ANAHEIM, Calif. — A sly but confident grin grew on Mike Trout’s face. This was Feb. 18, the start of spring training. And just days prior, MLB Network had ranked the superstar as the game’s 39th best player.
For nearly a decade, Trout was viewed as baseball’s premier talent. A perfect combination of speed, power, batting average and defense. Speaking ill of Mike Trout’s flawless game was impossible.
Yet, here was this ranking. Perhaps it was arbitrary and meaningless preseason content, published for the purpose of generating conversations like these. Still, it was something many hadn’t seen before: an on-record declaration of Trout’s drop-off.
He’d been waiting on a question about it, and when it came, he responded like a man who felt he knew better than any prognostication.
“That’s their ranking,” Trout said at the time. “I know where I stand.”
Seven months later, with just weeks left remaining in another lost Los Angeles Angels season, the 34-year-old hasn’t dispelled that preseason criticism.
Against the backdrop of his elongated chase for 400 home runs, Trout is worth just 1.2 WAR, good for 11th-most on the 69-77 Angels. He’s striking out 30.8 percent of the time, far worse than his career average of 23.2 percent.
His current 122-plate appearance, 28-game stretch is the longest of his big-league career without a homer, leaving him stuck at 398 career long balls. A once exciting milestone chase has transitioned into an uncomfortable wait.
“It was on my mind for maybe a week,” Trout said. “Then it was more just trying to get back to myself.”
Mike Trout still gets on base at a high clip, but he hasn’t hit hit a home run in over a month. (Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
Mike Trout has been Mike Trout in name only this season. A good player, but nowhere near great. Getting back to himself, his old self, has appeared less and less likely, even though he believes it can happen.
Trout is owed around $190 million by the Angels through 2030, and there is concern within the organization about further offensive decline.
“I’ve got (five) more years on the contract,” he said. “That’s what fuels me. I feel like I’ve got a lot left in my tank. And I know when it’s right, I can be the best.”
Trout’s ability to hit pitches out of the zone has fallen dramatically; he is making contact on just 44.3 percent of those swings, compared to 58.8 percent for his career. Pitchers have always attacked Trout up in the zone, but now they are seeing him whiff there at a much higher rate. Since July 18, Trout has K’d 37.1 percent of the time.
He’s been a little better of late, going 6-for-23 with five walks in his last five games, including a go-ahead sacrifice fly in Wednesday’s 4-3 win. His 16.6 percent walk rate this season puts him in the 2nd percentile of all hitters; patience, not power, has been his primary offensive weapon this season. He also hasn’t played defense since April, due to lingering soreness after tweaking his surgically repaired left meniscus.
Trout insists he can be an MVP-caliber threat. “No doubt,” he said. “I know how I am, I know how I think. And I know how I prepare.”
But his struggles and injuries have also presented important long-term questions. Should he be moved down in the order? Should he play the field? Navigating what he’s earned previously, compared to what he’s doing presently, won’t be easy.
“He’s still very productive, but it’s not MVP Mike from 10 years ago,” said Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery, who has long sung Trout’s praises and expressed belief in his three-time MVP. “But if you ask anybody, or watch anybody as they progress in their career — if you hold them to the standards of their best years — I think you’re gonna get that drop-off.”
The Angels have approached Trout about making swing changes surrounding his leg kick and hip placement, and while he has been open to them, he’s yet to actually implement those changes.
He’s described his mechanical issue as his back side collapsing. This, Trout said, causes his head to move back, which makes pitch recognition more difficult, and creates an “uphill” swing. Hence, copious strikeouts and a lack of hard contact.
It’s a problem he’s dealt with for years, he said, and acknowledged “I don’t know” when asked if it’s a product of aging.
“We look at video every day, work on things in the cage, do different drills,” Trout said. “This year, you had a couple stretches where it was like ‘OK, starting to feel the same,’ then I just lost it. Lost it. Then you sit in the cage and try to get it back.”
This season marked the first time Trout wasn’t picked as an All-Star. In 2011, he wasn’t called up until July. And in 2020, there was no game. Even amid injuries, fans have always voted him into the game. Until this year.
He was Captain America for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic in 2023, but has not yet been announced as a participant for 2026. Trout said he wants to see where he’s at physically. Manager Mark DeRosa did not respond to a text asking if Trout would be on the team.
If and when he does get the nod, however, it’s hard to imagine he’d play over other top American stars.
“It does,” Trout said, when asked if it frustrated him to not be an All-Star. “It adds fuel to the fire. I love playing this game. It’s a grind sometimes. But for me, it’s just always fighting to get out of it.”
When Trout lined a long three-run homer on Aug. 6, it gave everyone a reason to get excited about him again, even in a lost year.
Because when it comes to Trout, everyone wants to see him do well. That home run provided a reason to tune into every one of his at-bats. To root for him, and let the kid feel young again. The team sent its videographer, photographer and social media staffers on the road to capture the moment.
Now, more than a month later, the excitement has simmered. Hope that he will hit 400 imminently has turned to anxiety that this will drag into 2026.
For a long time, Trout was inevitable. Even against the backdrop of a failing team, he could always be relied upon. But the finality of his milestone chase, much like his success as a whole, is no longer a given.
Trout believes he can be the best. But for a while now, he simply hasn’t been.
“It’s been a frustrating year for me, mentally and physically,” Trout said. “But I feel like I can get back to myself. I’ve got the fire in me to work hard this offseason to get back.”
(Top photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images)
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