For the longest time, Mike Trout seemed immortal on the diamond.
From the moment he debuted in 2012, following a 40-game stint as a teenager the previous year, he was unquestionably one of the best players in baseball - if not the best, with one of the greatest rookie seasons the sport has ever seen.
An age-20 season that, for many, would qualify as a career year:
He hit 30 home runs, with a .329 BA and a .963 OPS.
Stole 49 bases, which was tops in the Majors (while being caught only five times).
Had an MLB-best 129 runs, alongside an MLB-best 10.5 WAR.
He played a solid, occasionally outstanding, centerfield - his against-the-wall catch at Camden Yards in June of 2012, still a fixture of the highlight circuit over a decade later. He was a unanimous Rookie of the Year and finished second in AL MVP-voting, bested only by history of a different kind - a Triple Crown winner in Miguel Cabrera.
And from there, well, all bets were off.
There were other players, sure, other stars, including his teammates. But Trout was always the benchmark, the guy for whom all his peers were measured against. Baseball’s best for virtually all of the 2010s, the ultimate five-tool player for the social media age - speed, power, ability to hit for average, a strong fielder with a powerful arm.
His individual dominance, never in question, even as his Los Angeles Angels forever languished in mediocrity.
Consider this: from 2012 to 2020, his age-20-to-28 seasons, Trout was an MVP-finalist every year, his lowest finish, fifth, during the pandemic-shortened season. He won three MVPs over that stretch, eight Silver Sluggers, led the AL in OBP four times, all of MLB in WAR, three times.
There was seemingly nothing he couldn’t do. The most unassuming and modest of players, who was once called out by his own Commissioner for supposedly not doing enough to grow the game, even as he let his play do most of the talking.
All stars though, eventually dim.
To be honest, it seems almost sacrilegious to dwell on what Trout hasn’t been able to do these past few years - stay healthy - when he has already accomplished so much and will surely achieve more still (a lock for Cooperstown, for one).
And even when being off the field has stymied him, as it did in 2022 when he played just 119 games, Trout has been able to find individual success - hitting 40 homers that year, on his way to an eighth-overall MVP finish.
But as his history-making play in his 20s has been followed by power-sapping injuries in his 30s, it is to realize that Trout, who will turn 33 this summer, has firmly left his high-flying youth behind - as we all do (or all will) eventually but hopefully, with a bill of mostly clean health in tow.
He hasn’t been so lucky.
As noted by Greg Beacham of the Associated Press earlier this week, his most recent injury, a torn meniscus in his left knee that will require him to get surgery, continues to define the Mike Trout of the past few years - unavailable (the Angels hope he’ll return sometime this summer).
Including that abbreviated 2020 season, Trout has had just 324 hits over the past four years and only 93 home runs.
It once seemed as close to certain as it could possibly be, Trout, continuing his march towards baseball immortality as his counting stats grew and he chased down the legends that preceded him, knocking down those signpost milestones along the way (2,000 hits and 500 homers, at minimum).
So it goes. He isn’t the first ballplayer to be betrayed by missed time - but it is less certain now.
And the biggest thing missing from his resume, basic playoff competition, never mind a World Series, continues to elude the Angels. Since he joined the team, the team has played in the post-season only once, a 2014 sweep in the ALDS.
Trout alone, simply not enough.
Albert Pujols authored a decade of mostly uninspired baseball as his number-two in Orange County, only to end his career with a bang once he went back to St Louis (following a pit stop with the Dodgers), Anthony Rendon can’t stay healthy whatsoever and Shohei Ohtani took the opportunity for ridiculous money and a far stronger competitive window, when he signed with the Dodgers this past winter.
Trout seemed to have rediscovered some of his previous form in the season’s early-going, being the first player to hit ten home runs and stealing as many bases in 29 games than he did throughout all of 2020-2023 combined. His season isn’t lost just yet. Maybe he’ll come back stronger, healthy and considering where the Angels are already (at 11-20) somewhat improbably, lead them to a successful 2024.
The greatest players, even the all-timers, aren’t guaranteed championship success - but Trout has, so far, not come anywhere close.
You can only hope he’ll approach that level, as he moves deeper into his 30s, being under contract until 2030.
Appreciating the brightest of stars, for as long as they shine.