Mike Trout hasn’t played since July 12 due to back spasms, and that absence morphed into a stint on the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his left ribcage. The Angels placed the superstar on the IL on July 18, but head trainer Mike Frostad told reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group) that Trout will miss more than the minimum 10 days. Trout received a cortisone shot in his back “a few days ago.”
It isn’t yet known when Trout could return, and any sort of lingering problem is obviously bad news for the Angels and their fans — especially after last season, when Trout played in only 36 games due to a seemingly minor calf injury that simply never healed. Trout returned in 2022 to deliver another outstanding set of numbers, though it isn’t helped an Angels team that has fallen apart after an impressive first five weeks of play.
More injury updates from around baseball…
- Julio Rodriguez has missed both of the Mariners’ games in the second half, as the rookie star is day-to-day with left wrist soreness. Rodriguez first suffered the injury while sliding during a stolen-base attempt last Sunday, and he told reporters (including MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer and other reporters) that he felt more soreness after participating in the Home Run Derby on during Monday’s All-Star week festivities. However, the injury is “feeling better already,” and Rodriguez doesn’t think he’ll miss much time. Rodriguez has exploded onto the scene in his first season, hitting .275/.337/.477 with 15 homers and 21 steals over his first 380 plate appearances in the majors.
- Byron Buxton will miss the Twins’ weekend series in Detroit, as the outfielder received a PRP injection in his right knee on Wednesday. (Megan Ryan of The Minneapolis Star Tribune was among those to report the news.) Buxton has been plagued by tendinitis in his right knee for much of the season, though he opted to play in the All-Star Game for the first time rather than sit out the entire break. Since Minnesota has off-days sandwiched around this two-game series against the Tigers, Buxton will receive five days off anyway, and the hope is that he’ll be ready to play when the Twins face the Brewers on Tuesday.
- In other Twins injury news, Minnesota placed left-hander Caleb Thielbar on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to July 19) due to a left hamstring strain. Right-hander Yennier Cano was called up to take Thielbar’s spot on the active roster. Thielbar has a rather misleading 4.84 ERA over 35 1/3 relief innings this season, as he has outstanding hard-contact and strikeout numbers, plus only a 3.00 SIERA.
- Max Meyer made only 10 pitches before exiting tonight’s game due to what the Marlins described as right elbow discomfort. The ominous diagnosis comes on the heels of some ulnar nerve irritation that sidelined Meyer while he was pitching in the minors earlier this season. One of baseball’s top pitching prospects, Meyer was making his second career start after allowing five runs over 5 1/3 frames in his July 16 debut.
TROUT
Back Spasms?
I guess that’s what happens when someone carries a franchise on their back for a decade
Damn. Drop the Mic on that one, Ghost of Jim
Omg that is hilarious lol
So you had a sore wrist….
…and decided participating in a pointless hr derby, where you hit about 100 homers, would be good for that wrist?
Makes perfect sense.
The HR derby is indeed pointless. It’s just batting practice. I find it boring , tells me nothing about talent.
Except batting practice is not pointless. It’s how hitters stay sharp on a daily basis.
Some people like it, you may not. Doesn’t make it pointless.
flew – HR Derby is not batting practice.
In batting practice you work on your swing and try to drive the ball as hard as you can, and to certain locations, with both line drives and fly balls. It’s usually not until the very end of BP that players try to hit homeruns.
HR Derby is all about elevating the ball to get it over the wall. You have to adjust your swing for HR Derby, which often results in messing up the player’s swing for a few days or weeks after. For instance that’s what happened to Adrian Gonzalez. it’s why so many players have declined participating in the past, and why MLB began awarding cash prizes.
I personally enjoy the home run derby, even more than the all-star game. I’m not watching it to evaluate talent, I’m there to watch dudes swing for the fences.
I mean, he made more money for finishing second in the HRD than his rookie salary this year. Sounds like a good reason to me.
Not to mention, most fans that don’t watch Seattle baseball games now know who he is. That HRD was a star maker for Rodriguez. Although I hated that he didn’t wear his cap when hitting.
I think that home run derby was one of the most fun ones I’ve watched in a long time. Something about Pujols going out with a bang and Julio having some insane rounds was just really satisfying to me.
He had fun and entertained people. That’s his job.
Except he made more money in the home run derby than he is making in a 162 games this year…
max Meyer to have tommy John?
Such a shame to hear about a UCL injury to one of the more promising rookie pitchers in baseball. Hopefully it’s just nerve irritation and not a torn UCL that requires TJ surgery. I loved Max Meyer coming out of Minnesota and thought he had the arm to take the league by storm once he was ready. Now he might have to wait until 2024 to do that…bummer.
There are so few reasons to watch the Angels and there a fewer and fewer everyday.
Trout signing the extension with the Angels made so little sense at the time and makes less sense by the day. What a waste of a career.
Ohtani is another waste. Not sure while trading both is not an option. They get 2 hauls and can really reload.
I doubt that they are getting a haul for Trout.
Typical Angels. Ohtani had a blister a few years ago that ended up needing Tommy John surgery.
It doesn’t look good for Max Meyer at this point. I hope it’s not TJ he’s gonna need. Marlins can’t catch a break! FFS
This is a primary example of why ownerships and FO’s are waking up to the fact that excessive long-term contracts – no matter if the man is named Trout or Soto – is to be avoided.
The Astros had it right with 26 year-old Carlos Correa – 5 years max. The Twins bit, got a very nice player for $35m (possibly $105m) that’s already missed 25% of their games this year due to injuries.
