ANAHEIM, California – Mike Trout never had a significant injury in his charming baseball career until May 2017, when he tore a ligament in his thumb while sliding headfirst into second base.
On his first day back after a 39-game absence, the superstar slugger stole second — and fell on his head again.
“I’m not going to change the way I play,” Trout said, smiling, that night in the Los Angeles Angels clubhouse, a singular young athlete, confident in his exceptionalism.
Less than seven years later, in the hallway outside the same Anaheim clubhouse, Trout repeatedly fought back tears Tuesday as he publicly processed his fourth serious injury in the last four seasons.
“It’s just frustrating,” he said calmly, eyes downcast. “But we will get through this. … I play a lot and (things) happen.
Trout may still be the greatest baseball player of his generation, but he will never again be the 25-year-old who seemed certain he was invincible. Like Ken Griffey Jr. before him, Trout’s mid-career injury issues derailed a meteoric career and stalled his historic rate of production at the plate.
The 32-year-old Trout’s talent and passion still shine when he’s on the field, but they haven’t kept him healthy in his second decade in baseball.
Since the start of the 2021 season, Trout has played in 266 games. The Angels’ meeting with Philadelphia on Wednesday will be the 251st game he has missed in that stretch.
Trout had 285 career home runs when he won his third AL MVP award in 2019. The Angels center fielder has hit just 93 home runs in the four-plus seasons since then, with COVID-19 shortening his 2020 campaign and injuries doing the rest.
Trout had 1,324 hits after the 2019 season but has compiled just 324 since then, greatly slowing his march toward 2,000 or 3,000. His batting average (.277) and OPS (.958) since 2019 are also significantly below his career marks.
While Trout’s bat speed remains among the fastest in the majors, he has acknowledged several difficulties with his mechanics over the past two seasons, including a decreasing contact rate and issues with high-speed pitches. Trout was still leading the majors with 10 homers when he was injured this week, but his batting average had dropped to .220 — even dropping his career average below .300 just before his injury.
Trout now has a torn meniscus in his left knee. Compounding his frustration, he doesn’t know how it happened — perhaps while running in the outfield, perhaps simply while walking to the dugout.
“No one wants to play more than Mike,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian said. “He loves it. He loves everything about it. He wakes up thinking about it. He goes to bed thinking about it. He eats, sleeps and breathes baseball. I really feel for him.
Trout was baseball’s star player of the 2010s, a rugged slugger from a small town in southern New Jersey who dazzled the sport when he landed in Orange County. He is an electrifying hitter, an exciting fielder and a fierce competitor, often described as the spiritual heir to Mickey Mantle.
Trout seemed capable of anything, even though he only led the Angels to the playoffs once in 2014. But as the Halos’ losing seasons piled up, he gradually became familiar with the pain, sleepless nights and medical procedures endless.
Trout missed all but 36 games of the 2021 season with a calf strain that healed surprisingly slowly. He missed five weeks of the 2022 season with a back injury, although he still hit 40 home runs.
Trout then broke a bone in his hand on a foul ball on July 3rd. He tried to return in August when it looked like the Angels might make a postseason run, but he played just one painful game before calling it a day.
Trout was “in good shape” this season, new Angels manager Ron Washington said. “He was loving going to the stadium and loving going there, trying to get into the swing of things for the season, and then this happened.”
The Angels did not provide a timeline for Trout’s recovery from surgery, but most injured athletes miss at least a few months, often more.
With or without trout, the angels are reeling.
The club lost Shohei Ohtani to a $700 million free agent deal with the nearby Dodgers, and the front office hasn’t signed any significant help for Trout. Between ’11 and ’19, heading into May, after losing 10 of 12, a 10th consecutive season outside the playoffs and a ninth consecutive losing season – both the longest active streaks in the majors – look increasingly likely for the Halos .
Trout’s injury problems have been devastating for his franchise — but so have the extensive injury problems of Anthony Rendon, the $245 million third baseman brought in by owner Arte Moreno to provide Trout with a dynamic counterpart. Rendon is currently out with yet another injury, a torn hamstring that is unlikely to heal quickly.
When Rendon arrived for the shortened 2020 season, Trout and Rendon had played together 46 times in 60 games. Since then, the Angels’ two highest-paid players have appeared together in just 118 of the Angels’ 516 games (22.8%) since the start of the 2021 season.
Trout is older and frailer than that golden youth of the previous decade, but he’s also wiser: These days, when he slips, he tries to walk with his feet first — and he wears a bulky slip-on glove.
His $426.5 million contract runs through 2030, and he has repeatedly said he is not interested in leaving Anaheim. Trout still wants to turn the Angels into winners, believing it will be all the sweeter because it took so long.
But first, another surgery and another recovery await him.
“It’s a pretty simple procedure,” Trout said. “I will receive you immediately and will return as quickly as I can. (But) this is difficult.”
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AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy contributed to this report.
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