• CLUTCH SUMMARY: Mike Trout pretty much has the American League MVP award wrapped up already. Seriously.
  • Continuing his torrid play in the MLB, Trout has been an unstoppable force for the Angels, and 2019 is another season to cement that.
  • The Houston Astros look to be the only team that has multiple players in the conversation that will fill out the rest of the MVP order.

The month of August usually brings out the real contenders for the MLB playoffs, while also cutting off pretenders who hung around too long. With that, the case for winning league MVP awards is also getting closer to being decided, and the American League is well on its way to finishing up that race.

Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout looks to be the runaway candidate at this point, and his complete domination and ownership of the AL looks to have reached yet another level for him. For a player that looks to be an Angel for life, Trout has been putting up crazy statistics, which is normal, but his 2019 season has been on another level.

Hitting .291 is a tad below his career season average, but his 39 home runs and 92 runs driven in is quite impressive in itself, as is his 1.093 OPS and 7.7 WAR. Starting in all 115 games that he has played in, Trout currently leads the AL in WAR, on-base percentage (.439), slugging percentage (.654), OPS, walks (96), and IBB (11).

Defensively, Trout has shined as well, leading the entire AL in putouts from his center field position (255), not a surprising factor considering his always-consistent Gold Glove defensive metrics. If with the Angles missing the playoffs yet again, team performance should not hold Trout back in this year’s MVP race.

For the remainder of the league, they will have a very, very tough time trying to conjure up some sort of competition to even sniff Trout.

Considering other positional players, the likes of Rafael Devers, DJ LeMahieu, Carlos Santana and even Alex Bregman have all had solid seasons on their respective teams, but none even come close to the type of player and season that Trout has provided in 2019.

Throwing pitchers into the mix, both Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole have had amazing seasons for the Houston Astros, but being a pitcher almost puts that group at a disadvantage in major award races, unfortunately. Only being able to showcase their skills on the mound makes it difficult, as it is mostly a one-dimensional aspect of the game to consider, even with as many parts and pieces that go into being a pitcher.

Both Verlander and Cole will vie for the AL Cy Young award, making it an interesting race that will most likely feature a 1-2 finish between two teammates, both of which have been dominant throughout the entirety of the 2019 season.