Are We Seeing the New Norm for Mike Trout?

11 All-Star appearances. Nine Silver Sluggers. Three AL MVP awards. Two All-Star MVP awards. One AL Rookie of the Year award. And so many more accolades.

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout is one of the most talented players the game has ever seen. For baseball fans who watched the league during the 2010s, they were guaranteed to see greatness out on the west coast.

Selected No. 25 overall by the Angels in the 2009 draft, Trout would make his MLB debut just two years later at the age of 19. For the following decade, he would terrorize opposing pitchers, compiling a 72.2 bWAR with a .305/.419/.581 slash line, 285 homers, and 752 RBIs in nine seasons.

That final year of the decade saw Trout sign a 12-year mega extension with the team. The Angels were rewarded with another solid year in a Covid-shortened season: an OPS just shy of 1.000 and a top-five AL MVP finish.

Many baseball fans know what came next. It was at that point that Trout would start seeing multiple seasons shortened significantly due to injury.

Trout would continue to put up good numbers in most offensive categories, with the exception of games played. In fact, he would play in just 266 games over four seasons from 2021 to 2024 with 119 of them coming in 2022 alone.

First it was a calf strain in 2021. Then a back injury in 2022. A broken bone in his hand knocked him out in 2023. And just last year, a torn meniscus in his left knee limited him to just 29 games.

All different injuries, all wearing down the body in different ways. And now, back on the field again and two months into the 2025 season, things just haven’t quite looked the same for the now 33-year-old.

Stats were taken prior to play on June 6.

Are We Seeing the New Norm for Mike Trout?

For years, Trout could seemingly do everything at an extremely high level. He could hit for average, hit for power, steal bases, and, at times at least, play a decent defensive center field.

Trout has 214 stolen bases in his 15 MLB seasons but only 14 over the last six years. For a while, he stayed among the elite in sprint speed metrics even as his stolen base numbers declined, but this year his 28.3 ft/sec mark places him in the 78th percentile. 

Sure, that’s still fast, but it’s the first year he’s been outside of the 90th percentile since 2015 when many Statcast metrics began being tracked.

Trout has seen both his batting average and on-base percentage come down over the last couple years as well. In 35 games so far in 2025, he is batting .228 with a .310 OBP. Compare that to his career .297 average and .408 OBP, and the difference is glaring.

The power at least still appears to be there. Trout is already at double-digit home runs on the year with 10 and has driven in 23. That shouldn’t be a surprise since his average exit velocity (91.6 mph) and hard hit rate (49.5%) are both above his career averages.

He has just three extra-base hits to go along with them though (two doubles and a triple) and a 120 wRC+. Yes, that’s above average, but we’re talking about a guy with a career 168 wRC+ here.

Swinging and missing doesn’t help the offensive woes. He is in the bottom 25% of the league with his 26.2% strikeout rate and 29.9% whiff rate. He was in the 26th percentile or worse in 2022 and 2023 as well (he didn’t qualify last year).

Finally there’s the defense. After patrolling center field for the Angels for the majority of his career, Trout has exclusively played in either right field or at DH this year. 2013 was the last time he had played an outfield position other than center.

Early returns on the position change aren’t exactly positive. Trout is already down to -3 Defensive Runs Saved and -2 Outs Above Average with just 185 innings played in right so far. Even in a small sample size that’s not great.

There is still time to turn things around. Trout has admittedly had two three-hit games in his six appearances since returning from the IL. And he is Mike Trout, after all.

But the harsh reality is that injuries have likely taken a toll on an elite player, something that has happened to many baseball legends over time. The elite version of center fielder Mike Trout may be in the past while the slower, lighter-hitting right field version is probably the new norm.