Mike Trout's first homer of the year proves to Angels fans that he's still got it

All eyes have been on Mike Trout after several lost seasons due to injury after injury have derailed the Angels' hopes of fielding a competitive team. The franchise icon was limited to just 29 games in 2024 and averaged just 66.5 games per year over the previous four seasons.

The Angels finally made the much-needed decision to move the future Hall of Famer to right field on the eve of spring training, hoping that a less taxing defensive position would preserve his body and keep his potent bat anchoring the heart of the lineup for a full season in 2025.

Hopes were high entering the season as the 33-year-old put up a vintage Trout line in spring training: .282/462/.564 with 3 homers. However, when his bat went cold as the bright lights of the regular season came on, murmurs began to grow louder that perhaps the injuries that had battered his body had finally sapped his talent.

Through the first five games of the season, Trout had managed just two hits in 17 at-bats while striking out four times. For most players, a performance like that would just be shrugged off as a slow start; however, for an injury-plagued and aging player like Trout, it may have been the sign of his demise.

Mike Trout's first homer of the year should ease Angels fans' jitters

In the first inning of the series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals, Trout broke through the ice, launching a Sonny Gray curveball 413 feet. While the pitch was in the middle of the plate, Gray threw it at the very bottom of the strike zone, forcing Trout to go down and get it.

With an exit velocity of 106.1 miles per hour and a 27-degree launch angle, the moonshot went to dead-center, soaring over the wall proving it was no cheap shot, and would have gone out in 22 of 30 big-league ball parks.

Coming off two meniscus tears last season, Trout showed off the strength in his lower body to golf that pitch out. That strength has also been apparent on the field, where his sprint speed currently ranks in the 76th percentile.

While Trout's early results prior to the homer left something to be desired, the underlying metrics paint a different picture. Per Baseball Savant, he has an expected batting average of .317 on the year to go along with an xSLG of .607 and an xwOBA of .391. Those all would fall into the vintage-Trout category.

Rumors about his decline or a potential trade will continue to swirl around Trout until he can prove he can stay healthy and the Angels prove they can stay competitive. In the meantime, despite what may appear at first glance, rumors of Trout's demise are grossly overstated, and his first dinger of the year should serve as a warning shot for the rest of the league.

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