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• David SchoenfieldMay 23, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

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  • Covers MLB for ESPN.com
  • Former deputy editor of Page 2
  • Been with ESPN.com since 1995

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 definition, his “generation” could extend all the way from players born in the 1970s to the late 2000s and include the likes of Derek Jeter (born in 1974), Alex Rodriguez (1975), Albert Pujols (1980), Clayton Kershaw (1988), Juan Soto (1998), Paul Skenes (2002) and Jackson Merrill (2003).

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That’s a broad swath of birth dates — too broad. Instead, let’s categorize generational value using the same years as defined in pop culture — Baby Boomers, Gen X, etc. — but with a twist: looking at value accumulated only in those specific years (not the years in which the players were born).

This is a thought exercise as much as a hardcore statistical study, because we do talk about generations (or eras) all the time in baseball — the dead ball era, the steroid era, the wild-card era and so on. As we take a deeper dive into how Trout and Betts compare, let’s also go through each generation to see which players ruled those periods in the sport, ending with the great Generation Alpha debate between Trout and Betts (and yes, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani might pop up, too).

Trout vs. Betts by the numbers

Trout was piling up so much WAR at such a young age that we used to do monthly updates on all the players he had just passed on the career WAR list. His run began as a rookie in 2012 in his age-20 season, when he hit .326 with 30 home runs and led the AL in runs scored and stolen bases. And for a long time, he looked destined to become one of the greatest players of all time — the inner circle of the inner circle. Look at where he ranked on the career WAR leaderboard for position players through each age:

Age 20, 2012 season: 11.0 (second behind Mel Ott)
Age 21, 2013: 19.9 (first, ahead of Ott)
Age 22, 2014: 27.6 (first, ahead of Ty Cobb and Ott)
Age 23, 2015: 37.1 (first, ahead of Cobb and Ted Williams)
Age 24, 2016: 47.5 (first, ahead of Cobb and Mickey Mantle)
Age 25, 2017: 54.4 (second, behind Cobb)
Age 26, 2018: 64.3 (first, ahead of Cobb and Mantle)
Age 27, 2019: 72.2 (first, ahead of Cobb and Mantle)

Then, starting with the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Trout’s pace took a downturn.

Age 28, 2020: 74.0 (fourth, behind Cobb, Rogers Hornsby and Mantle)
Age 29, 2021: 75.9 (sixth, now behind Ott and Alex Rodriguez)
Age 30, 2022: 82.0 (fifth, climbing back ahead of Ott)
Age 31, 2023: 84.9 (10th, with Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron and Willie Mays passing him)
Age 32, 2024: 86.0 (15th, with Barry Bonds jumping ahead for the first time)

This takes us to 2025, Trout’s age-33 season. He’s currently squeezed on the all-time list between Jimmie Foxx and Eddie Mathews — two players, coincidentally, who had already compiled more than 89% of their career WAR total through their age-32 seasons.

Meanwhile, with Trout sitting out so many games in the past several years, Betts started making a run at Trout for best player of their generation. Trout still has a significant lead in lifetime WAR, 85.8 to 72.2, but consider Betts’ advantages in this statistical chase:

1. He’s a year younger (Trout was born in August 1991, Betts in October 1992).

2. He’s playing at a higher level, averaging 7.8 WAR per 162 games since 2022, compared to 6.2 for Trout (we went back to 2022 to include Trout’s high rate of production that season).

3. He obviously has stayed on the field much more, playing 579 games since 2021 compared to 295 for Trout.

4. His ability to move to shortstop means he’ll continue to accumulate more defensive value.

And Betts has also been incredibly consistent in the age/WAR chart:

Through age 23: 18.1 (33rd)
Through age 26: 42.5 (21st)
Through age 29: 57.0 (28th)
Through age 31: 70.3 (24th)

Betts took a small dip through age 29 due to the COVID-shortened season and then had the worst season of his career in 2021, when he produced 4.1 WAR (still a strong season for most players), but he bounced back with 6.7, 8.6 and 4.8 WAR over the next three seasons. (That 2024 number of 4.8 WAR came in 116 games, as he sat out time because of a broken hand after getting hit by a pitch).

