Mike Trout Home Runs Through The Years

mike trout home runs

Last Updated on October 27, 2023 by Matt Musico

Outside of actually getting to participate in the playoffs consistently, there isn’t much Mike Trout hasn’t accomplished on a baseball field. He’s got the Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, MVPs, and franchise home run records to back that up. So, with this in mind, we felt it was only appropriate to look back at Mike Trout home runs throughout each year of his career.

How did the legendary outfielder already get to the top of the Angels’ all-time home run leaderboard? By putting up some huge single-season numbers on a consistent basis, that’s how. Check it out below.

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Mike Trout Home Runs: 2011-15

2011: 5 Home Runs

Similar to Aaron Judge, Trout got his first taste of big-league action by getting a cup of coffee in the majors. Unlike Judge, though, the Angels’ outfielder reached The Show as a 19-year-old. In his 135 plate appearances, Trout did register the first five homers of his career. But he actually had more doubles (six) during this time while slashing .220/.281/.390.

He put together a huge August in just 28 plate appearances, too. Trout hit four of his homers while posting a 1.384 OPS. Unfortunately for him, those good vibes didn’t continue into September. Over his final 60 trips to the plate, the right-handed hitter slashed .182/.250/.236.

2012: 30 Homers

The 2011 campaign was really the last time Trout struggled in the big leagues for any extended period of time. This particular season was the start of his ridiculous run in AL MVP voting, finishing first or second on seven occasions over an eight-year span.

In addition to those 30 homers, Trout added 49 stolen bases to become the first rookie to accumulate 30 homers and 30 steals. What’s great about this is Trout appeared in just three games during the month of April. So, he only had five months to put up numbers and he still found a way to post 10.1 fWAR.

June and July were two of his best months. One was heavy on the homers (10 in July) and the other was heavy on the steals (14 in June). Put them both together, though, and it’s incredibly eye-popping.

He accumulated 236 plate appearances during this span. Trout proceeded to slash .381/.436/.657 with 13 homers, 39 RBI, 59 runs scored, and 23 steals. Let’s not forget…he did this as a 20-year-old rookie.

2013: 27 Home Runs

How do you follow up on a performance that included a 10.1 fWAR and 167 wRC+? You get a little better, obviously — that’s the Mike Trout motto. In 157 games played, he barely eclipsed his fWAR at 10.2 and was the proud owner of a 176 wRC+.

Trout just barely missed another 30-30 season, but he still ended up finishing second in AL MVP voting again. What’s noticeable about his performance was how consistent he was in various situations. His homers (13 at home, 14 on the road) and OPS (.975 at home, 1.000 on the road) were virtually even regardless of the park he played in. The same could be said whether he was playing in the first half (15 homers, .964 OPS) or the second half (12 homers, 1.023 OPS).

After a historic rookie campaign, Trout finally had a chance to play in April, and it didn’t go great. He owned just a .766 OPS with two homers once the calendar flipped from April to May. He then didn’t post a monthly OPS below .949 the rest of the way.

2014: 36 Homers

Trout finished 2014 with “just” 8.3 fWAR and a career-worst (at the time) 26.1% strikeout rate, but it was still another banner year for the outfielder. His 36 homers and 111 RBI were both single-season career-high marks. He’s since surpassed that homer number on a few occasions, but that RBI total is still his high-water mark.

When looking at Trout’s monthly power production, he was quite consistent. He never hit fewer than five, or more than seven dingers in a single month. Interestingly enough, the third inning was when the Angels’ outfielder did the most damage in 2014.

Through 98 plate appearances in this frame, Trout slashed .351/.449/.766 with eight home runs and 24 RBI. If we look at the game in three sections, though, the last three innings were his best work was done. Trout posted a 1.039 OPS with 10 homers from the seventh inning on.

2015: 41 Home Runs

On the way to collecting his first season of 40-plus homers, Trout displayed his usual dominance throughout the season. He hit 26 of his 41 homers in the first half, but once again, his home/road consistency stayed true (20 at home, 21 on the road).

Despite all the dominating, Trout registered just one month of double-digit homers, hitting 12 in July. That was his best overall month of the season, too. It was accompanied by a 1.323 OPS, 24 RBI, and 20 runs scored. It was followed by Trout’s worst month of the year. In 122 plate appearances, he managed just one homer, seven RBI, and six runs scored with a .689 OPS.

Then, of course, he snapped back to reality because he’s Mike Trout and finished the year with a 1.078 OPS, eight homers, 16 RBI, and 22 runs scored in September.

Mike Trout Home Runs: 2016-20

2016: 29 Homers

Ah, yes — this is the year Trout won his second of three AL MVP Awards, which was also his second in a three-year span. As we look through each of these full-season efforts from the already-legendary outfielder, they typically look the same. He’s just consistently elite, which is why he’s already considered an inner-circle Hall of Famer.

Of Trout’s 29 homers from this season, 18 came in the first half. However, his overall production was quite even between both halves. Before the All-Star break, Trout posted a .992 OPS, and that number came in at .988 after the midsummer classic.

His biggest month of the year in many respects came in May. Trout slugged seven homers with 27 RBI, his most of any month in 2016. He also added 26 runs scored to go along with a .340/.445/.613 line.

2017: 33 Home Runs

After dipping beneath the 30-homer benchmark in 2016, Trout returned the following year. This was actually his first of three straight years in which the outfielder’s season-long home run total increased.

