A back injury in 2022 cost him 30 games, and a fractured hamate bone in 2023 forced him to miss all but one of the Angels’ final 75 games. In nearly all of those cases, Trout’s rehab process lasted longer than initially expected. By the time he was entering the final year of his extension, Trout had already amassed Hall of Fame numbers. But the Angels weren’t seen as an up-and-coming team anymore, coming off of three sub-.500 seasons in which they finished 20-plus games out of the AL West lead — not to mention the July 2019 overdose death of Skaggs, which implicated a team staffer and cast a pall over the organization. Trout won a Silver Slugger for his offensive prowess and a Fielding Bible Award for exceptional center-field defense. His 10.5 WAR season was so good — only Aaron Judge (10.8 in 2022 and 2024) and Mookie Betts (10.7 in 2018) have produced better campaigns since — that it sparked serious debate in the MVP race.
Regular Season
Griffey, though, won a playoff series at 25 (the 1995 ALDS over the Yankees) and appeared in two more. Plus, he played with flair and charisma — who can forget the iconic backward hat? At the peak of his popularity, Trout was notorious for turning down marketing opportunities. Mike Trout appeared in 3 postseason games.In those games, they recorded a batting average of 0.083, OBP of 0.267,SLG of 0.333, and OPS of 0.600.They also tallied 1 HR, 1 H, 1 RBI, and 0 SB.
Mike Trout’s solo home run (
Ohtani, who was brought in to pitch the game’s final frame after going 1 for 3 as Japan’s designated hitter, struck him out swinging to win the tournament. They finally got one, and Trout promptly pulled off a highway exit — and into a hotel parking lot in Irvine, where he popped the question. Afterward, he drove to the event, smiled and took photos with the kids as if nothing had happened.
Mike Trout Year-by-Year Stat Trends
Each spring for at least the past three years, Trout vows to get back to his old form. He says his doubters — like MLB Network, which ranked him 39th in the league last year — serve as motivation. The question of how to keep Trout healthy looms large in Angels camp and eventually becomes a national storyline, one that this year began with him moving from center field to right field to reduce wear and tear on his legs. But Griffey, Barry Bonds, Ted Williams and others all at least won a playoff game.
MID Most Valuable Player
In summer 2016, Trout planned to propose to his longtime girlfriend, Jessica Cox, via skywriting. A plane would write the message in the air — “Will you marry me, Jess? However, Trout got the forecast wrong, and the planes had to be called off and rescheduled for a break in the weather. For years, the hashtag #FreeMikeTrout has popped up during baseball season. Since signing that mega-deal, Trout has had five managers, including interim managers (the Angels hired a sixth, Kurt Suzuki, last month).
Trout is a generational talent, a player who should have been plastered on Times Square billboards and cereal boxes. It’s the third weekend in January 2013, and it’s unseasonably warm in New York, with temperatures climbing afrodite casino into the low 50s.
He cared about who was coming up around him and the foundation of the organization, even as it shifted around him. The pair did enjoy one blockbuster moment together, but it came in March 2023, when Trout’s Team USA faced off against Ohtani’s Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic final. In front of 6.5 million viewers, Trout came to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Team USA trailing 3-2.
- The front office has also turned over, with four general managers since Trout was drafted.
- Trout won a Silver Slugger for his offensive prowess and a Fielding Bible Award for exceptional center-field defense.
- Some in the game openly wondered why, especially when it seemed to be based on little more than blind faith.
- Griffey, though, won a playoff series at 25 (the 1995 ALDS over the Yankees) and appeared in two more.
- Trout played on Angels teams that were generally out of contention and off the national radar, while the Dodgers dominated the local market.
- First player in franchise history to lead the team in runs scored four consecutive seasons.
- But Trout, a unanimous selection from the Los Angeles Angels, was otherworldly; fitting for a player nicknamed the “Millville Meteor,” a nod to Trout’s New Jersey hometown, by a fan editing his Wikipedia page.
Was the first American League center fielder to accomplish the feat since Curtis Granderson in 2012 and just the fourth (fifth occurrence) to do so since 2000. Reached the century mark in runs scored for the fourth consecutive season… First player in franchise history to lead the team in runs scored four consecutive seasons.
- Jeter was elevated by the Yankees’ mystique and five World Series rings.
- For years, the hashtag #FreeMikeTrout has popped up during baseball season.
- However, Trout got the forecast wrong, and the planes had to be called off and rescheduled for a break in the weather.
- It marked the fourth time in six seasons that Trout had homered on his birthday.
- Players all-time to amass seven seasons of 20+ home runs prior to their age-27 season…
- « Most baseball speedsters are like Ferraris. They’re small, compact and built to go from home to first in the blink of an eye. But watching Trout was like watching a massive Mercedes with a big engine under the hood. He looked like a power hitter, but when you pulled out the stopwatch, you realized he was faster than all those Ferraris. » – Cooper, J.J. Baseball America Staff Writer.
In his prime, the three-time MVP was a baseball god, drawing comparisons to Mickey Mantle. Now 34, Trout is coming off the worst offensive full season of his career, one in which he played in 130 games but faded from the sport’s consciousness. Ahead of his third full MLB season in 2014, the Angels bought out his arbitration years and signed him to a six-year, $144.5 million extension. Trout, who wouldn’t be a free agent until 2020, rewarded the club’s faith in him by winning the AL MVP. Once, during his rookie season, he hit a two-hopper down the line at the old Texas stadium and ran to first base in a blistering 3.82 seconds.
MLB Stats for Mike Trout
On June 12, homered for the 223rd time, passing Brian Downing for sole possession of third in franchise history…Enters 2019 needing 32 home runs to tie Garret Anderson for second. Mike Trout made their MLB debut in 2011 and appeared in 1,518 games over 14 seasons. They posted a batting average of 0.299, OPS of 0.991, hit 378 HRs, and recorded 86.0 WAR. On September 9, Trout underwent a cryoablation procedure to address a neuroma in his right foot.149 On September 15, it was announced that Trout would undergo full-fledged surgery to remove the neuroma, ending his 2019 season.150 He finished the season with a career-high 45 home runs and led the American League in on-base percentage and slugging percentage. When Jeter was coming up, he and everyone wanted to be Ken Griffey, Jr., the most popular player in the game, despite playing in Seattle, a relative baseball backwater.
But another World Series has come and gone, and baseball fans looking for Trout this fall might have been best served to check for him in the stands of his beloved Philadelphia Eagles. Or in a Santa Ana, Calif., courtroom, testifying in the wrongful death lawsuit of former teammate Tyler Skaggs. « Most baseball speedsters are like Ferraris. They’re small, compact and built to go from home to first in the blink of an eye. But watching Trout was like watching a massive Mercedes with a big engine under the hood. He looked like a power hitter, but when you pulled out the stopwatch, you realized he was faster than all those Ferraris. » – Cooper, J.J. Baseball America Staff Writer.
Of the more than a dozen people The Athletic spoke to for this story, not a single one thought Trout would ever ask Moreno to move him, what Trout called “the easy way out” in 2024. A trade seems especially unlikely now, given Trout’s age, injury history, declining performance and a contract that still has roughly $190 million on it. He didn’t play in the field after April because of lingering soreness with a surgically repaired left meniscus, and some in the industry think Trout’s days as a regular DH may be close, if not already here.
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