Angels' Star Mike Trout Out Indefinitely With Significant Injury, Will Undergo Surgery

Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout was saying all the right things. On the field, he was doing more things right than he had in years. Tuesday, Trout's apparent renaissance came crashing down in a major way.

Trout will undergo surgery on a torn meniscus in his left knee. The injury is not expected to end his 2024 season, but should still sideline the Angels' best player for some time in what has quickly become a lost season for the beleaguered franchise.

The injury occurred during the Angels' win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday, though even Trout isn't sure when and how it happened.

"It's crazy," he told reporters Tuesday in Anaheim. "I look back, I don't even know when I did it. Third inning, after the inning was over, I was running into the dugout and I felt like a little bit of an ache in my knee — not a serious ache, didn't think anything of it — and was hitting and running, didn't feel nothing. Scoring from second, nothing. It was just like after, when I did activity, sat down, I got back up, that's when I started feeling it. I mentioned something in like the seventh, eighth inning to the guys in there, just to give them a heads up that it was nothing crazy-crazy."

"It's just one of them things, like, my body — I wasn't feeling it hitting, I wasn't feeling it running," Trout said. "It was just sore. I was telling myself, maybe I banged it on something and I didn't realize it. After the game getting treatment, it was really sore. The plan was to see how it felt in the morning. If I woke up and it was sore, get it looked at. That was the plan. Last night was tough for me to sleep. It was aching all night. I texted Frosty (Angels athletic trainer Mike Frostad) first thing: I need to get this looked at."

Trout, 32, began the day Tuesday in a tie with Baltimore Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson for the major league lead in home runs with 10. His six stolen bases equaled his totals from the last four seasons combined.

A three-time American League MVP and 11-time All-Star, Trout was the bright spot in what was fast becoming a dark season for the Angels. Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of his season was health: After missing significant time each of the last three seasons with discrete injuries, Trout had appeared in all of the Angels' first 29 games to begin the season.

"I still go out there, I don't try to look at other things off the field — maybe sometimes in the offseason it pops up — but I still come to the ballpark like a little kid, like in going to a Little League game," Trout said in a recent interview. "I still enjoy playing this game."

The Angels were still just 11-18 overall, settling into a familiar fourth place in the American League West before the calendar turned to May. Prior to beating the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday, the Angels had lost nine of their previous 10 games.

Now, they will attempt to forge ahead without Trout, who manager Ron Washington moved up in the batting order following an injury to third baseman Anthony Rendon. Trout hit a home run in each of his first two games after moving into the leadoff spot April 23.

Even as Trout transitioned into the twilight of his career, his hot start to a new season offered hope he could stay productive so long as he was healthy. Both proved challenging last year, when Trout had a .263 batting average, .367 on-base percentage and .490 slugging percentage — each career lows — in a mere 82 games. A fracture to his left hamate effectively ended Trout's season in July; he played just one game afterward.

The Angels signed Trout to a 12-year, $426.5 million contract extension in March 2019, making him the highest paid player in baseball at the time. He's set to earn $35.45 million each year through 2030.

A surefire Hall of Famer, Trout has a career .299 batting average, 378 home runs, and 954 RBIs in a 14-year career — all with the Angels.