In the baseball lexicon, the term “best player” has been used liberally to describe Mike Trout for nearly a decade at this point, and for good reason. Since the start of the 2012 season, Trout’s first full run against big-league pitching, the Angels center fielder has amassed 75.6 rWAR (Baseball-Reference’s version). Nobody else is in Trout’s zip code—the runner-up in total value, former Diamondbacks’ and current Cardinals’ first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, is still 25.3 wins behind the 3x AL MVP.
And to think, Trout wasn’t even the first player taken in his year’s MLB Draft class.