Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson edged out Angels outfielder Mike Trout for the 2015 AL MVP award, and once again, the Angels’ lack of a postseason berth cost their best player an accolade.
2015 marks the third time in four years Trout has finished as the runner-up for MVP, when he has a strong argument that he should have won it all four times. Trout’s WAR was 8.0 during his MVP season per Fangraphs, and it was the lowest of his four full campaigns.
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He was one stolen base shy of a 30-home run, 50-steal season in 2011, and posted an otherworldly OBP in 2012, only to be outshined by Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown. Despite outpacing Cabrera in the advanced metrics, which heavily weighted Trout’s defense and base running, the traditional stats –and Cabrera’s Tigers reaching the playoffs – did Trout in. It didn’t matter that Trout’s Angels actually won one more game than Detroit.
Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal voted for Trout in this year’s race, and then wrote a column in which he speculated Toronto’s presence in the postseason played a factor in Donaldson’s victory.
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“Now it’s undeniable that Donaldson’s team reached the postseason and Trout’s did not – an important consideration for some voters,” Rosenthal wrote.
Rosenthal also noted that Trout had a higher OPS with runners in scoring position than Donaldson, proving Donaldson’s RBI total had a lot to do with his superior teammates. He mentioned that the Angels went 10-19 in August while Trout battled a wrist injury, while Toronto was 18-9 when Donaldson’s stats dipped in June.
Trout also held a 31-point advantage on Donaldson in OBP, and an 18-point edge in WRC+, a metric that measures how many runs a single player creates.
The Angels missed the playoffs, but it was not Trout’s fault. He was the American League MVP according to WAR, and he’s simply the best player in baseball. The BBWAA should spend less time eyeing the standings, and more time paying attention to the history Trout is making.
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