Mike Trout’s Manager Defends Him After Injury on a Play That Didn’t Matter

The Los Angeles Angels were getting blown out. It was 8-1 in the top of the eighth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Mike Trout hit a slow grounder to third base. Nolan Arenado fielded it clean and threw him out by two steps. Trout sprinted the whole way anyway, and somewhere in that sprint, something gave.

The Angels put Trout on the injured list the next day. No specific timeline has been announced, but losing the face of the franchise always stings.

Before the Angels faced the Athletics on the road, manager Kurt Suzuki got asked about it. Specifically, someone wanted to know: why was Trout still running hard in an eight-run game? Shouldn’t someone have told him to ease up?

Suzuki wasn’t having it.

“How can you tell a guy not to play hard?” Suzuki told beat reporter Rhett Bollinger. “That’s what Mike is wired to do whether it’s 8-1, 14-1. That’s what makes Mike, Mike. He plays the game hard. He sets the example for everybody.”

This is the same argument that comes up every time a star gets hurt on a low-leverage play. The old-school take: playing hard is how you win respect. The modern take: there’s a difference between competing and running yourself into an injury for no reason. Both sides have a point. But Suzuki is right that it’s hard to tell a guy who’s done it one way his entire career to suddenly change.

Trout, for what it’s worth, was having a solid year on a bad team. Through 74 games he’s hitting .234 with a .394 on-base percentage and 17 home runs. He’s top 10 in the American League in homers. That OBP is vintage Trout even if the average looks a little low.

The Angels are stuck in the middle of another lost season. They’re not winning anything this year. They don’t have much momentum heading into the All-Star break. And now their best player is hurt because he refused to take a play off in a game that was already over.

Whether that’s admirable or just unfortunate depends on who you ask. But everyone agrees on one thing: when Mike Trout comes back, he’ll probably still run out every ground ball. That’s just who he is.