he didn\u2019t play<\/a> in this year\u2019s World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\nThe Phillies Sought The 2026 All-Star Game<\/p>\n
The Phillies have long been planning on hosting this year\u2019s All-Star Game to coincide with the 250th U.S. birthday. They also hosted the 1976 All-Star Game at the now defunct Veteran Stadium in honor of this land\u2019s bicentennial. The Vet, fairly new then, was inaugurated in 1971 to replace the ancient and decaying Connie Mack Stadium.<\/p>\n
The Bank opened in 2004 in the parking lot next to the Vet, which was imploded. There\u2019s a parking lot now where the Vet once flourished and the Phillies won the 1980 World Series.<\/p>\n
The Phillies have since captured the 2008 World Series at the Bank and as a new NL park in those days, was certainly in line for another All-Star Game. The Phillies staged the NHL\u2019s 2012 Winter Classic there between the Flyers and Rangers and the late club president Dave Montgomery confided he had asked MLB to delay their All-Star Game bid until 2026 to coincide with the bicentennial-and-a-half.<\/p>\n
Montgomery then unexpectedly underwent a five-year battle with jaw cancer and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced on April 16, 2019, the Phillies would host the 2026 game. Montgomery passed away less than a month later, on May 12, 2019, at the age of 72.<\/p>\n
This is Montgomery\u2019s game and it\u2019s a sweet accoutrement that Trout could be there along with perhaps the Phillies\u2019 Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and starting pitcher Christopher Sanchez, who is 8-3 with a 1.82 ERA and 116 strikeouts. Closer Jhoan Duran has 19 saves and a 1.90 ERA.<\/p>\n
Don Mattingly, the Phils\u2019 latest manager, has been named to the coaching staff by NL manager Dave Roberts, who succeeded Mattingly as manager of the Dodgers.<\/p>\n
Schwarber was second in NL voting at designated hitter behind the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani. Harper is third at first base behind L.A.’s Freddie Freeman and Atlanta’s Matt Olson.<\/p>\n
No matter, Schwarber leads MLB with 25 homers and was the All-Star Game MVP last year in Atlanta. Harper has 15 homers and 40 RBIs. Both should be selected to the team by a player vote if they\u2019re not picked by the fans.<\/p>\n
Pitchers are not part of the fan vote. Most are selected by the players and others by MLB officials.<\/p>\n
Trout is an 11-time All-Star, six as a starter. He won an All-Star Game MVP in 2014 and AL MVPs in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019 during his salad days and before injuries started to derail his once flourishing career.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure, I\u2019d like to be there in Philly,\u201d Trout said. \u201cAnytime you can be there with some family and friends and being close to home it\u2019s good, especially living on the west coast and you\u2019re gone most of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trout\u2019s Recent Seasons Have Been Marred By Injuries<\/p>\n
He missed 126 games in 2021 with a right calf strain; 43 in 2022 with back inflammation; 80 in 2023 after surgery to repair a fractured hamate bone in his left hand, and 133 in 2024 after he tore the meniscus in his left knee twice and underwent surgery. And that doesn’t count the 60-game, 2020 COVID-shortened season when he played in 53 games.<\/p>\n
Last year Trout began his comeback by playing in 130 games, 22 of them in right field and the rest at DH. The move to right was to take pressure off his knees, but that didn\u2019t work, he said. This year it\u2019s been back to center field where it looks like he hasn\u2019t missed a step. He\u2019s played 66 games this season in center and has only been the DH 11 times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last few years have been tough,\u201d Trout said. \u201cI\u2019ve had great support at home from my family. It\u2019s definitely been a grind. It\u2019s not only great to come in every day and hit, but to play the outfield. I put in a lot of time during the offseason getting into a good routine. We have a good routine right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say right field was worse on me knees, but you have to be comfortable. It was different with spin on the ball and playing the line. The adjustment was tough on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rap on Trout, of course, is that he\u2019s not a winner. He\u2019s played in 1,725 games \u2013 all for the Angels \u2013 in his career and only three in the playoffs, none of them victories. He played six seasons with Ohtani from 2018 to 2023 and never made the postseason. In his defense, both of them were regularly hurt and often at the same time.<\/p>\n
That would seem to be one of the greatest lost opportunities for a franchise in baseball history. But it\u2019s behind him now. Trout has four more seasons<\/a> to play through 2030 on his 14-year, $424.6 million contract at $35.5 million a year for luxury tax purposes.<\/p>\nThe Angels haven\u2019t had a .500 season since 2015 and haven\u2019t made the playoffs since 2014. They are 30-45, last in the AL West right now. More of the same.<\/p>\n
Trout, as a five-and-10-year player \u2013 10 in the Majors and five with the same team \u2013 has blanket rights to approve any trade. He\u2019s not going anywhere.<\/p>\n
Asked if he\u2019s talked to owner Arte Moreno about rebuilding a winning team, he isn\u2019t saying.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to keep those conversations in house,\u201d Trout said.<\/p>\n
But you do talk to him?<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I talk to him,\u201d Trout said.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the current reality for Trout: All-Star Game, yes. Playoffs, no.<\/p>\n
(Updates with Trout\u2019s latest injury, a right hamstring strain, in the seventh, eighth and ninth paragraphs.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Trout homered twice this week at Chase Field, his first homers ever in that ballpark. He has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[15931,18436,163,165,164,1426,28085,5128,34233],"class_list":["post-368349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-aaron-judge","tag-all-star-game","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-angels","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-mike-trout","tag-phillies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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