Does Major League Baseball have a problem with Mike Trout, or does Mike Trout have a problem with MLB?
Before Commissioner Rob Manfred stuck his walker in his mouth during a news conference during the All-Star break, there was some consensus around the sport that Trout’s modest profile in the culture in general was a bit disappointing, a missed opportunity for him and the Angels. and to a lesser extent the league, but hardly matters more than Andrew Heaney’s BABIP or the result of an August midweek series against Rangers.
The now-familiar contrast: What Trout, 26, has already done as a player has few parallels in history: Only Ted Williams racked up more offensive wins than replacements in his first eight seasons. As appealing as he is to statheads, his gameplay also delights; his power-speed defense game is no less electrifying than that of Mookie Betts or Javy Baez. What Trout has done as a marketer and celebrity, however, is much closer to replacement level; a market research company recently told the Washington Post that only 22% of the American public knew who Trout was. (Forget ranking among LeBron James and JJ Watt; Trout is supposed to be just as recognizable as former NBA rebounding ace Kenneth Faried.) Even in the world of baseball, Trout’s star is more of a white dwarf than a supernova. Seven players’ jerseys sold more than last year. And while Bryce Harper wasn’t Trout’s performer at all (fun fact: Trout homered in the All-Star Game while Harper whiffed twice), it was Harper, not Trout, who dominated the Home Run Derby sponsored by the German telecommunications company it advertised. stars in it.
It was the day after that Derby that Manfred told baseball reporters, in response to a question about whether the league could do more on its part to increase Trout’s profile, that “Mike is a great player and a great person really nice, but he’s made decisions about what he wants to do, what he doesn’t want to do and how he wants to spend his free time or not. I think we could help him grow his brand. But he must make the decision to commit. It takes time and effort.
The angels would emit A declaration the next day, defending Trout, stating in part that “(Mike’s) brand is built on the fact that he generously spends his time interacting with fans, at home and on the road, while remaining a baseball player and an outstanding teammate… We commend him for putting his staff first. values rather than commercial self-promotion. » Trout added: “I’m not a small guy and I would really encourage everyone to move forward. Everything is good between the commissioner and I. End of story. I’m just ready to play the game. baseball!”
Fair enough; Trout was 2 for 10 with a homer and three walks in the Angels’ series against Houston this weekend. But there are still some matters to discuss. Manfred’s remarks not only revealed the league’s apparent disappointment with Trout’s marketing decisions – a legitimate reaction, but one that might be best suppressed by an organization just over a decade later a drug scandal in which executives slimed players rather than admit their wrongdoing – but it drew attention, in a roundabout way, to the league’s continuing failure to catapult its most gifted players into consciousness popular. Only one MLB player has appeared on the cover of GQ over the last 13 years (Derek Jeter in 2011), and 100 most followed athletes on Twitter only one is a baseball player: Tim Tebow. Trout’s 2.5 million Twitter followers are the largest in sports, but more than a dozen NBA players reach a larger audience. Why should skinny kids dream of being Steph Curry instead of Jose Altuve, and why should they Chris Paul be more famous than Chris Sale, Kris Bryant and Paul Goldschmidt combined?
Gary Vaynerchuk, digital marketing guru and CEO of VaynerMedia, says social media-savvy 21-year-old Steelers catcher JuJu Smith-Schuster has demonstrated more knowledge of digital literacy than any employee, athlete or strategist in baseball.
Vaynerchuk blames the league for the mess: “What’s happening here is that Major League Baseball, ten years ago, decided to focus on the short-term economy at the expense of be wherever the people are and build their stars. They have stifled creativity in the digital space. You can’t find any baseball content on the internet unless the league gets some of it through their accounts. Steph Curry was built on Instagram.”
Vaynerchuk considers Major League Baseball Advanced Media’s (MLBAM) digital strategy — one of sports’ proudest business achievements, a company that sold a majority stake to Disney in 2017 for $1.58 billion, sending each team more than $50 million in revenue—a future—a defining, if lucrative, misstep. Over the past decade, baseball has been aggressive in ensuring that fan-made videos and GIFs are driven offline before they can travel widely. Only recently has the league softened its stance. “If I were commissioner, I would be petrified that 6 to 14 year olds in America would consider Messi, Ronaldo, LeBron, Curry and Ninja to be the Fortnite player more famous than any baseball player on earth.”
Gary Vaynerchuk says a Steelers catcher is a better social media strategist than anyone working in Major League Baseball.
Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for audio
Indeed, for all the talk about the specific traits that make Trout difficult to market to, he lacks an outsized personality; he did not have several opportunities to shine in the playoffs; he plays for a second-tier franchise; he hasn’t bothered to assemble an array of corporate sponsors that could help make him a star – the league can hardly boast NBA star-sized success with any of its contemporaries better placed.
Vaynerchuk says, “Do you know how much money I could make off Aaron Judge just with the gap between his two front teeth? Javier Baez has more personality in his left pinky than most American athletes. I won myself a bigger celebrity than these guys! We don’t even get to the fact that 38% of these guys are incredibly good-looking, and if you put them on Instagram and tell them to take their shirts off, good things will happen. »
As for Trout himself, Bryan Harris, chief operating officer of sports marketing and public relations firm Taylor, sees plenty of clear opportunities for corporate partnerships. “He’s reliable, consistent, best in class. You always see him hustle, see him play defense. There are so many types of brands that could partner with a person like that.” And then there is his name! “It’s quite catchy and lends itself to headlines.” The headlines would be just the beginning… imagine Trout in a slimy fish costume complaining about how sick he is of ichthyology-based puns while he slings deodorant or shampoo. Vaynerchuk says that because Trout is not naturally loud or camera-hungry, he would give the outfielder a podcast so he could film the breeze with friends. But the slugger, as Manfred more or less said, chose to go up his own stream.
There’s no doubt that baseball can thrive even if one of its greatest talents avoids commercials; it’s not like Sandy Koufax loved Schlitz back in the day. The question is whether a sport in which fandom rests as much on the team as on the individual, and in which the culture favors tradition over flair, can maintain its cultural footing in an age of attention spans. short and personal brand. So far, the league has shown no particular intelligence in responding to these cultural winds, although management has made some slight (and welcome) concessions to criticism of the pace of play. The league is very fortunate to have Mike Trout. When will he find the Mike Trout of marketing?