It didn’t take him too long to get there, either. Despite needing 159 games to slug 29 dingers the year prior, Trout needed only 114 games (507 plate appearances) to reach 33 in ’17.

After looking at his monthly splits, it’s just a shame he hit the injured list and missed all of June and half of July. Trout was likely on his way to another MVP Award if he remained healthy all year. By the end of May (206 plate appearances), he was slashing .337/.461/.742 with 32 (!) extra-base hits (14 doubles, two triples, 16 homers), 36 RBI, 36 runs scored, and 10 stolen bases.

That performance led to a 207 wRC+ and .475 wOBA. It’s not like his performance upon returning from injury was bad, though. Trout still posted a 163 wRC+ and .412 wOBA over his final 301 trips to the plate.

But still, those first two months were something else.

2018: 39 Homers

Appearing in 140 games, Trout stayed healthier in 2018 than he did the year prior. Those 39 homers were an improvement, but he kept his 2018 pace in the slugging percentage department (.629 slug% in ’17 to .628 in ’18).

If Trout played the majority of games in a single month, he dominated. Why? Because he’s Mike Trout, that’s why. He posted an OPS better than 1.000 in the first and second half, as well as home and away games. The only month he didn’t do that? August, when he finished with a .873 OPS in just eight games played.

It shouldn’t be shocking that his monthly stats looked quite consistent. Looking at his homer production in particular, Trout slugged at least six homers in each month except for one. He appeared in just eight games during August, hitting one dinger.

2019: 45 Home Runs

At this point, the 2019 season is the last time Trout won the AL MVP Award. His 45 home runs are a single-season career-high, while the 104 RBI he collected was the third time he reached the century mark. The outfielder also led baseball with a .438 on-base percentage and a .645 slugging percentage.

Trout only played six games down the stretch, but it doesn’t matter when you completely annihilate opposing pitchers in the other five months of the regular season. He never finished with an OPS below 1.032 and hit at least six homers each month (not counting September). The best of all, though, was in July. He posted a 1.214 OPS (including a ridiculous .821 slugging percentage) with 13 home runs and 29 RBI.

I love how he slowly built up to those homer and RBI numbers, too. Trout slugged six dingers with 16 RBI in April. Those numbers improved to seven and 18, respectively, in May before going up again to nine and 23 in June. Once his huge July was in the books, the roller coaster started heading down — Trout collected eight more homers with 15 RBI in August before hitting two with three RBI in September.

2020: 17 Homers

The 2020 season was weird for just about everyone. You’d never be able to tell by looking at Trout play between the lines. He posted 2.5 fWAR in another typical dominant performance. The outfielder finished fifth in MVP voting but did win a Silver Slugger Award.

Trout’s slugging percentage settled in at .603, which was the fourth straight year that number finished above .600.

What’s interesting here is virtually all of his 17 homers came off right-handed pitchers. Trout went deep against southpaws just three times in 63 plate appearances. It was a little out of character to see his OPS against southpaws so low (.783) compared to what he did against righties (1.069).

Mike Trout Home runs: (2021-23)

2021: 8 Home Runs

This was another missed opportunity for us to see Trout’s greatness reach yet another level. He’s never had a problem starting seasons off on the right foot, but it was ridiculous in 2021. In just 88 plate appearances, Trout slashed .425/.523/.781 with 14 extra-base hits (eight doubles, six homers), 14 RBI, and 18 runs scored.

He played another 15 games before his season was ultimately finished way before it should’ve been, and it didn’t go well. Over Trout’s final 58 trips to the plate, his line dropped down to .182/.379/.364 with two homers, four RBI, and five runs scored.

2022: 40 Homers

Throughout his career, Trout has never finished a season with a wRC+ lower than 160. That happened in 2020. So if we look at just normal, 162-game seasons, his wRC+ hasn’t finished lower than 167 since 2012.

After missing some time with yet another injury, it’s safe to say Trout finished his year with a flourish. In 22 games between July and August, he’d hit just five home runs. Through his first 15 games in September, he’s slugged eight homers with 13 RBI (and seven of those dingers happened consecutively). He finished with 12 homers in 22 RBI from September 1st on. The outfielder also found a way to hit one of the season’s longer dingers.

Another AL MVP Award isn’t in the cards for Trout this year for a few reasons. One of the most prominent is the fact that he missed a significant chunk of the season. The other is Aaron Judge going absolutely nuts and putting on a historic display of power.

2023: 18 Home Runs

As has been the unfortunate case in recent years, injuries derailed what was surely going to be another productive year for Trout. Multiple IL stints limited him to 82 games played in 2023. He still hasn’t suited up for more than 130 in a season since 2019.

All of his production (18 homers, 44 RBI, 54 runs scored) came in the first half. Trout appeared in just one game following the All-Star break, accumulating one hit in four plate appearances. When looking at his monthly production between March and June, the regular season’s first month was clearly his best. He posted a .984 OPS with seven homers and 18 RBI in March/April, which were all single-season highs. His numbers dipped in each following month, which included an identical .788 OPS in May and June.

Trout is obviously a key to the Angels’ success. When Los Angeles won, Trout slugged .600 with a 1.020 OPS. When they lost, those numbers dipped to .399 and .718, respectively.

Get an in-depth look at his 2023 dinger production by checking out our Mike Trout Home Run Tracker.

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