Mike Trout turned 23 and is still younger than your favorite prospect

It’s Mike Trout’s 23rd birthday, and he’s celebrating by leading the American League in OPS+ and putting together what should be his third MVP-caliber campaign in a row. Whether he wins is another story, but we’ll save all that for September, when Twitter loses its collective mind at the idea of someone besides Trout winning.

For now, let’s instead point out all the prospects who are still somehow older than Mike Trout. Using MLB.com’s midseason top 100 prospect list as a guide, we find an even dozen prospects who have had more birthdays than Trout:

The Brewers Jimmy Nelson and the Red Sox Anthony Ranaudo are both promising pitching prospects who have reinvented themselves at Triple-A this season. Nelson is already 25, as he turned as much back in early June, while Ranaudo’s 25th is just over a month from now. The two have combined for just 46 innings in the majors, with Ranaudo only making his major league debut last week, but they might be a case of better late than never with their development.

Mike Trout has already hit 87 home runs even though he’s essentially two years younger than both of them.

Current Twins pitching prospect Alex Meyer was drafted in 2011 by the Washington Nationals, and he signed just over two months later. He’s the 30th-best prospect in the game by MLB’s reckoning, in his first season at Triple-A, and he didn’t even have a professional contract until over a month after Mike Trout made his major-league debut with the Angels.

Allen Webster is also 24 years old, and has allowed opponents to bat .286/.399/.483 against him in his 38 MLB innings. Trout’s career slash line is .311/.401/.553, so he’s somehow already been even better across the board than the nightmarish numbers put up against Webster that threaten his status as a major-league starter.

Jake Lamb was recently promoted to Triple-A for the first time. Mike Trout was already out of Triple-A for good in 2012 before Jake Lamb was drafted by the Diamondbacks that same summer.

There are seven players born in 1991 on MLB’s prospect list older than Trout, including 2013’s first overall pick, Mark Appel. Andrew Heaney debuted in the majors this year for the Marlins, and given his performance both there and in Triple-A, he might not be ready to contribute just yet. Garin Cecchini is slugging .324 at Triple-A, whereas Trout slugged .390 in the majors when he was 19. Nats’ outfielder Michael Taylor just got to Triple-A two games ago. Eddie Butler’s first five innings in Triple-A haven’t gone well, and not just because he’s pitching at altitude like his parent club in Denver. Kevin Plawecki hit well for the Mets’ Double-A affiliate, but he’s struggling after a promotion despite playing in the hitter-friendly PCL and Las Vegas.

We can’t criticize Stephen Piscotty or his development because he’s a Cardinals’ prospect who will end up being better than anyone imagined for that very reason, but despite this, he’s still older than Mike Trout.

Trout was born in the same year as 17 of MLB.com’s midseason top-100. You’ve got the aforementioned 1991 birthdays above, as well as Hunter Dozier (2013 pick), Luke Jackson, Christian Bethancourt (14 MLB games), C.J. Edwards (drafted in Trout’s debut season), Kyle Zimmer (only in Double-A), Mike Foltynewicz (debuted in MLB for the Astros last week), Arismendy Alcantara (arrived in the majors just under a month ago), Jon Gray (2013’s third-overall pick), Nick Kingham (young for Triple-A at 22, but just three months younger than Trout), and Jameson Taillon, who, to his credit, would probably be in the majors if not for Tommy John surgery.

That’s not all, though! Four more prospects were born in the six months after Trout: Hunter Renfroe, Alex Gonzalez, A.J. Cole, and one of the next budding superstars everyone is ready to welcome to the bigs as soon as possible, the Cubs’ Kris Bryant. He’s batting .321/.427/.660 14 homers in 46 Triple-A games this year, after decimating his Double-A stint to a similarly ridiculous degree. It’s expected he’ll crush the majors when he gets there, and his career is as likely to be great as anyone with the numbers he’s managed to put up and the ability he’s shown off to this point, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s less than five months younger than Mike Trout.

Trout is the best, y’all.