Mike Trout suffered a left knee bone bruise in the Los Angeles Angels' loss to the Seattle Mariners on April 30. He hit the 15-day IL a day later. Since then, L.A. is 4-5 and struggling to stay afloat in the AL West. While the Angels may benefit from a weak division, this team once again feels outmatched across the board on most nights.
Now 16-22 on the season, Ron Washington's seat is getting awfully warm in just his second season at the helm. We can hardly blame him for the god awful front office in Anaheim, much less Trout's notoriously bad injury luck, but he's the easy scapegoat for another disappointing season.
Thankfully for Washington (and Angels fans everywhere), Trout is trending toward an imminent return. He provided an extremely positive update to reporters on Sunday.
"I feel good,” Trout told MLB.com. “It’s been a very positive last few days. I’m not running, but I’ve been swinging the last three days. I’m up to 40 swings with no pain. Off the tee and flips in the cage. But the biggest thing will be running."
He won't be back today, when he is first eligible to leave the IL, but Trout is expected to ramp up his running progression during the Angels' forthcoming three-game road trip in San Diego.
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Mike Trout's imminent return could be what Ron Washington needs to save his job
It has been a mixed-bag season for Trout, who appeared in all 29 games for the Angels prior to the injury. Moved to right field in an act of preservation, the 33-year-old has been a subpar defender and okay at the plate. He's only hitting .179 with a .727 OPS, well below his career averages, but Trout also hammered nine home runs and picked up 18 RBI, a reminder of his impressive ability to slug.
Even as he transitions into this post-superstardom phase of his career, Trout remains far and away the Angels' best player. He is their only real hope of respectability, not to mention a path to the playoffs. Give him a long enough runway, and the average is bound to tick back up. His expected batting average (.248), while not great, signals a certain element of bad luck behind his muted early-season production.
Trout has remained steadfast in his commitment to Anaheim, through thick and thin, in a way we rarely see from sports stars in the modern era. The Angels steadfastly to reward him with a serious approach in the front office, but Trout deserves so much better — not only from the organization, but from the baseball gods. Once the consensus best player in the sport, Trout has seen his historic career derailed by injury upon injury. The man deserves a semi-healthy season at this point.
If the Angels can get Trout back quickly, the season is not entirely lost. Nor is Washington's job security. For all the struggles L.A. has endured over the past couple years, we know Washington is a knowledgable presence with a special touch on the positional front.
Here's to hoping we get a healthy, full-bore Mike Trout for the remainder of the 2025 campaign.