Michael Nelson Trout (born August 7, 1991) is an American professional baseball center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). Trout is a nine-time MLB All-Star, three-time American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) (winning the award in 2014, 2016, and 2019, while finishing second in the 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2018 votes), and is an eight-time winner of the Silver Slugger Award.
The Angels selected Trout in the first round of the 2009 MLB draft. He made a brief major league appearance in 2011 before becoming a regular player for the Angels the subsequent season, and won the 2012 AL Rookie of the Year Award unanimously.
Trout’s athleticism on the field has received praise from both the mainstream media and sabermetricians. He is regarded as one of the most outstanding young players in the history of baseball, as well as one of the best current players in all of MLB.[1][2][3][4] Trout led the American League in wins above replacement (WAR) in each of his first five full seasons (according to Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference.com).[5]
Trout has led the American League in runs (2012–14, 2016) and times on base (2013, 2015–16, 2018) four times.[6] As of February 2021, he leads all active major league ballplayers in career slugging percentage (.582) and on base plus slugging (1.000), and was second in career on base percentage (.418) and stolen base percentage (84.45%).[6][7] In 2019, he signed a 12-year, $426 million contract with the Angels, the second-richest contract in the history of North American sports and third in professional sports in general (and the second-biggest contract at the time of signing).