Seven years ago Sunday, on April 28, 2012, each of the eventual Rookie of the Year Award winners that season officially reached the Majors for good. But it wasn’t just the '12 Rookie of the Year that those players went on to win -- it’s been accolade upon accolade, and in this past offseason, they both got big contracts, too.
Mike Trout played in 40 games in 2011 but began the '12 season with Triple-A Salt Lake. After hitting .403 in 20 games to start the season with the Bees, he was called up to the Majors for good on April 28. He went hitless that day and recorded just one hit in three April games, but Trout picked up the pace in May, with five home runs, 16 RBIs and a .324 batting average. He had been MLB Pipeline’s top prospect entering '11 and was No. 3 entering '12.
The other superstar that makes April 28 a notable date? That would be Bryce Harper, who debuted on April 28 in 2012 at the age of 19. He went 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI at Dodger Stadium, in a Stephen Strasburg start. He was MLB Pipeline’s second overall prospect entering '12, ahead of Trout.
Each has gone on to win at least one Most Valuable Player Award -- Trout in 2014 and '16, and Harper in '15 -- in addition to the '12 Rookie of the Year honors, but there’s no argument that Trout has had the more successful and dominant career so far. Trout already has 66.5 career wins above replacement, 88th-most among position players all-time and more than multiple Hall of Famers, including Willie McCovey, Craig Biggio and Andre Dawson. Trout’s 66.5 WAR since his Major League debut in '11 is over 20 more than any other position player in that span. Robinson Cano is second with a 46.1 WAR in that time.
Trout has a higher WAR than all but four active players -- each of whom debuted in 2005 or earlier: Albert Pujols, Cano, Miguel Cabrera and Zack Greinke. He has a higher WAR than Joey Votto, who has played 509 more games than Trout -- and at an elite level.
Perhaps it makes sense, then, to hear that Trout has finished top-two in American League MVP voting in each full season of his career but one -- and in that season, he finished fourth in a year in which he was held to just 114 games due to injuries. He’s the first player in Major League history to finish in the top two in MVP voting in six of seven seasons, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
His streak of seven straight seasons finishing top-five in MVP voting is tied with 1950-56 Yogi Berra and '31-37 Lou Gehrig for the longest such streak since the Baseball Writers' Association of America began voting on the awards in '31, according to Elias.
Harper’s journey hasn’t been as consistent as Trout’s, but he does have the two BBWAA awards under his belt and a brand new start in Philadelphia that began this season. Harper agreed to a 13-year, $330 million contract with the Phillies in the offseason. Those 13 years were the most given to any free agent in Major League history, and the length of the contract is tied with Giancarlo Stanton’s 13-year extension for overall longest contracts. At $330 million, it’s also the richest free-agent contract in North American professional sports.
Less than three weeks after Harper signed his contract, the Angels inked Trout to a 10-year, $360 million extension, making his current deal 12 years and $426.5 million overall. The extension increases the chances that Trout may play his entire career with the Angels. If he does, he’ll have a chance at the records for highest WAR for a player to play his entire career for one team: Walter Johnson’s 164.3 overall and Stan Musial’s 128.2 for a position player.
What’s next for the two stars? We’ll see what’s in store this season and in the future -- especially with both players locked up to long-term deals in their current cities. Harper got off to a strong start early this year but has cooled down a bit lately. That being said, he’s currently leading the National League in walks and remains a feared bat in the Phillies lineup.
Trout is leading the Majors in walks, with less lineup protection than Harper has, and hasn’t quite started hitting the way we’ve come to expect from him yet. But the season is still young.
If Trout can win another MVP, he’d become the 11th player in Major League history to win three MVP Awards. If Harper can take home the top prize, he’d be the first Phillies player to win the MVP Award since they had back-to-back winners in 2006-07 in Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins, respectively.
But the bigger prize may lie in the postseason and away from individual success. Neither player has been on a team to win a playoff series. Harper played in the NL Division Series four times with the Nationals, but the team never advanced -- losing in the maximum five games in three of the four appearances. Harper has a .211 career batting average in the postseason, with five home runs. Now, he’s on the Phillies -- who last won the World Series in 2008, unlike the Nationals/Expos franchise, which has never won it.
Trout’s Angels have made the playoffs just once in his tenure -- in 2014, when they were swept by the Royals in three games in the AL Division Series. Trout went 1-for-12 in that series, with his lone hit being a homer. The Angels have won one World Series, in '02.
We’ll see what the future holds for two of baseball’s biggest stars. And that stardom all began in earnest at the Major League level on April 28, 2012.