2009 MLB draft. He made a brief major league appearance in 2011 before becoming a regular player for the Angels the subsequent season, and won the 2012 AL Rookie of the Year Award unanimously.
Trout's athleticism on the field has received praise from both the mainstream media and sabermetricians. He is regarded as one of the most outstanding young players in the history of baseball, as well as one of the best current players in all of MLB.[1][2][3][4] Trout led the American League in wins above replacement (WAR) in each of his first five full seasons (according to Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference.com).[5]
Trout has led the American League in runs (2012–14, 2016) and times on base (2013, 2015–16, 2018) four times.[6] As of February 2021, he leads all active major league ballplayers in career slugging percentage (.582) and on base plus slugging (1.000), and was second in career on base percentage (.418) and stolen base percentage (84.45%).[6][7] In 2019, he signed a 12-year, $426 million contract with the Angels, the second-richest contract in the history of North American sports and third in professional sports in general (and the second-biggest contract at the time of signing).
The Angels selected Trout, using their compensation pick from the New York Yankees for their signing of Mark Teixeira, 25th overall in the 2009 MLB draft.[25] He started his professional career out of high school in 2009 playing for the Arizona Angels of the rookie-level Arizona League (AZL), hitting .360 with a .418 OBP and .506 SLG with one home run, 25 runs batted in (RBIs), and 13 stolen bases in 187 plate appearances over 39 games. He was beaten out in being named AZL Most Valuable Player by Cody Decker.[26][27] He finished the season playing for the Cedar Rapids Kernels of the Class A Midwest League, hitting .267 over 20 plate appearances in five games.[citation needed]
Before the 2010 season, Trout was considered the Angels' third-best prospect and the 85th-best in all of baseball by Baseball America.[28][29] He started the season playing for Cedar Rapids, where he hit .362 with a .454 on-base percentage (OBP) and a .526 slugging percentage (SLG) with six home runs, 39 RBIs, and 45 stolen bases in 82 games. He was selected to play in the All-Star Futures Game.[20] In July, Baseball America named Trout the second-best overall baseball prospect.[30] After the Futures game, he was promoted to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the Class A-Advanced California League.[31]
After the 2010 season, Trout received the Topps Minor League Player of the Year Award; at just 19 years and two months, he became the youngest player to win the award.[32] He was also named a Baseball America All-Star as well as a Topps Class A All-Star.[33]
Prior to the 2011 season, Trout was ranked number one by ESPN's Keith Law in his 2011 top 100 prospects list[34] and by MLB's Jonathan Mayo.[35] Trout started the 2011 season with the Arkansas Travelers of the Class AA Texas League. He hit .324 with nine home runs, 27 RBIs, and 28 stolen bases in his first 75 games.[
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