Mike Trout was looking like an MVP again this season, but that campaign is now on hold indefinitely.
The Los Angeles Angels star has a torn meniscus in his knee that will require surgery, according to The Athletic’s Sam Blum. It’s unclear how much time Trout needs to miss, but the injury is reportedly not expected to be season-ending.
Trout subsequently spoke with the media, fighting back tears and calling the situation “frustrating.” He said he wasn’t quite sure when he sustained the injury but recalled an awkward moment while running off the field:
“It’s crazy because I look back, and I don’t even know when I did it. Third inning, after the inning was over, I was running into the dugout, and I felt a little ache in my knee. Not a serious ache. I was like, ‘Oh, that was weird.’
“Didn’t think anything of it. I was hitting and running, didn’t feel nothing. Scored from second, nothing. Then it was just after when I did activity, I sat down, and I got back up. That’s when I started feeling it.”
Even if Trout comes back this season, the development is a massive blow for both him and the Angels. The three-time MVP is currently tied for the MLB lead in homers with 10 while hitting .220/.325/.541 for a team that entered Tuesday in fourth in the AL West at 11-18.
The team was already missing its other highly paid All-Star, Anthony Rendon, who will be out a significant amount of time due to a hamstring strain.
Trout performing well and then missing a significant amount of time is sadly nothing new. He has hit a robust .276/.376/.575 while on the field since 2020 — but in only 266 of a possible 515 games. He missed the final four months of 2021 due to a calf strain, missed more than a month of 2022 due to a back issue and sat out half of 2023 due to a hand fracture.
Now, the issue is his knee, and there’s no telling when he will return.
This injury might feel different because the Angels don’t have Shohei Ohtani as their other superstar. It was already hard to say where the team should go after losing the most famous player in the sport to the Los Angeles Dodgers, but losing Trout too leaves them with little hope to come anywhere close to the playoffs.
With the team’s farm system ranked by MLB Pipeline as dead last in the league, it’s not like the future around Trout is bright, either. On a related note, the team still owes Trout $223 million after this season, as well as $77 million to Rendon.