He’s not off to a sizzling start in 2025, but he’s still on pace for another 6-win season. If he does do that this season and next, he would be around 83 career WAR at the end of 2026, his age-33 season, which would move him into 20th in the rankings at that age — just behind where Trout sits.

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There’s no guarantee how Betts will age into his late 30s, but one key attribute he has been able to maintain as he gets older is his contact ability. In fact, the lowest strikeout rates of Betts’ career have been 2024 (11.0%) and 2025 (9.2%). Trout, meanwhile, has posted his worst strikeout rates in 2023 (28.7%) and 2025 (29.8%). Those numbers point to Betts continuing to age well and post respectable offensive numbers while Trout probably will continue to post low batting averages mixed in with some home runs.

It makes Betts catching Trout feel attainable, unless Trout has a career renaissance. History might show how unlikely that is. Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr., two other all-time great center fielders, battled injuries in their 30s and were never able to reclaim their past glory. Mantle had just 11.9 WAR from age 33 on, and Griffey had just 6.4.

Where do Judge and Ohtani fit in? Back to Generation Alpha in a moment, after we look back at how the debates over past generations’ greatest players played out.

Generational breakdown

Asking “Who is the greatest player?” isn’t necessarily an easy question with a simple answer. There can be three different ways to approach this:

1. Who has the most accumulated value in this period? We’ll use WAR, as we did above with Trout and Betts.

2. Who has the highest peak level of performance over a shorter number of seasons? Trout dominated the sport for eight seasons.

3. Who is the most iconic player of this generation? That’s a fuzzier notion, but it’s more about which player will be most remembered or who best defines the particular era.

We’ll dig into all three of those for each generation. Let’s start back in 1901.

The Greatest Generation (1901-27)

Babe Ruth, left, and Ty Cobb were two of their generation’s top talents, but Cobb probably was more appreciated in the moment. Bettmann/Getty Images

Top five in WAR
Walter Johnson: 155.1
Ty Cobb: 149.4
Tris Speaker: 134.4
Babe Ruth: 133.5
Eddie Collins: 124.2

Next five: Honus Wagner (113.8), Grover Alexander (111.3), Christy Mathewson (101.1), Rogers Hornsby (100.8), Nap Lajoie: 89.3

Best peak: 1. Ruth, 1921-27 (10.3 average WAR per season); 2. Johnson, 1912-19 (11.5 average WAR per season); 3. Hornsby, 1920-25 (9.9 average WAR per season, hit .397)

Most iconic player: Ruth

This generation’s biggest debate: Cobb and the dead ball era vs. Ruth and the home run

Ruth, of course, had additional value beyond 1927 that pushed him past Cobb in career WAR. But the idea that Ruth was the superior player wasn’t necessarily the consensus view until around maybe 1960 or so — and, of course, modern metrics now clearly show Ruth as the more valuable player. In the first Hall of Fame vote in 1936, Cobb received more votes and many contemporaries appreciated him in an era of more “scientific” baseball.

“The Babe was a great ballplayer, sure, but Cobb was even greater. Babe could knock your brains out, but Cobb would drive you crazy,” said Speaker, who played against both.

