Mike Trout may be steering clear of the Home Run Derby, but the Angels star still has a strong path to the All-Star Game in Philadelphia.
That’s the latest twist in a season that has already made Trout one of baseball’s biggest stories. He’s rehabbing a hamstring strain, yet he’s doing well enough in that recovery to lead all American League outfielders in All-Star voting. Trout has made it clear he wants to be back in time for the event, especially with the game coming so close to his hometown.
“It would be huge,” Trout said in a story written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “Before the season, it was one of those things on my mind.
It’d be cool to play in front of the hometown crowd. And being close to my hometown, it'd be special.
As soon as I got the injury in Arizona, I was aiming to be back in time for it, for sure.”
The Derby, though, looks like a different story. Trout said he’s leaning away from taking part, and the injury seems to have pushed him further in that direction.
“I'm leaning toward not doing it,” Trout said. “Obviously, it’d be cool to do it, but I probably won't do it.
I was thinking about it, but then I hurt my leg. So that's what kind of threw it off there.”
Even so, there’s optimism around his recovery. Trout has already started doing some light jogging, along with movement and footwork work, which makes a return for the All-Star stage feel very much in play.
“It's encouraging,” Suzuki said. “It's surprising a little bit too, right?
How quick that it's been that he's already doing some light jogging, some movement stuff and some footwork stuff too. So it’s nice.”
And before the injury, Trout was putting together the kind of line that reminds everyone why he draws so much attention. In 74 games, he hit .234/.394/.472 with 17 homers, 12 doubles, 54 runs, seven stolen bases and 36 RBIs.
He was also incredibly durable early on, missing just one game through the Angels’ first 74 contests before going down. Given how much he means to the sport and how close he is to Millville, N.J., it’s tough not to expect Trout to be part of the All-Star picture if his rehab keeps trending the right way.
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