WOULD THE GODS EXPLAIN WHY TROUT WENT SOUTH AS OHTANI CHASES GLORY?
His return to minor-league ball ended with yet another injury — soreness in his left knee — and we’ve almost forgotten he exists while fortune remains bountiful toward Ohtani inside Dodger Stadium
On a pandemic afternoon, we sat in the stands at Angel Stadium and watched what seemed like history. Shohei Ohtani hit a home run. Then, a batter later, Mike Trout hit a home run. Screw the rest of baseball. Nothing would beat these snapshots, with only 7,000 people in the stands.
From that time on, a division of humanity left Ohtani with $700 million — and loads more in the endorsement market — while Trout needs an infirmary. He played only 36 games in 2021 with a right calf injury. He fought upper back issues in 2022. He played only 83 games last season while fighting a broken hamate bone in his left wrist. Would this at last be the year when Trout returned to his realm as baseball’s greatest player, when he was named American League MVP three times and finished in the top two of voting seven times?
Would the Los Angeles Angels, who lost Ohtani to the Dodgers, at least position Trout for a trade to his boyhood favorite Philadelphia Phillies or maybe a postseason shot with the New York Yankees? He deserves to win in October more than any player in the sport, having reached the playoffs once in 2014 and managing an .083 batting average in a brutal sweep against Kansas City. Why are the gods down on Trout?
That question might be asked forever. When he returned in a minor-league rehab game in Salt Lake City, he was forced to leave after two innings Tuesday night with soreness in his left knee. He tore a meniscus on April 29 and was forced into surgery, though he had started the season with 10 home runs in 29 games. So much for the concept that Trout would reappear before the trade deadline.
“Coming back, this isn’t where I wanted to be,” he said. “It’s been like a blink of an eye, man. I tell a lot of people this. You are very fortunate to play this long. It just goes by so fast. Felt like a blink of an eye.”
Now, we must wonder what’s next in his career after he left the game in Utah and signed autographs for fans. A documentary awaits, right? Why did Ohtani carry on as an all-time icon while Trout fell apart at age 32? Not long ago, he told Angels fans to expect him back by the end of July. “Oh, yeah, I’ll be back before that. Once I do all the tests and I can run, hit and throw, I’ll be out there,” he said. Another mid-game trip to the trainer might lead to thoughts about his potential retirement.
Wouldn’t that be horrific?
“Wait and see how things go,” Angels manager Ron Washington said.
We know how things are going. Trout can’t play anymore.
If nothing else, he’s a good man. He hadn’t played in Salt Lake City since 2012. He knew his teammates would be hungry, so he provided the food. “I reached out a few weeks ago to get some spots lined up. Always take care of your people. The big one today for lunch was Chick-fil-A,” he said. “And then steaks and stuff for after the game.”
He even supported the city for a Major League Baseball expansion opportunity. “Salt Lake, oh yeah,” Trout said. “It doesn’t get much nicer than this. You’ve got mountains in the background. You know, I’m a real big snow guy. Right now, it’s pretty hot out here. But yeah.”
It’s blow-it-out stunning to see Trout here and Ohtani in Dodger Stadium, where he’s hitting .314 with 30 home runs and 73 RBIs and needed a fan to recover his blast to the centerfield plaza. You figure it’s a good bet, with no nod to Ippei Mizuhara, that Shohei will win a few playoff games while Trout ponders more rehab.
He’s still fairly young, if it matters. He should elect for a change of scenery in the offseason. What has happened to him in Orange County is one of baseball’s meanest injustices. There are no Angels in his world.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.