For the last half-decade, the Los Angeles Angels have been a team centered around two players, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. The Angels have been building around them for a reason, as each player has held the title of best player in baseball during that span with Trout handing the mantle to Ohtani in recent years.
The reason this Angels team has struggled to get back to the postseason is because they struggled to find other competent players to surround these two superstars with. You’d think on a team with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani on it it’d be easy to find guys to drive these players in who get on base a ton like an Anthony Rendon, but not everything works out as you picture it.
You know Trout and Ohtani will be on here, but who are the last five Angels players to drive in 100+ runs in a season?
1) Shohei Ohtani, 2021 (100)
Shohei Ohtani has been an MVP caliber player for each of the last three seasons, winning the award in 2021 and on his way to the award in 2023. Surprisingly enough, Ohtani only has one year of 100 RBI, and it came in that first MVP year when he hit 100 on the nose.
Playing on a 77-win Angels team in which Mike Trout was healthy for just 36 games, Ohtani was often in the lineup himself surrounded by players who were borderline MLB players at best. There’re exceptions of course, as Jared Walsh had his breakout year and players like Justin Upton and Max Stassi were decent, but it really was only Ohtani.
The most impressive part about this season is Ohtani spent most of it hitting second, having fewer opportunities to drive runners in. Shohei had a 1.022 OPS with runners in scoring position, and drove himself in 46 times via the home run. Shohei hit a home run on the season’s final day to reach the 100 RBI plateau.
Ohtani is at 85 RBI currently entering play on August 18, so he’s on track to blow past his career-high in RBI at some point this season.
2) Mike Trout, 2019 (104), 2016 (100), 2014 (111)
To the surprise of nobody, Mike Trout appears here multiple times. It would likely be more than just three if he had been able to stay fully healthy in a season in recent years, but Trout has still had his elite RBI outputs.
Trout’s first 100+ RBI season came when he led the league with 111 RBI in 2014. Trout hit 36 home runs that year while leading the league with 115 runs scored and 338 total bases. That season was also notable for Trout as he took home his first MVP award. 2014 is also a noteworthy year for the Angels as that’s the last year they’ve made the postseason.
Two years later Trout took home his second MVP award as he slashed .315/.441/.550 with 29 home runs and 100 RBI. Like Ohtani, Trout drove in his 100th run on the season’s final day against the Astros.
Trout’s third MVP year came in 2019 and that’s also the third time he drove in 100+ runs. Trout slashed .291/.438/.645 with 45 home runs and 104 RBI. He led the league in OBP, slugging, OPS, and with a 182 OPS+. Trout set his personal best with 45 round trippers that year.
He’s only done it three times, but there’re other years he fell just short. Trout drove in 97 runs in 2013 and another 90 in 2015. In 2022 Trout was limited to just 119 games played but smacked 40 home runs. Unfortunately, he drove in just 80 runs, again, thanks in large part to a subpar supporting cast.
3) Albert Pujols, 2017 (101), 2016 (119), 2014 (105), 2012 (105)
When making this list, I fully expected Trout to lead the Angels in 100+ RBI years even with his recent struggles staying on the field, but to my surprise, that title belongs to Albert Pujols who accomplished this feat four times in an Angels uniform.
Everyone agrees that Albert Pujols’ tenure in Anaheim was an underwhelming one. He wasn’t the MVP-caliber player he was in St. Louis and didn’t lead the Angels to anything more than one playoff series in which they got swept.
Despite that, Pujols was still a productive hitter during his time with the Angels. That’s something other big free agent signings the Angels have made cannot say.
Pujols’ first year driving in 100+ runs came in his debut season of 2012 when he knocked in 105 on the strength of 30 home runs and 50 doubles. Pujols had an .859 OPS that season and a 138 OPS+. Not superstar-level good, but a solid year nonetheless.
Pujols did it again two years later as he helped lead the Angels to the postseason, driving in another 105 runs. This time he did it with just 28 home runs, 37 doubles, and a .790 OPS, but a better supporting cast helped him get there.
The future Hall of Famer did it once again two years later as Pujols drove in an Angels career-high 119 runs. He’d slash .268/.323/.457 with 31 home runs and 119 driven in. He had just a .780 OPS and a 113 OPS+ but hitting behind Mike Trout who had a .441 OBP and led the league with 123 runs obviously goes a long way.
The 2016 season was Pujols’ last year being productive for the Angels as he really fell off offensively. Somehow, he found a way to reach the 100+ RBI mark one more time as he drove in 101 runs in 2017. He did this despite posting a .672 OPS with an OPS+ of 80. He wasn’t productive for much of the year, but with RISP he did raise his OPS to a respectable .771 mark. That helped him drive in a majority of his runs despite poor offensive output overall. Again, having Trout get on at a 44.2% clip in front of him certainly helped.
Pujols had four years in which he topped the 100 RBI mark, but he had another two in which he came close. He drove in 95 in 2015 and another 93 in 2019. He did that in 2019 despite playing in just 131 games.
4) Mark Trumbo, 2013 (100)
Mark Trumbo spent just three full seasons with the Angels, but each of these seasons saw him hit for a ton of power. His first full season came in 2011 and Trumbo hit 29 home runs with 87 RBI. He finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting. Not bad for a debut year!
Trumbo then had another huge year in 2012, hitting 32 home runs with 95 driven in. He was an all-star that season, and had fully cemented himself as a big power bat in the Angels lineup. That 2012 season was his best in terms of overall production, but he’d have to wait until the year after to reach the 100 RBI mark.
The 2013 season was when Trumbo finally knocked in 100 runs. He’d slash .234/.294/.453 with 34 home runs and 100 RBI. He didn’t hit for as high of an average as he did in the two previous years, but Trumbo did hit a career high 32 home runs while setting his high of 100 RBI as well.
Trumbo spent most of the year hitting fourth or fifth behind the likes of Trout, Pujols, and Hamilton. In his 80 games in the cleanup spot that year Trumbo hit a whopping 21 home runs, making it approximately one in every four games in which he’d go deep.
Trumbo is the name fans would probably least expect to see on this list, but he was a premier power hitter during his time with the Angels.
5) Kendrys Morales, 2009 (108), Bobby Abreu 2009 (103)
Both Kendrys Morales and Bobby Abreu drove in 100 runs in the same 2009 season. That campaign was the last time the Angels won the AL West when they went 97-65. They had the second-best record in the AL and fittingly lost in the postseason to the team with the best record, the New York Yankees.
That Angels team was absolutely loaded offensively with guys like Torii Hunter, Juan Rivera, and Mike Napoli all having great offensive years and even the scrappy guys like Erick Aybar, Howie Kendrick, and Maicer Izturis chipped in as well.
The two biggest stars offensively for this Angels team were Kendrys Morales and Bobby Abreu, each of which drove in 100+ runs.
Morales had his only year driving in 100+ when he led that 2009 team with 108 driven in. He did it thanks to a .306/.355/.569 slash line with 34 home runs and 43 doubles. He finished fifth in the AL MVP balloting while, of course, helping the Angels win the division.
Abreu recorded his 100+ RBI in a completely different way. He slashed .293/.390/.435 with just 15 home runs but 103 RBI. Abreu hit for far less power than Morales or really anybody on this list, but he was outstanding with runners in scoring position, hitting .354 in those spots with a .923 OPS. His OPS was nearly 100 points better with RISP than his overall mark of .825. That’s something this current Angels team could really use.
