Shohei Ohtani’s UCL tear wasn’t the only bit of bad injury news the Los Angeles Angels received late Wednesday night: Star center-fielder Mike Trout, who just returned from a seven-week absence on Tuesday, will be shut down again due to his wrist injury after missing both games of Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds.
Shohei Ohtani had imaging done and there is a tear in his UCL. Mike Trout is also going back on the IL
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) August 24, 2023
Trout first landed on the IL back in early July after fracturing the hamate bone in his left wrist. After undergoing a minor procedure to help with recovery, he was initially given a timeline of 4-8 weeks for a return. Trout wound up missing nearly seven, making his return to the Angels’ lineup — without so much as a a rehab assignment — on Tuesday night. It was clear that he was far from 100%, though: Even before being activated, the outfielder admitted to the media that he was still feeling considerable pain in the wrist.
“I know that it’s just a pain tolerance thing,” Trout told reporters last week. “Once it gets to a point where it’s bearable, I’ll be out there.”
That lingering soreness caused him to miss both games on Wednesday, and with L.A. now a full 10.5 games back of the Mariners for the third and final AL Wild Card spot — and without Ohtani, at least on the mound, for the rest of the year — it no longer made sense to rush one of their most important players back when he wasn’t right. Minasian shared after the game that Trout would be completely shut down for the next 10 days in hopes of aiding his recovery, and as we near September, it’s not out of the question that the team would decide to end the 32-year-old’s season early.
It would be the second time in three years that Trout’s season has been ended prematurely due to injury, after he missed the majority of the 2021 season with a calf tear. He appeared in just 119 games in 2022, and given those mounting health issues — and his (relative) struggles at the plate this season — it’s fair to wonder whether we’ve officially reached the back-nine of Trout’s remarkable career. Should Trout not appear in another game this year, his .858 OPS would be far and away his worst since his 40-game cameo as a 19-year-old rookie way back in 2011. He still hits the ball as hard as anyone, but his strikeout and walk rates have been trending in the wrong direction for a little while now: After hovering at or below 20%, Trout’s whiff rate has risen to 27.5%, 30.2% and 29.3% in the last three years.
Of course, even a slightly diminished Trout is still a very, very good player — but only if he’s able to stay on the field. The future Hall of Famer is locked up through 2030, but with the Angels seeming likely to lose Ohtani in free agency this winter, what they can expect from Trout is just one of many questions the franchise will be facing after a disastrous attempt to go all-in at this month’s trade deadline.
