His all-around performance was stunning enough to put him right in the thick of the American League MVP debate with Cabrera, who won the first Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. Traditionalists favor Cabrera, but Trout has garnered widespread support through a rare combination of offense, baserunning and superb defense in center field. Trout’s 10.7 wins above replacement (WAR) was the highest for a position player since Bonds posted 11.6 WARs for the Giants in 2001 and 2002.
Trout’s performance earned him another first, becoming the only player to win Baseball America’s Rookie of the Year and Major League Player of the Year awards in the same season.
Of course the Cabrera folks shouldn’t be too upset. The Baseball America’s Player of the Year Award is not a invariable harbinger of MVP awards. Only one award is given out for all of baseball and pitchers win it a lot more often than they do the MVP award. The last time one of BA’s POY’s won the MVP -- isn’t that fun to say -- was 2009, when Joe Mauer took home the hardware. One of the MVP winners was the Baseball America Player of the Year in five of the last ten years.
Congrats Mike Trout. But Mr. Cabrera should probably still plan on keeping a space open in his trophy case when the MVP is announced.
