Major League Baseball may be getting a lift at just the right time. According to MLB insider Bob Nightengale, Mike Trout is expected to attend the 2026 All-Star Game after being activated from the injured list, and if he ends up taking the field, it would be his first All-Star appearance since 2019.
That matters because this year’s Midsummer Classic has already seen several marquee players pass on the event. Trout’s possible return gives the league a familiar headliner, and one of the biggest names in the sport stepping back onto that stage would go a long way toward restoring some of the star power the game can lose when top players sit out.
For Trout, the moment would carry extra weight. Injuries have repeatedly interrupted seasons that once looked headed for something special, and that has limited how often fans have gotten to see him on baseball’s biggest stages. The Angels star has spent years battling that bad luck, even while remaining one of the defining players of his generation.
There’s also the backdrop of the Angels’ struggles. Over much of the past decade, the team has not been able to build a roster strong enough to stay in the postseason race, leaving Trout without many chances to play in nationally spotlighted games with real attention on him. In that sense, the All-Star Game stands out as one of the rare occasions where he can still be front and center on a major stage.
The league benefits too. The All-Star Game is always better when its biggest names show up, and Trout remains one of the few active players who can instantly change the feel of the event. If everything goes as expected, baseball fans will get another look at Trout in the Midsummer Classic for the first time since 2019.
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The comeback came in the seventh, when the Angels put together a rally to tie it and briefly made the finale feel winnable. Even with that surge, the margin for error never disappeared, and the game ended the way so many frustrating losses do for this club, with the Angels unable to protect the tie and left to wonder how a late push still turned into a defeat. [Read more 🡒]