The Silent Generation (1928-45)

Lou Gehrig was one of the most iconic players during his career. Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics, Getty Images

Top five in WAR
Mel Ott: 111.8
Lefty Grove: 98.0
Lou Gehrig: 91.2
Jimmie Foxx: 90.9
Charlie Gehringer: 79.9

Next five: Arky Vaughan (75.9), Carl Hubbell (68.8), Joe Cronin (64.5), Paul Waner (62.2), Babe Ruth (58.9)

Best peak: 1. Ruth, 1928-32 (9.5 average WAR per season); 2. Gehrig, 1930-36 (8.8 average WAR per season, averaged 155 RBIs); 3. Grove, 1928-33 (8.8 average WAR per season, averaged 25 wins)

Most iconic: Ruth/Gehrig/Joe DiMaggio

This generation’s biggest debate: DiMaggio vs. Ted Williams

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That’s how good Ruth was: He cracked the top 10 in career value in two different generations, including that monster five-year stretch when he hit .348/.475/.701 and topped the AL four times in WAR while averaging 47 home runs and 150 RBIs. Ott’s career perfectly overlaps with this timeline, as his first full season was as a 19-year-old with the New York Giants in 1928 and his last as a regular was in 1945. He was a truly great — and underrated — player but rarely remembered now.

But the most compelling debate kicked off near the end of this generation. DiMaggio reached the majors in 1936 and the Yankees immediately won four straight World Series and then another in 1941. Williams reached the majors in 1939 and hit .406 in 1941 — and finished second in the MVP voting to DiMaggio (who had his 56-game hitting streak that season). Who was better? Are DiMaggio’s World Series rings more impressive than Williams’ statistical superiority? The player with the record hitting streak or the last player to hit .400? The debate would continue into the early years of the next generation (Williams won the Triple Crown in 1947, but DiMaggio again won MVP honors).

Baby Boomers (1946-64)

Willie Mays averaged 9.4 WAR from 1954 to 1964 with the Giants. Bettman/Getty Images

Top five in WAR
Willie Mays: 108.9
Stan Musial: 104.1
Mickey Mantle: 98.4
Warren Spahn: 92.5
Ted Williams: 87.7

Next five: Eddie Mathews (85.9), Henry Aaron (80.8), Robin Roberts (80.6), Duke Snider (65.9), Richie Ashburn (64.3)

Best peak: 1. Mays, 1954-64 (9.4 average WAR per season for over a decade); 2. Mantle, 1955-58 (10.2 average WAR per season); 3. Williams, 1946-1949 (9.4 average WAR per season)

Most iconic: Mantle

This generation’s biggest debate: Mays vs. Mantle

Mays over Musial and Mantle as the best player of the Baby Boomer generation isn’t a slam dunk. Musial gets two of his three MVP awards in this time frame and Mantle gets all three of his; Mays won only one (with his second coming in 1965). Musial also finished second in the MVP voting four times and had a slew of other top-10 finishes (as did Mays, of course). At his best, Mantle was a better hitter than Mays:

Mantle, 1954-64: .312/.440/.605, 397 HRs, 185 OPS+, 622 batting runs above average

Mays, 1954-64: .318/.392/.601, 429 HRs, 166 OPS+, 561 batting runs above average

As for iconic, it’s Mantle over Mays, Musial and Williams with Jackie Robinson deserving an honorable mention as a different sort of icon. Musial might have been the most popular player across the sport at the time. Mantle was in the World Series almost every year with the Yankees, won seven of them, and even now, his baseball cards still carry the ultimate premium. Ask any Baby Boomer: The Yankees defined the 1950s and Mantle defined the Yankees.

Generation X (1965-80)

Pete Rose was arguably the most popular player during his playing days because of his Charlie Hustle persona. AP Photo/G. Paul Burnett, File

Top five in WAR
Joe Morgan: 88.8
Tom Seaver: 88.8
Gaylord Perry: 84.0
Phil Niekro: 82.5
Carl Yastrzemski: 80.3

Next five: Ferguson Jenkins (78.2), Pete Rose (76.7), Johnny Bench (72.9), Reggie Jackson (70.0), Rod Carew (69.8)

Best peak: 1. Morgan, 1972-76 (9.6 average WAR per season); 2. Bob Gibson, 1965-70 (7.6 average WAR per season, led all players in WAR 1968, 1969 and 1970); 3. Mike Schmidt, 1974-80 (8.2 average WAR per season)

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Most iconic: Rose or Reggie … or Nolan Ryan?

