As ever, there were a lot of things that happened during the 2019 baseball postseason, so the following event might not stick in your memory.
In Game 1 of the National League Division Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves, Redbirds starter Miles Mikolas stroked a ground-rule double off Dallas Keuchel. The hit didn't lead to a run so it turned out to be meaningless, though it ended up as the only hit by a pitcher during the postseason. I mention it only because of this: Mikolas now has as many career postseason hits as the top player of the 2010s.
Nine seasons into a Hall of Fame career, Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout -- who has reigned as the consensus best player in his sport for more than half a decade -- has one lone hit in his postseason career. That hit was a homer during the 2014 American League Division Series against the Kansas City Royals, the only playoff series in which Trout has appeared.
The Angels have had ongoing roster weaknesses (particularly on the pitching side), have often lacked depth and have endured more than their fair share of injuries. Most damningly, the Angels haven't even been able to get the top of their roster right -- other than Trout.
Trout has been waiting for a true sidekick his entire career. According to my system for tabbing the best player in the game, Trout has owned that distinction since 2014, and he was No. 2 the year before that. Here are the Angels' top two players annually in this system since Trout became Trout in 2012, with their respective league rankings:
2012: Trout (8th), Albert Pujols (15th)
2013: Trout (2nd), Pujols (33rd)
2014: Trout (1st), Pujols (52nd)
2015: Trout (1st), Kole Calhoun (72nd)
2016: Trout (1st), Andrelton Simmons (57th)
2017: Trout (1st), Simmons (45th)
2018: Trout (1st), Simmons (50th)
2019: Trout (1st), Simmons (75th)
Other than a brief crisscross during Pujols' first season with the Angels, when Trout's star was shooting up and Pujols' slide had just begun, Trout has been a one-man show. There has been no Robin to his Batman. No Hank Kingsley to his Larry Sanders. No Thelma to his Louise.
Until now.
When the Angels forked over a seven-year, $245 million contract to free-agent third baseman Anthony Rendon, Trout finally got an in-his-prime, MVP-level teammate. In fact, the Angels have arguably put together the best current one-two punch in the major leagues.
Per the methodology described in the accompanying box, here are the top 10 tandems in the major leagues at the moment, though a blockbuster deal or two could change things before the 2020 season begins. For the first time in Trout's career, we have a leaderboard atop which he doesn't have to stand alone.
1. Mike Trout/Anthony Rendon, Angels
Harmonic win value: 7.749
Trout is in historically unique territory. Through the 2019 season, he has created 1,137 runs during his career, per the formula used in the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia. Only eight players have done better, even though Trout's first season was really only a quarter of a campaign -- and he wasn't very good in it.
The eight players ahead of Trout on this list are, in order, Albert Pujols, Todd Helton, Al Simmons, Paul Waner, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Chuck Klein and Ralph Kiner. Together, those players collected 149 postseason hits over their first nine seasons, even though most of them played during the time when the playoffs consisted of only the World Series.
Trout does have two historical partners in misery.
Helton did not get into the postseason until his 11th year in the majors, when he and Troy Tulowitzki helped lead the Rockies to the 2007 National League pennant. Still, while Helton was a very good player for a long time and spent his entire career with one team -- as Trout seems likely to do -- he never did get a title. For that matter, neither did Waner or Klein, though, like Helton, they did at least play for one pennant winner.
Kiner never even got close to a pennant, save for a mild push by the Pirates for the NL crown in 1948. During his clipped, 10-year career, Kiner played for mostly historically awful teams and had to console himself with making the Hall of Fame, becoming the all-time leader in homers by players born in New Mexico (followed currently by Vern Stephens, Cody Ross and Alex Bregman) and becoming the maestro of the malaprop in his role as a longtime announcer for the Mets. ("All of his saves have come in relief appearances.")
Trout himself bears almost zero culpability for this state of affairs. How much more could one ballplayer do? It's the nature of his sport that no one player, no matter how great, can carry a team to a championship on his own. If Trout can't do it, nobody can.