It will be worthwhile if they flip him for some cheaper talent.
yeah because an injury prone, expensive SS is going to bring back a haul…
Agreed, Samuel. The Scherzer contract working out so well was a complete outlier. Astros won’t give huge deals regardless of whether the player is Correa or not. The Braves GM also refuses to go for the 7-10 year mega-deals. Look where both teams were last year…
guilderc;
You mentioned what may well be the 2 best organizations in MLB (with the Orioles on the cum). Great scouting. Great coaching.
However, the Braves did give Matt Olsen 8 years. Then again, the highest yearly salary amount (and in most years) is $22m, so we’re not talking $30-35-40-45m a year here. Maybe we can agree that you are correct and that was not a “mega deal”.
Nevertheless, I do believe that going over 5 years for big money with a player over 25 years-old is a large risk. We’ve seen too many potential WS contenders that can’t spend to offset a weakness because they have a player(s) on a long term contract(s) that are not producing anywhere near the salary they’re being paid for whatever reason.
What the Rays have taught us is that getting even 2-3 years of production by spotting a moderately compensated decent player is far better than handing out large long-term contracts to big name players and having to live with their bad seasons. I used to hear a baseball analyst maybe 40 years ago point out that other than what he called: ‘Premier Players’ i.e. Scherzer, Verlander, Pedro Martinez, Derek Jeter, etc. were going to have bad seasons mixed in with good ones for whatever reasons. Even 2 guys that come to mind: Ichiro Suzuki and Miguel Cabrera were pictures of elite consistency until they weren’t, but they were still being paid like it for years and it limited what their teams FO could do.
What the Astros and Braves have been doing is consistently replenishing their ML roster with a few impact players from their farm systems each year that produce at a reasonable cost; allowing them to lop off the highly paid older veterans and move the other players up a notch in taking on more responsibility. Sustainable contention is the blueprint – than it’s up to the players on the field.
Samuel – You should provide more details in your posts…
Except the Braves did with Olson and Acuna.
Buxton playing in the all star game and sitting actual games… and twins fans are celebrating it on their subreddit. that he deserves the honor and the rest is good for their season.
What a unique fanbase.
Trout just needs to get out of center field and he will be fine.
Good, the Angels went down one spot in the rankings. It is a lost season and might as well get a top 5 pick in 2023!
Next year there is a draft lottery so the worst team isn’t guaranteed the #1 pick anymore. Does anyone know where the # of teams eligible for the lottery ended up in the CBA? I know the players were asking for the bottom 8 teams to be in the lottery while the owners only wanted 3 teams. Where did they end up?
Worst 6 teams will be in the lottery
Whoa, I just looked it up and all 18 non-playoff teams are eligible (via lottery) for the first 6 picks in the draft! Then starting with pick 7 forward it goes by record (remaining team with the worst record gets the 7th pick, etc).
The lottery is weighted so the worst three teams have the best (and equal) odds of getting the first overall pick and then the odds start decreasing from there, but I was surprised to see that all non-playoff teams have a chance to get one of the Top 6 picks in the draft regardless of record. That’s actually pretty cool. It takes purposeful tanking out of the picture.
athleticsnation.com/platform/amp/2022/6/23/2318087…
TK!
Trout probably suffering from stress.
“Rodriguez first suffered the injury while sliding during a stolen-base attempt last Sunday, and he told reporters (including MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer and other reporters) that he felt more soreness after participating in the Home Run Derby on during Monday’s All-Star week festivities.”
In a comment posted before the Derby, I mentioned how a Baseball Prospectus article claiming to debunk the “myth” that the Derby harmed some participants was critically flawed because (incredibly) the authors failed to account for the number of swings taken in each round.
With that in mind, I naturally thought, after J-Rod’s 32 home runs in the first round, he was a likely candidate for a power outage in the second half. Now I find out he did it with a barking wrist? And the M’s let him participate? Or did he not tell them he was hurt?
Putting that show on a clock is what hurts participants. I’ll be surprised if J-Rod’s power doesn’t suffer for at least a month, as Judge’s did when he won it in 2017. I hope the damage isn’t worse.
Trout gets a pass but when you see someone always hurt especially at this stage in his career.. so early after being so good does thought of using steroids then stop using them ever come up? Monster years then signs a huge contract then always hurt for one reason or another and always slow to rebound.. not accusing but wondering.. Griffey always got a pass but his career was derailed too because of constant injuries
Not accusing, just inferring…
“just wondering” is a soft accusation
the red flag for Trout should have been when he stopped stealing bases at age 26…
He stole 24 when he was 26. He stole 11 the following year, but he also hit 45 home runs and won the MVP Award.
It’s the general decline of his skills, and the drop in SB- especially at age 26/27- was a big indicator. And 11 SB is meaningless- a negligible number (and now he’s averaging 1-2 SB per year and the pitchers can basically completely ignore him when he’s on base). His prime ended with the 2019 season (arguably the 2018 season, since 2018 was the last year he was a complete player).
ken griffey jr was a steroid user. A trainer for the Mariners said that Dan Wilson was the only player in the clubhouse who wasn’t using. And it fits in perfectly with griffey’s terrible personality, sense of entitlement, physical changes, etc.
Ah, the Mute Button justifies its existence once again!
“Ah, the Mute Button justifies its existence once again!”
Right, because you can’t handle the fact that the closet-case sense of entitlement jerk ken griffey jr used steroids.
If the prp and a few extra days keeps Buck playing CF it’s all worth it. I like Gordon and Celestine but there’s nothing like Buck out there
Mike Trout could soon become the greatest loser the game has ever seen. He’s right there with Griffey, Bonds, and Banks.
Kevin28786 could soon become the worst poster MLBTR has ever seen. He’s right there with MetsFan22.
you heard it here first….trout out for the season