Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout injured his calf 10 weeks ago, suffering a Grade 2 strain while running the bases. Originally, he was given a return window of 6-8 weeks. However, it was quickly clear that this may not happen, and that it would be until at least after the All-Star break until he was seen in the lineup again.
This past week, there was increased hope that Trout would be making a return soon. He traveled with the team to Oakland and to Minnesota and could be seen running the bases prior to each game. However, as the weekend came, Trout was no longer running and he wasn’t heading for the rehab assignment that he was supposed to do.
This change of course came after Trout said he could still feel something in his calf when running at full speed. Angels manager Joe Maddon tried to ease concerns, saying that it’s nothing to worry about and is mostly a mental thing, according to Sam Blum of The Athletic:
“He just feels it a little bit in that area when he really tries to move quickly,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said Sunday morning. “It doesn’t hurt. It’s just, anyone who’s ever pulled a muscle in a leg — that’s when you get to that final point of healing, there’s also a mental adhesion you have to break in the back of your mind.
“You don’t want to hurt it again. We don’t want him to hurt it again. So you really want to make sure it’s totally healed before you push it to that level.”
“I’m pretty certain we’ll have a better idea once we see the doc,” Maddon said. “He’s not going there because there’s anything wrong. I don’t know if there’s going to be a test done that, like a scan of some sort, that indicates the amount of healing that’s transpired.”
On some level, this could be seen as a problem. For him to still be feeling something in his calf after 10 weeks of recovery could be a sign that this was more severe than initially thought. However, there is something to be said about Maddon’s theory that it’s mostly mental.
Trout has not run at full speed in 10 weeks, and any time a muscle strain is involved, there is always a fear of re-injury. This fear could be driving their caution when it comes to checking in with the team doctors and taking a few days away from running.
Trout still needs to complete his rehab assignment and run at full speed without that fear, meaning it could be another week or two before we see the Angels superstar back in center field.
Shohei Ohtani breaks through slump
After struggling for the Angels’ first six games out of the All-Star break, Shohei Ohtani appears to have figured some things out. He’s 4-for-7 with a home run, two doubles, and a stolen base in his last two games after going 4-for-24 with 14 strikeouts in the first six.
