Mike Trout injury update: Angels superstar opted for surgery instead of DH-only role, ‘feeling good’ post-op

Angels superstar center fielder Mike Trout underwent surgery to repair torn meniscus in his left knee last week and he says he’s already feeling better. 

“I’m feeling good,” Trout said (via angels.com). “Surgery went well. Just taking it day by day and feeling better every day, so it’s been good. No timeline. Just come in, rehab and hopefully it feels better every single day, see how it feels the next day and go from there.”

Estimates vary on the timeline for a player to return from torn meniscus surgery. In some places, you’ll see two or three months, but six weeks is a reasonable, optimistic outlook. It’s even possible that a player could only require three or four weeks. 

In Trout’s first interview with Angels beat reporters since his surgery, he said that he could have tried to play through the injury as a designated hitter, but that option carried with it the possibility of further injuring the knee. 

“It was an option they put out there,” Trout said. “It would have been just maintaining the pain level of it. The day I got the MRI and it showed that, I was in a lot of pain, so it would have been a tough road for the rest of the year to bear that. I felt the best option for me was to get it right and be fully healthy to come back soon.”

Trout, 32, was hitting .220/.325/.541 (140 OPS+) with a double, two triples, 10 homers, 14 RBI, 17 runs and 1.1 WAR in 29 games this season before going down. He was the MLB leader in home runs when he was placed on the injured list. The batting average is lower than usual, but otherwise he was having another Mike Trout-like season. 

Unfortunately, these days, a normal Trout season includes injuries. He hasn’t played more than 140 games since 2016 and hasn’t topped 120 since 2019. He appeared in 36 in 2021, 119 in 2022 and 82 last year. Even with an optimistic outlook, as noted above, his return from this surgery sees him missing roughly 40 games. While he’s still absolutely a Hall of Famer, the injuries are carving into his chance to enter the upper stratosphere of baseball greatness. 

This is why it’s great to hear that things are going well for Trout so far in the aftermath of the surgery.