All that Joe Maddon talk about Mike Trout playing in left field? Forget about it

So, about that Mike Trout swap from middle area to left area?

By no means thoughts.

Sooner or later after supervisor Angels supervisor Joe Maddon floated the potential for shifting Trout off middle area to ease the stress on the three-time American League most useful participant’s physique, the concept was scrapped throughout a prolonged Monday morning assembly between Trout, Maddon and common supervisor Perry Minasian.

“We’re gonna put him in middle area,” Maddon stated earlier than the group’s first spring coaching exercise. “He feels actually good about it, very strongly about it. He looks like he’s in nice form, he’s misplaced weight. Every part is so as, so he’s going to play middle area.”

And that’s that?

“That’s that,” Maddon stated.

Trout, within the fourth 12 months of a 12-year, $426.5-million contract, expects to maneuver to a nook spot sooner or later, and it appeared a proper calf pressure that sidelined him for many of 2021 would possibly expedite that transition. However Trout, 30, made it clear to his bosses Monday that the transfer could be untimely this spring.

“I like middle area,” Trout stated. “I’ve 9 years left on the contract, so I can see down the street presumably shifting to the nook. They inform me it’s much less in your physique and stuff. They’re simply making an attempt to maintain me on the market for 162 video games. However coming in, I wish to play middle area.”

Trout stated he spoke “briefly” with Maddon in regards to the concept on the bench throughout a recreation final season, however he didn’t know the Angels had been critically contemplating it this spring till he noticed it talked about on social media Sunday.

“It was positively shocking, for positive,” Trout stated. “I heard about it when somebody tweeted it out. We had , prolonged dialog about it, and we’re on the identical web page. … I simply really feel snug [in center], pure.”

If there was any miscommunication, or lack of communication, between the Angels and Trout, blame the 99-day lockout, Maddon stated.

“We weren’t permitted to speak to folks, and I didn’t get to him in time, and it was only a dialog we had been having,” Maddon stated. “However the conclusion was, we all the time needed to discuss to Mike about it and see how he feels, and he feels actually good.”

Does Maddon remorse that Trout first discovered of the concept on Twitter?

“There’s no different solution to discover out something anymore, proper?” Maddon stated. “We talked about it. He’s advantageous.”

Trout injured his calf final Might 17, suffered a setback in late-July and didn’t return. He stated he hasn’t felt tightness or discomfort within the calf since mid-October and was capable of full his regular winter exercise routine.

“I really feel nice,” stated Trout, who, at 6 ft 2 and 237 kilos, is about six kilos beneath his normal taking part in weight. “That is the most effective I’ve felt shortly. No points with the calf. Don’t really feel it in any respect. It was an amazing offseason, no setbacks, nothing.”

The Angels, derailed by far too many accidents to key gamers throughout their seven-year playoff drought, made a number of adjustments of their medical and coaching staffs this winter, hiring Mike Frostad from Atlanta as head athletic coach and Matt Tenney from Arizona as power andconditioning coach.

Trout plans to huddle early in camp with the brand new workers to plot applications that can assist maintain him on the sphere. If the Angels are going to contend in 2022, they’ll want Trout and third baseman Anthony Rendon, who had season-ending proper hip surgical procedure final August, in peak type.

“Mike is gonna throw some stuff at me,” Trout stated. “I’m positive we’ll have an amazing plan and go from there.”

Trout stated he “loved each minute” of his offseason in Millville, N.J., along with his 1½-year-old son, Beckham, who’s “working round, climbing on issues, speaking … catching fish, hitting golf balls, placing balls on the tee for me,” he stated. “Fatherhood is the most effective.”

However Trout was saddened by final month’s trial through which former Angels communications director Eric Kay was convicted of supplying the medication that led to the demise of pitcher Tyler Skaggs in 2019.

“It was powerful for everyone, the baseball household normally,” Trout stated. “It’s a really unhappy scenario.”

5 former Angels gamers — Matt Harvey, Blake Parker, Mike Morin, Cam Bedrosian and C.J. Cron — testified through the trial that in addition they used opioids whereas with the Angels.

Did Trout, in his eleventh full season, have any sense for what was occurring within the clubhouse on the time?

“I didn’t,” he stated. “I didn’t.”

Notes

Rendon and nearer Raisel Iglesias haven’t but reported to camp. Maddon stated each are coping with “household” points and are anticipated to reach quickly. … The Angels will open Cactus League play Friday in opposition to Oakland in Mesa, Ariz. They’ll play Arizona at residence on Saturday and Seattle in Peoria, Ariz., on Sunday. … Bally Sports activities West introduced it is going to televise all 18 of the Angels’ spring coaching video games.