How Angels' Mike Trout can join Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza in MLB history with one award originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Los Angeles Angels haven't had a very exciting 2026 season, as they are once again one of the worst teams in the league.
While they did sell for the first time in a long while, the Angels haven't been a very fun team. That is, outside of getting to see Mike Trout return to All-Star form. He's been great this season and has a realistic chance to earn some end-of-season awards.
As Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report highlighted, Trout has a "good chance" to join Barry Bonds and Mike Piazza in MLB history. If he receives his 10th Silver Slugger award, he'd be the third player with 10 such awards in a career since the award's inception.
How Mike Trout is one Silver Slugger award from MLB history
"It's been four years since Trout won his last Silver Slugger, and a terrific .386 on-base percentage helps balance out some of the explosiveness he has lost on the other side of his 35th birthday," Reuters writes. "If he stays healthy, there's a good chance he'll join Barry Bonds (12) and Mike Piazza (10) as the only players with 10 Silver Sluggers since the award's inception in 1980."
Trout's return to All-Star form has made the 2026 season a little bit fun for the Angels fan base, especially after a few concerning seasons for the future Hall of Famer.
It's been a while since Trout last won a Silver Slugger award, but this season he's on track to earn such an honor for what would be his 10th and history-making award.
So, how good are his odds of winning this award? In 103 games and 372 at-bats, Trout has 91 hits, 69 runs scored, 16 doubles, 20 home runs, 45 RBIs, 10 stolen bases, 82 walks, and 117 strikeouts.
Trout also has a .245 batting average, a .388 on-base percentage, a .449 slugging percentage, and an .837 OPS with a 140 OPS+. Overall, he's accumulated 3.6 bWAR this season, his most valuable season since 2022.
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Among qualified outfielders, Trout's .837 OPS ranks first in the American League. His 20 homers rank fourth, his 69 runs rank second, his 81 walks rank second, and his .388 on-base percentage ranks first.
He's clearly a contender for the AL Silver Slugger award, and should, in fact, be a favorite for such an award as long as he doesn't regress significantly to close the season or miss the rest of the year.
Trout should earn his 10th Silver Slugger this season. If he does, he'd join the legendary Barry Bonds and Mike Piazza as the only hitters since 1980 to win 10 Silver Sluggers in their careers.
He's already cemented himself as one of the best players in MLB history, and this honor could add another impressive feat to Trout's lengthy resume.
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