Mike Trout homered twice this week at Chase Field, his first homers ever in that ballpark. He has now hit the ball out in 29 yards overall. (Photo by Julia Jacome/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
MLB Photos via Getty Images
PHOENIX – It’s nice to see Mike Trout, nearly 35, playing at a somewhat elite level again. Major League Baseball is always better when a healthy and happy Trout is excelling, even if his Angels are again going nowhere and his batting average of .234 is 57 points below his career mark of .291.
Otherwise, he has 17 homers, 36 RBIs and an OPS+ of 144. His defense in center field and base running seem vastly improved.
Fans have noticed and Trout was second among all American League outfielders just behind the Yankees’ injured Aaron Judge in the first phase of All-Star voting released earlier this week. Judge, who won’t play in Philadelphia on July 14 because of a stress fracture in his upper right rib, had 977,460 votes to Trout’s 926,601.
Cody Bellinger, also of the Yankees, was a distant third at 533,842. The top three vote-getting outfielders are elected starters for the teams in each league.
Considering Trout missed 383 of the Angels’ 648 regular season games—playing in only 266 from 2021 to 2024 because of broken bones, soft tissue and knee injuries—the resurgence is somewhat of a miracle.
“It’s awesome,” Trout said about the voting and his comeback earlier this week when the Angels were at Chase Field and lost two of a three-game series to the D-backs. “Just being able to go out there every day to play center field and the game being in Philly. It’ll be pretty cool to go play there.”
This year’s game, which will celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S. in Citizens Bank Park, is particularly near and dear to Trout because he grew up just north of Philadelphia in Millville, N.J.
He’s still a devoted Eagles and Flyers fan.
“It’s 40 minutes from my house,” Trout said. “I’ll have a lot of family and friends. I’ll have to really think about getting some tickets if I make it.”
Barring any of his own injuries, Trout is sure to be a lock as the voting process continues, although he didn’t play in this year’s World Baseball Classic.
The Phillies Sought The 2026 All-Star Game
The Phillies have long been planning on hosting this year’s All-Star Game to coincide with the 250th U.S. birthday. They also hosted the 1976 All-Star Game at the now defunct Veteran Stadium in honor of this land’s bicentennial. The Vet, fairly new then, was inaugurated in 1971 to replace the ancient and decaying Connie Mack Stadium.
The Bank opened in 2004 in the parking lot next to the Vet, which was imploded. There’s a parking lot now where the Vet once flourished and the Phillies won the 1980 World Series.
The Phillies have since captured the 2008 World Series at the Bank and as a new NL park in those days, was certainly in line for another All-Star Game. The Phillies staged the NHL’s 2012 Winter Classic there between the Flyers and Rangers and the late club president Dave Montgomery confided he had asked MLB to delay their All-Star Game bid until 2026 to coincide with the bicentennial-and-a-half.
Montgomery then unexpectedly underwent a five-year battle with jaw cancer and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced on April 16, 2019, the Phillies would host the 2026 game. Montgomery passed away less than a month later, on May 12, 2019, at the age of 72.
This is Montgomery’s game and it’s a sweet accoutrement that Trout could be there along with perhaps the Phillies’ Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and starting pitcher Christopher Sanchez, who is 8-3 with a 1.82 ERA and 116 strikeouts. Closer Jhoan Duran has 19 saves and a 1.90 ERA.
Don Mattingly, the Phils’ latest manager, has been named to the coaching staff by NL manager Dave Roberts, who succeeded Mattingly as manager of the Dodgers.
Schwarber was second in NL voting at designated hitter behind the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani. Harper is third at first base behind L.A.’s Freddie Freeman and Atlanta’s Matt Olson.
No matter, Schwarber leads MLB with 25 homers and was the All-Star Game MVP last year in Atlanta. Harper has 15 homers and 40 RBIs. Both should be selected to the team by a player vote if they’re not picked by the fans.
Pitchers are not part of the fan vote. Most are selected by the players and others by MLB officials.
Trout is an 11-time All-Star, six as a starter. He won an All-Star Game MVP in 2014 and AL MVPs in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019 during his salad days and before injuries started to derail his once flourishing career.
“Sure, I’d like to be there in Philly,” Trout said. “Anytime you can be there with some family and friends and being close to home it’s good, especially living on the west coast and you’re gone most of the year.”
Trout’s Recent Seasons Have Been Marred By Injuries
He missed 126 games in 2021 with a right calf strain; 43 in 2022 with back inflammation; 80 in 2023 after surgery to repair a fractured hamate bone in his left hand, and 133 in 2024 after he tore the meniscus in his left knee twice and underwent surgery. And that doesn’t count the 60-game, 2020 COVID-shortened season when he played in 53 games.
Last year Trout began his comeback by playing in 130 games, 22 of them in right field and the rest at DH. The move to right was to take pressure off his knees, but that didn’t work, he said. This year it’s been back to center field where it looks like he hasn’t missed a step. He’s played 66 games this season in center and has only been the DH 11 times.
“The last few years have been tough,” Trout said. “I’ve had great support at home from my family. It’s definitely been a grind. It’s not only great to come in every day and hit, but to play the outfield. I put in a lot of time during the offseason getting into a good routine. We have a good routine right now.
“I wouldn’t say right field was worse on me knees, but you have to be comfortable. It was different with spin on the ball and playing the line. The adjustment was tough on me.”
The rap on Trout, of course, is that he’s not a winner. He’s played in 1,725 games – all for the Angels – in his career and only three in the playoffs, none of them victories. He played six seasons with Ohtani from 2018 to 2023 and never made the postseason. In his defense, both of them were regularly hurt and often at the same time.
That would seem to be one of the greatest lost opportunities for a franchise in baseball history. But it’s behind him now. Trout has four more seasons to play through 2030 on his 14-year, $424.6 million contract at $35.5 million a year for luxury tax purposes.
The Angels haven’t had a .500 season since 2015 and haven’t made the playoffs since 2014. They are 30-45, last in the AL West right now. More of the same.
Trout, as a five-and-10-year player – 10 in the Majors and five with the same team – has blanket rights to approve any trade. He’s not going anywhere.
Asked if he’s talked to owner Arte Moreno about rebuilding a winning team, he isn’t saying.
“I’m going to keep those conversations in house,” Trout said.
But you do talk to him?
“Yeah, I talk to him,” Trout said.
Here’s the current reality for Trout: All-Star Game, yes. Playoffs, no.