For close to one hundred years, Babe Ruth has been the standard by which all baseball players are judged. His 714 home runs and .690 slugging percentage are the crowning achievement of his greatness, and he even had a stellar pitching career before transitioning to a full-time hitter.

Since then, we’ve called Willie Mays the best all-around player, Ted Williams the best hitter, Barry Bonds the most dominant player over a brief period of time*, and Rickey Henderson the best baserunner and base stealer. But no one has laid serious claim to The Babe’s argument as the greatest baseball player of all-time.

But what about Mike Trout? Realistically, does he have a chance?

We’re just 12 games into the 2019 season, an admittedly small sample size, but what Mike Trout is doing thus far is at a level that even the great Babe Ruth hasn’t topped. Trout is hitting .406/.592/.938 with five home runs and 12 runs batted in. He leads the league in walks (13), intentional walks (4), and hit by pitches (3). Simply put, if there’s a way to get on base, Trout has proven he will find it.

Defensively, it’s what Trout is doing that takes his game to a whole different level. Per Baseball Reference, he’s already registered five defensive runs saved in center field. The man who has made a living out of hitting homers and robbing homers is the best two-way player the game has seen since Willie Mays, and he’s on pace to be arguably better.

Trout has accumulated 1.8 wins above replacement thus far in 12 games, tops in the major leagues. The next-best position player in the AL is Daniel Vogelbach at 1.0, a 26-year-old who has enjoyed a hot two-week stretch but still barely reached half of Trout’s WAR. Project Trout’s WAR to a full 162 games and he will finish with 24.3 wins above replacement for the year.

Here are the greatest WAR seasons of all-time currently (per Baseball Reference):

Trout is not only on pace to break Ruth’s single-season record for WAR; he’s on pace to absolutely shatter it. From a defensive standpoint, Trout is on pace to finish the year with 67.5 defensive runs saved; the single-season record for any position is Kevin Kiermaier at 42 in 2015.

And it’s not as if Trout came out of nowhere this year. In seven seasons thus far, he’s won two American League MVP awards and finished second on four other occasions. He led the AL in WAR in each of his first five seasons. He’s a .308/418/.576 lifetime hitter. You know how many players can say they’ve topped all three of those percentages over a full career? Just Ruth, Williams. Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, and Rogers Hornsby.

There are no weaknesses to Trout’s game. You could say staying healthy is the most pivotal roadblock; after all, he left Tuesday night’s game early due to a right groin injury, although fortunately, it doesn’t sound as if he will miss any time. But he’s still averaged 146 games played over his seven full seasons.

Early in his career, strikeouts were a problem for Trout. He even led the league with a whopping 184 in 2014. But after whiffing on 26.1 percent of his plate appearances on ’14, he cut that figure to 23.1 in ’15 and 20.1 in ’16. This year? He’s at just 8.2.

As a first-year starter in 2012, he didn’t walk that much, drawing free passes on just 10.5 percent of plate appearances. He brought that figure up to 15.4 by 2013, 18.5 by 2017, and 20.1 by 2018. This year, he’s at 26.5.

Defensively, the advanced statistics actually rated him as a liability in 2013, 2014, and 2017. Last year, he made a marked improvement and this year, he’s on an all-time pace.

The most obvious comparison to Trout as a player is Mays. They’re the purest five-tool players you’ll ever find. Unbelievably, Mays actually averaged 9.6 WAR over a 13-year span (1954-1966); Trout is ‘only’ at 9.1 over seven years (2012-2018). They’re very similar as offensive players with Mays posting a 166 adjusted OPS during those years, while Trout is at 176 for this career so far. The biggest difference is Mays’ significant edge as a defensive player and baserunner, and that’s not a knock on Trout. It’s just that Mays was so good in the field, while Trout has been more inconsistent over his career.

With the improvements Trout keeps making in his game on an annual basis, he’s every bit in the Mays conversation, albeit in a sample size of fewer years.

Topping Ruth though? That’s going to take some serious work.

From 1920-1932, Ruth averaged .356/.489/.730 with 46 home runs, 138 RBIs, 137 runs scored, and 126 walks per year. Trout has never reached a single one of those elusive statistics in any year.

Ruth posted a career league-adjusted OPS of 206. Last year, Trout led the American League at 198, the highest to date in his career. It was a different era with relievers and an integrated game and the designated hitter but then again, the AL as a whole posted a .734 OPS in 1920 and then the exact same number again in 2018. To a large extent, it’s the same game it’s always been – 90-foot basepaths, a bat, a ball, nine fielders, and nine innings of play.

We didn’t have WAR when Ruth played, but by total WAR standards, it only enhances the argument for The Babe. Ruth averaged 10.1 WAR over his 13 best years. Trout has topped that number three times, but he’s never reached 11.0 – a figure Ruth topped six times in an eight-year span. Trout is a more prolific baserunner and defensive player, but Ruth is vastly superior offensively. It’s more a testament to Ruth than anything, especially considering Trout has led the AL in adjusted OPS four years running and seems to gets better at the plate with each passing year.

Oh, and Ruth also hit .326/.470/.744 in 10 career World Series, set a major league record by throwing 29 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings in the Fall Classic, and helped deliver seven championships to Boston and New York as a hitter and pitcher. While it’s not Trout’s fault, he’s been to the postseason once, never won a game, and batted .083 (1-for-12) in a three-game series sweep.

Passing Babe Ruth as a player is almost like passing Jerry Rice in career receiving yards. It’s like passing Cy Young in career wins or Johnny Vander Meer in consecutive no-hitters thrown. It’s so obscure to think about that the standard for all-time greatness is usually a notch below.

There’s no shame in being the second-best player ever at a sport (despite what LeBron vs. MJ arguments tell you), or even the third or fourth or fifth or 25th; it still puts you in the top 0.01% of every player to ever play at the professional level. Trout is on pace to join that very elite pinnacle that includes Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Hank Aaron. It just depends on how many years of all-time greatness he can put up, and don’t forget he’s still just 27 years old.

But don’t count on Trout surpassing Ruth. No one ever will.

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