This generation’s biggest debate: Rose or Reggie … or Nolan Ryan?

This generation shows how peak value can cement a player’s legacy. Gibson didn’t have the career value of fellow pitchers Perry or Niekro, but his legacy is much stronger. In fact, that five-year peak would be even higher except he broke his leg in 1967, only to return and win three games in the World Series.

The most iconic debate is the interesting one. Throughout the 1970s, Rose and Reggie were the towering figures in the game — Charlie Hustle and Mr. October. They weren’t the best players, but Rose was the most popular, Jackson more controversial. Even Rose’s recent reinstatement shows how he continues to impact the headlines, even in death. Ryan would be a late entry to the icon discussion. He didn’t really become an iconic figure until late in his career with the Texas Rangers in the late 1980s and early 1990s — when he kept racking up no-hitters and strikeouts deep into his 40s — but he now possesses a larger-than-life persona that might even exceed Rose and Jackson.

Millennials (1981-96)

Barry Bonds’ early peak years produced three MVP awards, but he probably wasn’t the most iconic player of his time. Jeff Carlick/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Top five in WAR
Rickey Henderson: 95.7
Cal Ripken: 88.8
Wade Boggs: 88.2
Barry Bonds: 83.6
Roger Clemens: 80.8

Next five: Ryne Sandberg (67.1), Ozzie Smith (66.9), Tim Raines (66.5), Lou Whitaker (65.1), Alan Trammell (63.0)

Best peak: 1. Bonds, 1990-96 (8.6 average WAR per season, three MVP awards); 2. Greg Maddux, 1992-96 (8.1 average WAR per season, four Cy Young Awards); 3. Roger Clemens, 1986-92 (8.3 average WAR per season, three Cy Youngs)

Most iconic: Ken Griffey Jr.

This generation’s biggest debate: Bonds vs. Griffey

Look … even pre-alleged-PED Bonds was a better player than Griffey. Bonds’ 1993 season, right before the offensive explosion across the sport, was a season for the ages: .336/.458/.677, 9.9 WAR. He had an OPS+ of 206; from 1962 through 1993, only four players had an OPS+ over 200: Willie McCovey in 1969, George Brett in 1980 and Bonds in 1992 and ’93.

From 1991 to 1998, Griffey’s peak, he averaged 7.2 WAR per season and led AL position players three times in WAR. From 1990 to 1998, Bonds averaged 8.5 WAR and led NL position players seven times in WAR. Bonds got on base more and was the better base stealer, and though he didn’t play center field, he was a spectacular left fielder (especially earlier in his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates). In those pre-WAR days, the debate was a lot more hotly contested and Griffey was generally regarded as the better player.

But most iconic? The Kid in a landslide.

Generation Z (1997-2012)

Alex Rodriguez had the numbers but not the World Series rings to make him as revered as another Yankee. John Cordes/Icon Sportswire

Top five in WAR
Alex Rodriguez: 107.0
Albert Pujols: 91.5
Barry Bonds: 79.1
Chipper Jones: 76.2
Randy Johnson: 74.1

Next five: Pedro Martinez (71.6), Scott Rolen (70.4), Derek Jeter (69.9), Roy Halladay (66.5), Carlos Beltran (65.5)

Best peak: 1. Bonds, 2000-04 (10.2 average WAR per season, four MVP awards); 2. Johnson, 1999-2002 (9.5 average WAR per season, four straight Cy Young Awards, averaged 354 strikeouts); 3. Martinez, 1997-2000 (9.4 average WAR per season, 2.16 ERA)

Most iconic: Jeter

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This generation’s biggest debate: Jeter vs. A-Rod

This era might top the others in terms of peak performances. We could have also listed Rodriguez, who averaged 8.3 WAR and 46 home runs from 1998 to 2005 (and that doesn’t include 9.4 WAR seasons in 1996 and 2007). Or Pujols, who had seven consecutive 8-plus WAR seasons from 2003 to 2009. Or Mark McGwire’s four-year run from 1996 to 1999, when he averaged 61 home runs. Or Sammy Sosa averaging 58 home runs in a five-year span. Or Ichiro Suzuki’s incredible 10 consecutive seasons with 200 hits.

