What the Angels' obscurity of Ben Joyce's injury could mean regarding Mike Trout

The Angels want their fans to exist in a state of blissful ignorance when it concerns the timeline of their favorite players returning to the field following an injury. Sam Blum of The Athletic has been all over it this season -- the front office is keeping their cards close to their chests when it regards what information they want to divulge to their beat writers concerning their injured players. Perry Minasian and Ron Washington are as vague as possible when they talk about players like Ben Joyce, for example.

Joyce, who tried twice to enter a throwing program following "shoulder inflammation," ended up getting shut down for the season about a month after he was initially placed on the 15-day injured list. As Blum put it when discussing Joyce's season-ending shoulder surgery, "there was hope initially that this was minor." Obviously, he suffered a couple set-backs and what the organization told fans was not misleading at all. They said the process was moving along slowly and it ended up being the worst-case scenario.

Well, guess who else is hoping that his injury is minor but is well past the expected return date? The Angels' other injury-prone player with a laundry list of maladies that have often kept him off the field for years now -- their future first ballot Hall of Famer, Mike Trout.

Trout is running on the Alter G, a zero gravity machine, to rehab his left knee. The machine allows somebody to not put their full weight on their joints and alleviates any potential discomfort during conditioning. Trout is also doing some on-field agility drills, hitting in the cages and playing catch, but has yet to begin running the bases or tracking fly balls in the outfield. Despite initial optimism that his left knee bruise, or so we think, would not hamper Trout too much, there is no timetable for his return. Oh, and he was eligible to be activated off the 10-day injured list on May 12th. Between Joyce and Trout, it's abundantly clear that the Angels are going to be tight-lipped when asked about any updates.

Ron Washington said Trout was removed from the Angels' game against Seattle for precautionary reasons, and the his knee injury was not serious. Trout himself said after the game that it already started feeling better. Washington also said there was no structural damage. Trout might just be close to being 34-year-old with a long history of leg injuries, and cannot recover as quickly anymore. It's just frustrating as fans to not receive a general timetable when it regards the team's best player.

The facts and process were obscured with regards to Joyce, and he ended up out for the season. Trout's process is going slowly and fans should not feel any optimism for a return soon. Hopefully he does not need to be moved to the 60-day injured list and miss the rest of the campaign like Joyce. Fans are going to keep thinking of the worst possible scenarios when their favorite team does not dignify their inquiries with detailed responses.

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