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buster olney
multiple authors
For four nights last month, mike trout Dueled with aaron judge At Yankee Stadium, trading big swings and long home runs — and after games, exchanging competitive text messages acknowledging what the other had done and how much fun they had sharing the stage.
It was the loudest announcement yet of Trout’s return to the top tier of artists.
“I saw ‘Mike Trout,'” Yankees manager Aaron Boone wrote in a text after watching Trout in the series. “He controlled outside the strike zone and was lethal in his power.”
Los Angeles Angels The outfielder is back to being an elite player, moving more freely after years when his greatness was derailed by injury. Through 34 games, he has 10 homers and an OPS of .983. He leads the American League with 30 runs scored and leads the Major League with 34 walks.
This is a version of Trout that baseball fans haven’t seen in a long time. His former manager Brad Ausmus said that Trout “looks exactly the same as he did when I was with the Angels [in 2019] … A dangerous hitter.”
It may be thanks to some people Changes made to trout at the end of the 2025 season and into winter.
Late last season, when he was working on the Angels’ schedule, he felt some of his mechanical adjustments were starting to work. As he went into the offseason, the Angels talked to him about losing weight, with the theory that it would reduce stress on his body – particularly his legs.
Angels general manager Perry Minasian said, “If you look at all the great players, they get weaker over time.” “Freddie Freeman, David Ortiz, a lot of guys.”
Trout changed his workout schedule, an adjustment that has been implemented into the 2026 regular season. Previously, he would do upper body workouts twice a week, lower body workouts twice a week, and then take Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday off. Instead, he’s working out daily, but occasionally lifting heavy weights instead of lifting heavy weights to activate his physiology — he can do at least eight repetitions of the same exercise and call it a day.
Trout hired a nutritionist and focused on eating less junk food on the couch before bed, and during this time his weight dropped to 230 pounds, about 8 to 10 pounds less than the previous season. She noticed an immediate difference in the condition of her feet and knees at the end of winter. As spring training games began, Trout’s goal was to get back to sprint speed of 30 feet per second – a goal he accomplished a few times.
His adjustment went beyond workouts and also included a mental reframing that began last fall. As the parent of two young children, Trout enjoyed every moment with his children. He’d come back from the ballpark tired, wanting to stay on the couch, but Beckham, who turned 5 last year, would ask him to play Wiffle ball — and Trout would go over to play with his oldest child. Trout has heard friends and family say that their children’s lives go by so quickly that they should enjoy them while they still have the chance.
After completing his 15th big league season last fall, Trout talked about his time in baseball along similar lines. It goes by so quickly – and he needed to enjoy it more. “I’ve decided to slow down this year,” he said.
Reduce speed. With every practice, with every at-bat, every day in the sun, or in the cold. Time with friends. Playing the game he has always loved.
“You never take wearing a major league uniform lightly,” Trout said.
Trout has been wearing his Angels uniform since 2011. His first nine seasons in the big leagues are largely unmatched in history: From 2012 through the COVID-shortened 2020 season, he crushed 297 homers, compiled an OPS of 1.008 and stole 197 bases, generating 73.5 WAR. At age 29, he had more WAR than the career totals of Derek Jeter (71.3), Gary Carter (70.1) and Tony Gwynn (69.2) and several other Hall of Famers.
“Talking to him, he feels healthy and fresh,” Ausmus said of Trout. “I believe being back in center field has helped his mental state.”
Trout believes that has helped, too.
Ahead of the 2025 season, he was moved to right field to help keep him healthy. A variety of injuries — ranging from a shin injury to a torn meniscus in his knee to lower back problems to a broken bone in his left hand — caused him to miss 382 games from 2021 to 2024. But Trout played only 22 games in right field before a left knee injury limited him to DH. He hit only .232 last season, while his OPS dropped below .800 for the first time since the first handful of games of his rookie season.
When the Angels Hired kurt suzukiSuzuki, Trout’s former teammate who will be their next manager after the 2025 season, asked how the Angels could help Trout. He asked to return to center field, where he would be most comfortable. He found that his legs were not feeling any better when playing in corner positions.
When looking back at his injury-plagued season, it’s easy to focus on the decline in his numbers and what could have been, but for Trout, it may have been more about the joy he was missing playing ball.
“Looking back, when I got beat,” Trout said, “you say the word ‘fun.’ …To go out there and not be at your full potential because something was holding you back — that was hard for me.”
The move back to center — and a change in the offseason — seems to have worked. His outside playfulness, which was long inherent in Trout’s way of playing, appears to be returning — as does the dominance that became synonymous with the slugger during his peak years of the 2010s.
Part of being in the moment is connecting with other players in a way you can when you’re not on the field.
Trout is hearing from players on other teams interested in playing at his new golf course – Trout National, The Reserve – which officially opened in mid-April in Vineland, NJ, close to Trout’s hometown of Millville. Trout first played the course last October, and now players from the Phillies or visiting teams in Philadelphia have reached out about tee times.
His teammates have also noticed his return to greatness this year. He is viewed by peers as baseball royalty: As injuries sidelined him from the field in recent years and his production diminished, Trout fell in ESPN’s rankings of the top 100 players – and veterans, such as matt olson, Austin Riley And carlos correa, argued that he was near the top.
And now, there he is again.
“I’ve always enjoyed playing this game and I know what I’m capable of,” Trout said recently. “It was killing me to go there knowing I didn’t belong there… I’m taking the time to enjoy every minute of it.”
