Rob Maaddi, FISM News
Mike Trout insists he’s not done playing baseball.
Trout, a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, downplayed a back injury that a Los Angeles Angels trainer said is a rare spinal condition.
“I think he meant that I have to stay on top of the routine I do on a daily basis to keep it from coming back,” Trout told reporters the Angels beat the Kansas City Royals 4-0 on Wednesday. “I’m appreciative of all the prayer requests but my career is not over.”
The 10-time All-Star outfielder hasn’t played since he left a game against Houston on July 12. At first, the injury was called back spasms. Then, Trout went on the injured list a week later with rib cage inflammation.
Angels’ trainer Mike Frostad revealed it to be a rare spinal condition that Trout “has to manage not just through the rest of the season.”
Trout was examined by Dr. Robert Watkins III, a top back specialist and the co-director of the Marina Spine Clinic in Los Angeles. He received a cortisone injection last week that he said has already begun to produce results.
“This is a pretty rare condition that he has right now in his back,” Frostad said. “The doctor, who is one of the most well-known spine surgeons in the country, if not the world, doesn’t see a lot of these. And for it to happen in a baseball player, we just have to take into consideration what he puts himself through with hitting, swinging on a daily basis just to get prepared, and then also playing in the outfield, diving for balls, jumping into the wall, things like that. There’s so many things that can aggravate it. But this doctor hasn’t seen a lot of it.”
Trout smiled about the overreactions to the comment on social media.
“I got back and my phone was blowing up: ‘My career is over,’” Trout said. “It’s just rare for a baseball player. I just have to stay on top of it.”
Trout will follow up next week with Dr. Watkins.
“We’ll go from there,” he said.
Asked if he plans to play again this season, Trout said: “Of course. That’s my goal.”
Even Frostad isn’t ready to shut him down for the season.
“I don’t think we’re at a point where we’re going to make that decision,” Frostad said. “He’s going to have a follow-up here once we get back and we’ll just kind of see what the doctor thinks at that point.”
Trout is the second-highest paid player in major league baseball, making $37.1 million this season. He was batting .270 with 24 homers and 51 RBIs through 79 games on a disappointing team.
The Angels are just 42-56, despite having two of the best players in baseball in Trout and two-way star Shohei Ohtani.
Trout signed a $426.5 million contract in March 2019. He has been in the top 5 in MVP voting nine times, including four second-place finishes.
“He’s been a great teammate,” Angels’ interim manager Phil Nevin said. “He’s been the dugout, helping out his teammate — he’s obviously a good sounding board for a lot of young players. For them to have him here and know that he’s supporting them is huge, I’m sure, for some younger guys.”
The Angels have made only one playoff appearance in Trout’s first 11 seasons. They were swept by the Kansas City Royals in the 2014 American League Division Series. In that series, Trout had only one hit in 15 at-bats; it was a homer.