TEMPE, Ariz. \u2014 Mike\u00a0Trout\u00a0says he would prefer to return to centre field for the Los Angeles\u00a0Angels, and the star slugger says he will skip the\u00a0World Baseball Classic\u00a0because of insurance issues.<\/p>\n
The 11-time All-Star who been plagued by injuries since 2021 says his familiar position isn’t as physically demanding as the corner outfield spots, contrary to traditional thinking.<\/p>\n
Trout\u00a0played his most games since 2019 last season, finishing at 130. The three-time American League MVP started 22 of his first 29 games in right field before a knee injury sidelined him for a month. The 34-year-old was exclusively a designated hitter when he returned in late May.<\/p>\n
Trout\u00a0had 26 home runs\u00a0but hit just .232, by far the worst average of his career when he had at least 400 at-bats.<\/p>\n
He spent time in left field early in his career but was a centre fielder for 11 consecutive seasons before the switch to right. Injuries limited\u00a0Trout\u00a0to 111 games the previous two years.<\/p>\n
Trout\u00a0said conversations with first-year manager Kurt Suzuki have included the idea of a return to centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m at my best when I\u2019m in centre,\u201d\u00a0Trout\u00a0told reporters at the club’s spring training facility Monday. \u201cIf I have to go to the corner, I\u2019ll go to the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trout\u00a0believes a return to centre will be good for his health.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was in centre, it was less on my body than the corners,\u201d\u00a0Trout\u00a0said. \u201cTo be honest, in right field I felt I was running a lot. Talking to some other outfielders and they\u2019re saying that they feel the same way sometimes, centre is less on your legs. I just feel … confident in centre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trout, who played in his only WBC three years ago, had said he was interested in playing again before insurance issues arose.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing,\u201d\u00a0Trout\u00a0said. \u201cI wanted to run it back with all the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Promising young Boston outfielder Roman Anthony has been named as a Team USA injury replacement for Arizona’s Corbin Carroll, who has a broken bone in his right hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEMPE, Ariz. \u2014 Mike\u00a0Trout\u00a0says he would prefer to return to centre field for the Los Angeles\u00a0Angels, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-479279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}