Angels' Mike Trout Off to Blazing Start, But Can He Sustain It?

Maren Angus-Coombs | Apr 17, 2024

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Trout, a three-time AL MVP and 11-time All-Star, is playing at an MVP-caliber level again this season after missing significant time last year with a fractured left hamate suffered on a swing in early July.

Is his pace sustainable for an entire 162-game season?

National Major League Baseball writer R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports analyzed the differences from last season to this season and identified three contributing factors to Trout's early success.

Trout has significantly improved his contact rate, connecting on 83 percent of his swings. If he is able to sustain this kind of production then it will be a new career-best for him. He has become pickier when it comes to swinging at pitches. Last season, he seemed focused on his slugging percentage rather than average and whiffed more frequently.

However, this year he's nearly cut his overall whiff rate in half from last year. He's also improved his contact rate on two-strike pitches, lifting it from 65.5 percent to 80.7 percent. The improvement in his whiff rate has brought his strikeout rate down from 28.7 percent to 18.8 percent.

Secondly, his exit velocity. Trout is able to hit the ball at different speeds. When he's swinging early in the count, his balls are flying off the bat at 100 mph or more. But, when he is behind then he deploys his contact swing.

His average exit velocity is down more than 2 mph in 2024, and his hard-hit percentage (the share of batted balls with a 95 mph exit velocity or greater) has declined from 51.9 percent to 36.7 percent.

Trout's swing has ferocious power when he freely goes after pitches early in the count which brings the third observation; discipline.

The Angels star doesn't swing at pitches outside of the zone very often. He tends to approach each at-bat looking for a strike in a certain area and won't swing early in the count if it isn't there. He has the lowest swing rate (42.3%) and chase rate (18.2%) since the 2021 season.

Take all three aspects of his game into account plus his defense and Trout doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon. If he keeps performing like he has so far then this could be one of his best seasons yet.