Mike Trout’s latest lost season is yet another gut punch to his storied career

Everything started off well.

That statement could apply to both Mike Trout’s career and his 2024 campaign. It feels like a long time ago now, but the Angels icon He hit a home run in his first at-bat of the season.He then became the first MLB player to hit 10 home runs in 2024, surpassing young players in their primes such as Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani.

Less than a week after hitting his 10th home run, Trout was suddenly placed on the disabled list. He had pain in his knee and tests revealed a torn meniscus, which was a blow but was not expected to end his season. Trout gradually rehabilitated from knee surgery and returned to playing status, beginning a stint with Triple-A Salt Lake City on July 23. It lasted two innings.

The pain grew so bad that Trout was forced to end his scheduled four-inning appearance early. An initial MRI came back normal, but a recent scan revealed a new meniscus tear. He will undergo surgery again. Trout’s 2024 season ended in May after just 29 games. The star player is as devastated as the rest of us.

Few players in baseball history have matched Trout’s production from 2012, when he was named AL Rookie of the Year, to 2019, when he won his third AL MVP award. During that span, Trout posted a .308 batting average, .422 on-base percentage, .587 slugging percentage, 245 doubles, 280 home runs, 196 stolen bases and an astounding 72.0 WAR (Baseball Reference). That’s a higher eight-season total than Derek Jeter had in his entire 20-year career, and Trout is often compared to Ken Griffey Jr., who only had a 57.3 WAR at his peak over his eight-year span from 1991-1998.

A book will be written about Trout’s godlike performance someday. As mentioned above, he has won three MVP awards, and there is a good argument to be made that he should have won at least three more. He can do anything on the field, he can block a home run or hit the ball out of the park with ease.

But Trout couldn’t do much about the guys around him. Early in his career, the core of the team was good enough. The Angels narrowly missed the playoffs in 2012, but bounced back the next season to win 98 games and win the AL West in 2014. Trout’s first playoff trip ended in three games, with the upstart Royals beating the Angels in three straight games and MVP Trout going 1-for-12 at-bats.

Since then, the Angels have not had a chance to play in the postseason, currently tying them with the Tigers for the longest playoff drought among active teams. To make matters worse, they have not had a winning season since 2015, even with Shohei Ohtani on the roster. That streak is likely to continue this year, as the Ohtani-less Angels are on their fifth managerial role in seven seasons, currently 47-61, and have little promise for their farm system, which FanGraphs rates as “best.” The worst in baseballThe owner is Incompetent, have a finger in the pie miser They almost saved the franchise by declaring that they would sell it after 2022, but Retract a decision A few months later.

Trout would make Angels baseball a little more palatable, but that hasn’t been the case the past four years. He was as good as ever in 2020, a season shortened by the pandemic, but the Angels somehow missed the postseason, even though more than half the league (including the Astros and Brewers, who both had sub-.50 win rates) did. He started 2021 with a 1.090 OPS, but strained his calf in mid-May while jogging to third base.

While the injury wasn’t enough to sideline Trout for more than two months, he wasn’t able to return in 2021. The following year, he played through a back soreness diagnosis. Rare spinal disorders He played 119 games despite missing over five weeks in midsummer (which would affect his career).

Trout was healthy through the end of June in 2023 and was set to make his 11th career All-Star appearance, but on July 3, a normal swing led to a fracture of the hamate bone in his left hand.

Trout returned for one game on Aug. 22. Then, on the same day that general manager Perry Minasian announced Ohtani was done pitching in 2023 because of an elbow injury, Trout revealed he was back on the disabled list because his hamate bone was still sore. He ended up being rested and never returned.

The most painful thing about all of this is that when this guy is on the field, he can still bat better. The future Hall of Famer’s remaining talent has flashed, slashing .252/.357/.504 with 28 home runs and a 135 wRC+ in 111 games since entering 2023. Of the 299 MLB players with at least 450 plate appearances since then, only 20 have a higher wRC+, which puts him ahead of perennial All-Stars like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Jose Ramirez and Pete Alonso.

Add all the time he missed over the last decade together and a tale of misery emerges, best illustrated by FanGraphs’ John Becker’s comparison to another former MVP who has never been safe from injury:

I still enjoy it a lot when Stanton is on the field, but his general manager said he doesn’t want to get hurt.It seems to be part of his game.” if his If your body is responding to injury better than you are, that’s a dire situation. Hell, Griffey in his Reds days. It was healthy.

Where does Trout go from here? The Angels are paying him $37.1 million per year from 2025-30, and he’s only 32 and has no plans to retire. Both Trout and Minasian (who may be out of a job soon, to be honest) are They’re saying the same thing As for what to expect next season. At the very least, it looks like he should be moved from center field to a corner spot, even if he doesn’t move completely to pure DH duties, a la David Ortiz or Nelson Cruz.

Trout’s injuries are so random that there’s no guarantee this ploy will work. That said, he and the Angels need to try something different, as their strategies have failed so many times over the past few years. Running around in center field is not the answer. If the Angels can’t field a competent team, they need to at least try their best to get their star players healthy. Even if the second half of his career was modest, Trout could have been the greatest player to ever play the game. Now, just seeing him step into the batter’s box consistently is a win. We just need to be happy. One At this point in his career.

Get well soon Mike. Hopefully you stay healthy. We miss you.