Angels’ Mike Trout to miss rest of season with another tear in his knee

ANAHEIM — Mike Trout added another crushing development to a career that has gone tragically off the rails in recent years.

The Angels’ embattled star now has a second tear in his left meniscus, leading to another knee surgery that will cost him the rest of the season, the team announced on Thursday.

“He’s devastated,” General Manager Perry Minasian said when revealing the news. “I was too, to be honest with you. I’m not the emotional type but being in the room and hearing the news with him was tough. Nobody wants to play more. Nobody cares about this building, this fan base, this team more than he does.”

Trout did not speak to reporters, but he released a statement on social media.

“Playing and competing is a huge part of my life,” he wrote. “This is equally as heartbreaking and frustrating for me as it is for you, the fans. I understand that I may have disappointed many, but believe me, I will do everything I can to come back stronger.”

Trout’s teammates and others around him said he’s been distraught in the past couple of days over the development.

“He’s as pissed off as anybody and rightfully so,” catcher Logan O’Hoppe said. “This guy can’t catch a break and he takes care of his body. It’s not like he gets hurt and then doesn’t do things the right way behind the scenes. He does everything in his power to prevent that. I think that’s the most frustrating part for him. And I know if if I were in those shoes, like I was last year (after suffering a shoulder injury), that was the most frustrating part for sure.”

Minasian was optimistic about Trout returning strong in 2025, going so far as to predict that he’d win his fourth American League MVP award.

He said the Angels will go into the winter planning on Trout having a prominent spot in the 2025 lineup, although he said it’s too early to say if the longtime center fielder will need to move to a corner outfield spot or even DH.

“We’ll get to that further down the line,” Minasian said. “I’m not ready to answer that.”

He also said they would have “contingencies” for Trout’s absence, just as they do for all players.

Trout, who turns 33 in a week, has missed significant time each of the past four seasons. He suffered a strained calf that cost him more than four months in 2021. He had a back injury that kept him out for about five weeks in 2022. Last season, he missed the final three months after suffering a broken hamate bone. This year, he will miss five months with the two tears to his knee.

In all cases except for the back injury, he was out for longer than anticipated.

This injury came with an expected timeline of one to two months, and Trout was heading toward a return just under three months after surgery. He got as far as playing a game at Triple-A Salt Lake last week.

Trout played two innings, but then came out because he said he felt something in his knee. He returned to Southern California and underwent an MRI exam on Thursday. Trout said it showed just inflammation and scar tissue, and he would be running again “any day.”

He did not resume running over the weekend. On Monday night, he called Minasian from home and told him that the pain was suddenly worse than it had been.

Trout had another MRI on Wednesday, and the second tear was revealed.

There’s no indication that Trout did any type of baseball workouts between the two MRIs, so it’s unclear what happened.

“There’s no event,” Minasian said. “This is not somebody that was out playing one-on-one basketball. This guy is committed to getting back. I know everybody is ‘What happened? Why?’ I get it. I have the same questions.

“That being said, things happen. And sometimes that’s the answer. Unfortunate things happen. And there doesn’t have to be some outrageous event to explain it.”

All of it casts a shadow over a career that is still going to land Trout in the Hall of Fame, but now with a significant asterisk because of what could have been.

Trout has six years left on his 12-year, $426 million contract, which Minasian said is plenty of time for him to change the narrative, starting next year.

“He’s gonna come back next year, win the MVP, hit 70 home runs,” Minasian said. “Book it.”

Minasian later doubled down on that lofty prediction: “That’s not a joke. I believe It. I think he’s gonna come back with a vengeance. I think he’s gonna be as good as he’s ever been.”

One of the reasons for his belief is that the Angels spent some time during this injury analyzing his swing in recent years, and just in the last week they presented Trout with some ideas on how he could get better.

“There were some adjustments he was really excited about making,” Minasian said. “He’s going to be in the middle of the lineup. He’s going to carry this club, like he’s done in the past.”

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NOTES

Infielder Luis Rengifo was feeling better a day after coming out of the game because of aggravating the left wrist injury that landed him on the injured list earlier in the month. Manager Ron Washington said Rengifo wanted to play on Thursday night, but he gave him another day off anyway. “Sometimes you’ve got to protect the player,” Washington said. …

The Angels signed 18th-round draft pick David Mershon, a shortstop from Mississippi State, for $405,000, just before the Thursday deadline. The Angels ended up signing 19 of their 21 draft picks. Mershon was a draft-eligible sophomore, so he had some leverage to return to school. The Angels were able to get him signed with the money they had left over after third-round pick Ryan Prager decided to return to Texas A&M. Minasian said getting Mershon “somewhat makes up for” losing Prager. The Angels will receive a compensation pick at the end of the third round of next year’s draft in exchange for failing to sign Prager. …

O’Hoppe was named the Angels’ nominee for the MLB Players Alumni Association’s Heart and Hustle Award, which goes to a player who “demonstrates a passion for the game of baseball and best embodies the values, spirit and traditions of the game.” Next month fans will have a chance to pick among the 30 team nominees to select an overall winner.

UP NEXT

Mets (RHP Paul Blackburn, 4-2, 4.41 ERA) at Angels (LHP Tyler Anderson, 8-9, 2.96 ERA), Friday, 6:38 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM