Alejandro Avila
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Baseball is better when Mike Trout plays. Unfortunately, that won’t be the case… assumedly, for several months.
MLB suffered a huge blow on the Fourth of July after Los Angeles Angeles received an official diagnosis on slugger Mike Trout.
The 31-year-old slugger left Monday’s game against the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park in the eighth inning.
Trout is headed to the 10-day IL after fracturing the hamate bone in the left hand, a significant injury that hampers a batter. Surgery is typically required for the broken wrist injury, with an estimated two-month recovery timeline.
It’s the type of injury where you expect the worst and hope the Angels can secure a playoff berth to watch Trout play again this season (though it’s unlikely at this point).
WATCH:
After the pitch from Friars reliever Nick Martinez, Trout signaled for Angels trainers and manager Phil Nevin — appearing in deep discomfort and eventually exiting the game.
RELATED: MIKE TROUT LEAVES GAME WITH WRIST INJURY, AWAITS TEST RESULTS: ‘IT DOESN’T FEEL GREAT’
Trout was selected for his 11th All-Star Game this week. Through 80 games, Trout maintained a slash line of 260/.365/.493 (134 OPS+), adding 18 home runs, 43 RBI, two stolen bases and a 2.9 WAR.
The Angels may be known as a bottom-of-the-barrel franchise, not having made the playoffs since 2014. Still, the Halos showed a bit of a resurgence this season under the leadership of guys like Trout and international star Shohei Ohtani.
The boys in Anaheim stayed afloat in the highly competitive AL West, halfway through the season — positioned in third place, just six games behind the 50-35 Texas Rangers.
Phil Nevin and company will have to fare without their star slugger.
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Awful to see it happen, awful. Yes, baseball is better when he plays. Good dude, excellent player.
That said, surely it has to matter in our evaluation of him as a player that in TWELVE seasons as a major league regular, mostly with a top ten payroll and championship manager [Scioscia] or with an even more brilliant teammate [Ohtani] he has reached the postseason only once and has ZERO postseason victories.
Just, please, quit saying he’s hands down the best. We wouldn’t let a player in any other major sport get away with that much shortcoming and reach that conclusion.