Now about that pitching ...
2. Mookie Betts/Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox
Harmonic win value: 6.863
Are the BoSox really thinking about breaking up this duo? As you might have guessed, they topped the harmonic win value board before the Angels landed Rendon.
3. Cody Bellinger/Max Muncy, Dodgers
Harmonic win value: 6.705
A bit of a surprise, but Muncy does rank 33rd in the majors by runs created over the past two seasons, and Bellinger -- theoretically -- is still at an age when he could get even better.
4. Alex Bregman/George Springer, Astros
Harmonic win value: 6.484
No real surprise here. We're just considering the top tandem in each role for each team, but the Astros would have had multiple one-two combinations among their hitters that ranked in the top 20.
5. Matt Chapman/Matt Olson, Athletics
Harmonic win value: 6.356
If we did this based on defensive prowess alone, this corner duo might rank first. Both players still have untapped offensive upside. The Oakland foundation is strong.
6. Max Scherzer/Patrick Corbin, Nationals
Harmonic win value: 6.053
Let's address that thought you're having, which might be addled with recency bias:
(Stats over the past two seasons)
• Pitcher 1: 402 innings, 25-14, 3.20 ERA, 10.84 strikeouts per nine innings
• Pitcher 2: 339 innings, 28-13, 3.48 ERA, 10.81 K/9
Pitcher 1 is Corbin; the other guy is Stephen Strasburg. Of course, Strasburg has more stature in the game. Corbin was the one who shifted to a swing role during the playoffs, not Strasburg. And though Corbin is a year younger, the contract the Nats gave Strasburg this winter dwarfs the one they gave Corbin last year. Strasburg is the bigger star, no doubt.
But we're talking cold, hard projections here, and they are very close in that regard. If Strasburg has another 200-inning season, then he'll probably produce more value than Corbin. But he has never posted back-to-back 200-inning seasons. Strasburg threw 209 innings in 2019, then tacked on another 36⅓ frames during Washington's October run. When he threw a career-high 215 innings in 2014, he came back with 127⅓ in 2015. When he threw 175⅓ innings in 2017, he followed that with 130 in 2018. You get the idea.
7. Justin Verlander/Zack Greinke, Astros
Harmonic win value: 6.038
This leaderboard would look a little different if we assigned the players to the clubs with which they ended the 2019 season. The before-winter leaderboard would have had the Astros' Verlander and Gerrit Cole at No. 5, while the Nationals' duo of Rendon and Juan Soto would be at No. 6. So the champion Nationals would have had two top-10 tandems, as the Astros do in both scenarios. Washington's top-ranked hitter tandem is now Soto and Trea Turner (No. 23). Meanwhile, the Cole-James Paxton tandem with the Yankees clocks in at No. 27. A full season from Luis Severino might get Cole back in the top 10 if we do this exercise next year.
8. Ronald Acuna Jr./Freddie Freeman, Braves
Harmonic win value: 5.960
Trout has to hope that Rendon is to him what Acuna has been to Freeman in Atlanta.
9. Aaron Judge/DJ LeMahieu, Yankees
Harmonic win value: 5.819
As good as LeMahieu was during his debut Yankees season, chances are it'll be Gleyber Torres serving as Judge's counterpuncher this time next year.
10. Mike Clevinger/Shane Bieber, Indians
Harmonic win value: 5.696
This, along with unreasonably tight payroll allocations, is why the Indians were willing to more or less dump Corey Kluber.
When you scan this list, one thing ought to jump out at you: It is dominated by teams that have won division titles, pennants and World Series over the past few years. Trout's Angels are the exception, but if these numbers live up to their billing, that might change in 2020. If it does, then perhaps Trout can break his tie with Mikolas on the career postseason hits list.
That would at least be a start for a generational player who deserves a team befitting his amazing ability. The signing of Rendon is a big step in that direction.