Mike Trout has inspiration behind his desire to reach a specific career milestone.
Mike Trout is one of the best players in MLB. There was a time, however, when some people around the MLB world doubted his potential as a power threat in the big leagues. The Los Angeles Angels superstar recently addressed various career milestones he hopes to reach, including one specific milestone that would further prove the aforementioned doubters wrong.
“1,000 RBI’s is pretty cool, there’s not one particular one,” Trout said, via Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney. “400 homers would be special for sure. You know when you think of (Jose) Altuve, you know 3,000 hits is a lot of hits. That’s a big milestone, I think when you come up on 400 homers I think that’s pretty special, especially when I was a guy coming out of the minor leagues that a lot of guys said I wasn’t one of them power hitters. But I think 400 homers would be pretty cool.”
Trout is only 32 years old and has already crushed 378 home runs. He should have no problem reaching the 400 home run mark, and even 500 will be a possibility for the Angels star. He is also sitting at 952 RBI and 1,646 hits for his career as of this story’s writing.
Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, who Trout mentioned, has 2,082 hits. Altuve is 33 years old.
There is a chance of both Trout and Altuve reaching the 3,000 hit mark, but it will require them to both play for a long time. With that said, Trout should have no problem reaching his home run and RBI milestone goals.
Mike Trout’s resurgent 2024 season
Trout has been one of the best players in the sport for years now, but injuries have slowed him down over the past few seasons. Trout played in just 82 games in 2023, and endured some ups and downs while on the field. As a result, questions surfaced about whether or not we were witnessing the decline of Mike Trout.
Well, Trout has put those questions to the side in 2024, at least from a power standpoint.
As of this story’s publication, the future Hall-of-Famer leads MLB in home runs with nine. He’s also recorded a strong .904 OPS in 2024. But it has been all-or-nothing results for Trout this season, as he is hitting just .237 with a .324 OBP.
Almost half of Trout’s hits have been home runs. When Trout was on top of his game, he would often hit right around .300. For his career, he holds an exact batting average of .300.
Again, the power output has been terrific. Trout is certainly on track to surpass the 400 home run milestone he wants to achieve. But he has always been a balanced offensive presence, so it will be interesting to see if he can raise his batting average and OBP as the 2024 campaign continues.
One would imagine that Mike Trout will start getting on base at a more consistent rate. After all, he is one of the best pure hitters in the history of MLB, so it is difficult to count him out.
For now, the Angels will not complain about Trout’s home run hitting prowess.
