After two home runs on Wednesday, Mike Trout has 16 on the season and is posting an OPS of .817 — a number that's actually low compared to the rest of his career. But it's awesome to see Trout be a borderline great hitter while, most importantly, staying healthy after so many years cut short due to injury. That's why, even though the numbers are well down from his staggering peak, this feels like a bounceback as Trout is on pace to hit his most home runs since 2022 and second-most since 2019. Even a 30-home run, .850 OPS Mike Trout who plays 140 games would make baseball fans smile.
Ronald Acuña Jr, meanwhile, doesn't look like he's missed a step. The Braves megastar also blasted two home runs on Wednesday, raising his OPS to well over 1.000 since returning from a torn ACL earlier this year. He was named a National League All-Star starter earlier this week and will look to light up his home ballpark next weekend in Atlanta.
Two of the game's best are back in action and doing what they do best — and sadly, neither one is doing it anywhere close to the limelight.
Trout and Acuña Jr. are both toiling away far from postseason contention
The Angels won on Wednesday thanks in part to Trout's huge night, a nice change of pace from the Tungsten Arm O'Doyle days of the past. Still, the Angels are just 45-47, well behind the Houston Astros in the AL West and not much closer in the AL Wild Card race. No matter if Trout gets all the way back to the MVP form he played at for so long, he is sadly still — unless something drastic changes in Anaheim — not likely to get close to a World Series title.
The Braves, despite a blowout win on Wednesday, are 13 games below .500 and light years away from contention in the NL East, where the Phillies and Mets are fighting for supremacy. A lot of the Braves struggles stem from injuries, but that doesn't make things feel any less bleak for fans, who hoped for a rebound after a Wild Card loss. They're not getting that.
Mike Trout and Ronald Acuña Jr. are at two very different points in their respective careers. But in 2025, neither will be making noise on the league's biggest stage. For Acuña, that could change in future years. For Trout, it might not.