Angels' Mike Trout gets bold MVP prediction after Yankee Stadium dominance

Angels' Mike Trout gets bold MVP prediction after Yankee Stadium dominance originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Los Angeles Angels might not be postseason contenders this season, but there is plenty of reason to be excited about the 2026 season.

Jose Soriano looks like a Cy Young candidate, but that's not the only end-of-season award that the Angels might have someone in competition for.

Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report, following Mike Trout's Yankee Stadium showcase, made a bold prediction that Trout will be an MVP candidate if he can do one thing: stay healthy.

Mike Trout might be on MVP track once more

"If Mike Trout stays healthy, he will compete for the AL MVP," Kelly writes. "... We knew entering the season that he could still be a really good player, but at this stage of his career, it was fair to wonder whether MVP-level Trout was still in there. Well, the show that Trout put on last week at Yankee Stadium this past week answered that question."

Trout's five-homer performance against the Yankees, which included hitting at least one home run in all four games of the series in New York, made multiple pieces of MLB and Yankee Stadium history.

But, more importantly, it instilled confidence that the Angels outfielder, and future Hall of Famer, might be back and ready to contend for the AL MVP award.

So far this season, through 22 games, Trout has put up 1.5 bWAR with 22 runs scored (most in MLB), 18 hits, four doubles, seven homers, 16 RBIs, two stolen bases, 23 walks to 19 strikeouts, a .234 batting average, and a .980 OPS.

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Trout has a 180 OPS+, which is the best mark he's had since the 2021 season, when his 194 OPS+ in just 36 games resulted in an All-Star nod, but no MVP votes.

It's been some time since Trout was in the MVP conversation, as he earned the eighth-place vote in 2022, but hasn't finished top-five since 2020, and hasn't won since 2019.

Trout was on track to be one of the best players in MLB history through the beginning of his career, but in the 2020's he's struggled to stay healthy and play at a consistently high level.

This year might be different. If he can maintain his pace and play as well as he has for the rest of the year, or even get better, Trout is sure to be in the thick of the MVP race in the AL alongside Aaron Judge and Yordan Alvarez.