But the Jeter/A-Rod debate takes in everything about this complicated era. In the end, Rodriguez had the numbers and Jeter had the rings and the fist pumps from the top step of the dugout.

Generation Alpha (2010-25)

Mookie Betts has been slowly closing the gap in WAR on Mike Trout over the past several seasons. Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire

Top five in WAR
Mike Trout: 85.8
Mookie Betts: 72.2
Max Scherzer: 71.9
Clayton Kershaw: 70.1
Justin Verlander: 65.8

Next five: Paul Goldschmidt (63.9), Freddie Freeman (62.7), Manny Machado (59.1), Nolan Arenado (57.4), Aaron Judge (56.4)

Best peak: 1. Trout, 2012-19 (9.0 average WAR per season); 2. Shohei Ohtani (2021-??); 3. Aaron Judge (2022-??)

Most iconic: Umm …

Now we get back to Generation Alpha. There seems to be some disagreement on when it begins — maybe it’s 2010, maybe 2012 or 2013. And maybe it ends in 2025 or 2027. But for this exercise, we started in 2010, which is convenient when discussing Trout and Betts since their entire careers encompass this time frame.

Trout, even sitting out all that time in recent seasons, holds the lead in career WAR. What’s interesting is he’s not yet at 400 home runs, 1,000 RBIs or close to 2,000 hits, so his career counting totals lag behind players with similar WAR.

His value at his peak was posting high on-base percentages and high slugging percentages in the 2010s, when offense was somewhat down for much of the decade. His career wRC+, which makes those era-related adjustments, is 168, seventh all-time behind Ruth, Williams, Bonds, Gehrig, Hornsby and Mantle. That’s with a cutoff of 5,000 plate appearances. If we lower it to 4,500 plate appearances, Judge comes in third behind Ruth and Williams.

Ahh, yes, Judge and Ohtani. Both are close to Trout and Betts in age (Judge is only a few months younger than Trout, and Ohtani was born in 1994, making him three years younger). Neither made their debut until halfway through this generation and are thus currently significantly behind in career value — Judge is at 56.4, Ohtani at 46.4. Both are accumulating it at Secretariat-like speed, but even if we extend this generational period a few more years, they won’t catch Trout or even Betts in WAR within the time frame.

But most iconic? That’s a debate. Trout, despite the MVP honors, has one postseason appearance way back in 2014, a bunch of losing seasons on a franchise that failed to build around him, and — fair or not — never had that undefinable “it’ factor the way Griffey did.

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Maybe the most iconic is Judge, although he has never won a World Series either, struggled for the most part in his playoff appearances and his peak seasons are, for now, limited to 2017, 2022, 2024 and 2025. Still, he seems to be improving at 33 years old; who knows how many more historic seasons he still has in him. Maybe it will be Ohtani, who is now in the fifth season of his unicorn status. He has pitched in three of those seasons, had the first 50/50 season in 2024 that earned him his third MVP award and now he’s maybe on his way to a fourth MVP, especially if he returns to pitching later this season, which is still the plan.

Or maybe it’s even Betts. He has played for two of the sport’s glamour franchises: the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. He has won an MVP, six Gold Gloves and seven Silver Sluggers. He’s also won three World Series titles — and is still going strong. He’s like Jeter in that he’ll do whatever it takes to win, like moving from the outfield to second base or shortstop (and he already has more career WAR than Jeter).

The answer? Well, the answer is we still have a lot of baseball for these guys to play — and that makes us all fortunate baseball fans.

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