Salmon who had been selected in the third round of the Major League Baseball Draft in 1989 out of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, made his major league debut in 1992, the same year that he won the Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year Award.\n', '

In his first full season the next year, when he hit 31 home runs with a .918 OPS, Salmon was named the American League\'s Rookie of the Year for 1993 and quickly became a favorite of the Angels\' organization and a household name among the team\'s fans. He maintained his status as one of the league\'s elite power-hitting outfielders throughout the decade. He finished seventh in MVP voting totals for the first time in 1995, when he won a Silver Slugger Award, finished third in the league with a .330 batting average, and posted an OPS above 1.000. That year, he was the first major league player to get a hit off closer for the New York Yankees, Mariano Rivera. He finished seventh again in 1997 when he had a career high 129 RBIs. After playing in fewer than 100 games in 1999, he tied a career high 34 home runs in 2000. From 1993 to 2000 he only had two OPS lines below .900 and he never finished below .860.\n', '

Before the 2001 season, Salmon, who was about to finish a four-year contract signed before the 1997 season, briefly considered signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but instead signed a four-year, $40 million extension with the Angels.\n', '

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