Mike Trout may no longer be the superstar of yesteryear, but he is still a quality hitter when healthy. His bat speed has declined considerably, and his contributions have fallen off a cliff, but the Los Angeles Angels star is still grinding, looking to contribute for his team however he can. He entered the Angels' Sunday afternoon clash against the Seattle Mariners with an OPS of .853, as he's been an on-base magnet to begin the new MLB season.
With Trout playing good baseball to begin the new campaign, the last thing he needs is to suffer another injury to derail his progress. However, he was at the center of a scary moment on Sunday when he was hit by a pitch on his left shoulder, causing him to grimace in pain for a bit.
Trout ended up exiting the game, with Oswald Peraza pinch-running for him in the eighth inning after he reached base on a hit-by-pitch from Mariners reliever Casey Legumina. The Angels star, after his team secured an 8-7 win in extra innings, expressed his frustrations towards the poor pitch execution from Legumina.
“If you can't control it up there, you shouldn't do it. So it is what it is,” Trout said, per Mike DiGiovanna of MLB.com.
The scouting report on Trout hasn't changed through the years. The entirety of MLB knows that the Angels star does not like fastballs high up in the zone, and his declining bat speed means that he has struggles getting to heaters high inside the zone.
But considering that Trout has missed a ton of time over the past few seasons, it's understandable that he would express his disdain for poor execution of such pitches. He has been battling Father Time, and knocks like the one he suffered on Sunday do not help whatsoever.
