OAKLAND, Calif. — Mike Trout has this routine down.
Year after year, he has a sensational season, adding to his Hall of Fame resume. And year after year, he speaks to the media at the end of the season about the frustrations of missing the playoffs.
And he always seems to have an optimistic tone about the future.
As Trout broke down the season and the future with dozens of reporters before Tuesday’s penultimate game of the season, the words were familiar.
“I hate losing,” Trout said. “I answered these questions the last few years. It’s tough for me. For me in this game, from a personal standpoint, you’re going to fail a lot. At the plate, you’re going to make mistakes. The biggest thing is trying to turn the page, and that’s what I’m trying to do after this season.
“Obviously it’s been frustrating. It’s not where we want to be. Talking with guys to try to change this thing, we’re doing everything we can.”
Trout, 31, is completing his 11th full major league season. He’s won three American League MVP awards and amassed numbers that have already ensured his place in Cooperstown. But he’s only played in the playoffs once.
It’s up to General Manager Perry Minasian to assemble a team to change that.
“I trust Perry and the front office to bring a winning team in here,” Trout said. “He harps on it every day, ever since we’ve been knocked out. Bringing a great group of guys in here to compete.”
Outside of the Angels’ clubhouse or front office, the skeptics no doubt outnumber the optimists.
The Angels are 73-87, guaranteed their seventh consecutive losing season and their eighth straight season missing the playoffs. The Seattle Mariners and Philadelphia Phillies both made the postseason this year, so the Angels and Detroit Tigers are tied for the longest current drought in the majors.
It’s almost inconceivable that a team with Trout and Shohei Ohtani could be this bad for this long.
The answers to their problems are, of course, complicated, and will require more than Trout’s wishful thinking to solve.
This winter they have the added wrinkle of owner Arte Moreno trying to sell the team, which could have an impact on the moves that Minasian is able to make.
“This is the first time being involved in an owner selling a team, so I couldn’t tell you what’s involved in that or how it works,” Trout said. “I’d be giving you answers that I made up.”
Minasian is expected to address those issues – as much as he can – when he meets with the media on Thursday.
One of the biggest questions that Minasian and the Angels face revolves around Ohtani, who just signed a one-year, $30 million deal for 2023. Ohtani is still eligible for free agency at the end of next season, so it remains to be seen whether the Angels will be able to ink him to a contract extension that would keep him in Anaheim.
Aside from the hundreds of millions of dollars it will take to keep Ohtani, the Angels will also need to convince him that the franchise can win. Trout bought into former GM Billy Eppler’s long-term plan when he signed an extension to stay with the Angels through 2030.
Now, what would Trout tell Ohtani as he faces the same question?
“He’s got to know that Perry’s doing whatever he can to bring a team in here,” Trout said. “Once he signed that deal (for 2023), I think he has confidence in Perry to go out there and make some big moves this winter.”
One part of improving the Angels involves Trout staying on the field. He missed more than a month in 2022 with a back injury. He’s played at his normal level around that injury, though, mashing 39 home runs and producing a .983 OPS. Trout said he now has the back injury under control, with a regimen of maintenance exercises he does before he works out each day.
“My back feels great,” Trout said.
Beyond having Trout on the field, the Angels need to have third baseman Anthony Rendon healthy for a whole season. They need their young pitchers to perform as they did. And they need more young hitters to emerge.
Trout said he’s encouraged by the way the Angels have played lately.
“You got to look at some positives,” he said. “Obviously we weren’t in it. We’re trying to finish strong. Giving younger guys opportunities. Guys are coming up, making an impact and playing every day. It’s big.”
TROUT ON OHTANI
Ohtani is the underdog in the MVP race against New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, but Trout suggested that Ohtani is a victim of his own success when he won the MVP last year.
“A lot of people are overlooking this season because of what he did last year,” Trout said. “I asked a lot of people if he had the season he’s having this year for his first time, and he didn’t have the season last year, he’s the MVP. It’s hard to argue so. I can’t take anything away from Judge, because I love Judgy too. It’s fun to watch, and fun to be a part of history, what he’s doing every day.”
Trout is particularly impressed by Ohtani’s improvement on the mound. Heading into his final start of the season on Wednesday, Ohtani is 15-8 with a 2.35 ERA. He’s developed a new sinker and added a second slider just in the past couple of months.
“It’s so fun to watch, and to be a part of it in the outfield, see the pitches that he’s throwing,” Trout said. “It seems like every day he’s coming in working on new pitches. He’s coming in laughing, saying ‘I got a little gyro. I got a little slider that goes up and down.’ It’s unfair.”
