Lost in Mike Trout’s historic rookie season and the heated AL MVP debate is that the Angels didn’t call him up from Triple-A until April 28 and will likely end up missing the playoffs by 2-3 games.
Obviously there’s no guarantee that having Trout from Opening Day on would have equaled 2-3 more wins for the Angels, but considering they got off to a 6-14 start while playing Vernon Wells and Peter Bourjos before his arrival ... well, it does make me wonder how differently things may have gone.
Trout dealt with the flu and a minor shoulder injury during spring training, but hit .403 in 20 games at Triple-A before his call-up and hit .355 in his first 20 games for the Angels. With him in the lineup the Angels are 80-56 and Wins Above Replacement (WAR) pegs Trout as being worth about 10 wins more than a hypothetical “replacement-level” outfielder, which basically describes Wells at this point.
At the very least taking 80-100 plate appearances and 150-175 innings defensively from Wells (and/or Bourjos) and giving them to Trout would almost surely mean that the Angels were still alive in the playoff race right now. Hindsight is 20/20, especially considering his spring training ailments, but when talking about one of the greatest rookies in the history of baseball and a narrow playoff miss it’s not such a stretch.
