How to Get Mike Trout Out: Don’t
With such a stark difference between Trout’s talent and the talent of his teammates, teams should consider putting him on base as often as they can.
It’s not very often that a single player vastly outplays the rest of his team as an aggregate. Unlike other sports, the presence of a single star isn’t an automatic injection into the playoff race. No, in baseball it takes a team. There are, however, exceptions that come around every so often. Right now Mike Trout is carrying the Angels to a .500 record of 23–23.
It’s no secret shutting down Trout is the key to beating the Angels. Get him out and there’s a good chance there won’t be many runs scored. The problem is getting Trout out is incredibly difficult. Not only has he been the best player in baseball since he arrived in 2012, but he’s actually gotten even better this season. He’s striking out less (from 20.1 to 19.8 percent) and hitting the ball for more power (from .235 to .417 ISO).
Rather than making a futile attempt to get Trout out, perhaps teams should do their best to simply minimize the damage. Yes, I’m talking about giving Trout the Barry Bonds treatment.
Since 1901 there have been just 12 instances (seven players) of a hitter having an OPS over 1.200, SLG over .750, and ISO over .350 with a minimum of 170 plate appearances. Babe Ruth did it four times. Rogers Hornsby, Mark McGwire, Lou Gehrig, and Jeff Bagwell all did it once. Barry Bonds did it three times. Trout is doing it right now.
Trout’s individual performance is reason enough for teams to be cautious with how they pitch him. After all, Bryce Harper was given similar treatment a year ago despite not even hitting as well as Trout is now. In a small sample, it actually worked. It worked in part because Harper was probably injured for a good portion of the season, but it also worked because the batters behind Harper were often struggling.
While the Bonds Treatment™️ worked on Harper last year because of his Nationals’ teammate Ryan Zimmerman’s coincidental struggles, Trout’s teammates have an even higher chance of failing to do anything behind him. Harper’s Nationals last season hit .266/.331/.446 (.180 ISO) and an above average 104 wRC+ outside of his contributions. The Angels without the help of Trout are hitting just .232/.301/.342 (.110 ISO) with an abysmal 81 wRC+. As a team they have scored 190 runs. Mike Trout has scored or driven in a total of 65 runs, good for a solid 34 percent of the team’s total runs.
Trout almost exclusively bats third in the Angels lineup, immediately ahead of Albert Pujols. There was a time when choosing to pitch to Pujols over literally any other player would have been insane. That time has passed. He’s now hitting just .247/.293/.370 with an 81 wRC+. He’s also striking out much more than he ever has in his career at a (still good) rate of 17.2 percent.
It seems like walking Trout would be very successful. It would put pressure on the rest of the Angels lineup to produce. Sure, there will be times when it appears to hurt a little to give up the extra base runner. However, he can’t hit it over the fence if he can’t hit it at all. At the very least, it’s interesting enough for a team to try it for a series to see what happens.
The New York Mets just came about as close as a team has yet to get in implementing the Bonds Treatment™️: Mike Trout Edition. And yet, even they opted to pitch to him. It worked in the moment, but Collins admitted to thinking about walking Trout even with the bases loaded this past weekend.
“The first thought is, ‘I’d almost try to walk this guy [rather] than pitch to him,’” Collins said. “Those are the kinds of situations where you look back at the time when Buck Showalter walked [Barry] Bonds with the bases loaded rather than pitch to him.”
If a team did it and found success, it would be somewhat unfortunate. The reason we all love Mike Trout is because watching any single at-bat has the possibility of something great happening. Stars like Trout don’t come around often, and his stardom depends on hitting homers and trotting around the bases. If he’s simply walking to first, it’s bad for the game. It could, however, prove advantageous for teams looking to shut down the Angels lineup.
