Best player of their generation: Mike Trout and Mookie Betts - ESPN

For almost a decade, Mike Trout was the unquestioned best player in baseball.

From 2012 to 2019, he won the American League MVP award three times and finished second in the voting four times. In the years he didn't win, he led the AL three times in WAR; in 2017, he led the AL in OBP, slugging and OPS, but he sat out some time and finished a mere fourth in the voting; and in 2018, it took a herculean season from Mookie Betts to beat out Trout in what was one of Trout's best seasons. Really, he wasn't that far away from winning eight consecutive MVPs.

But since then, it feels as if we've been robbed of the second half of the career of one of the game's all-time greats. Trout has been injured much of the time since 2021, playing in only about 42% of the games the Los Angeles Angels have played. Right now, he's injured again because of a bone bruise in his left knee; when he has played this season, he cracked nine home runs in 29 games but was also hitting just .179. He had similar results in the 29 games he played before tearing the meniscus in his left knee last season, when he hit .220 with 10 home runs. Admitting the injuries and Trout's age — he's 33 — have caught him up, the Angels finally moved him off center field this season.

Those prolonged absences have allowed Betts, who continues to play at a high level and ranks third among position players in WAR this decade, to slowly close the gap on Trout. It's now an argument to consider: Is Betts poised to pass Trout as the best player of their generation?

First, we need to define what «their generation» is. When generations are discussed in demographic terms, the division is done by birth years, usually lasting 15 to 20 years or so. Trout was born in 1991, so under this