Angels’ All-Star OF Mike Trout
Simply ‘the best’ in the game
WASHINGTON – There’s a crowd around Mike Trout for the outfielder’s All-Star Game media session Monday afternoon, but one more manageable than the mobs surrounding local heroes including Bryce Harper and rumored trade candidates such as Manny Machado.
On the field, Trout shows off a dizzying array of skills — unrelenting plate discipline, light-tower power, blazing speed, incredible instincts — that have made him a perennial MVP candidate since he broke into the league for good at 20 in 2012. Behind the microphone, his appeal is far more subtle. He fields questions earnestly and affably but offers no fodder whatsoever for controversy.
“Obviously the flyover’s going to be great here because it’s in D.C.,” Trout says when asked about the All-Star introductions. “They prep it, you have your name announced, your team announced. It’s a fun day.”
This is Trout’s seventh full big-league season and seventh All-Star nod. To his peers, there seems no doubt: He is the best ballplayer on the planet.
“Mike Trout’s the best player in baseball,” Reds first baseman Joey Votto says. “He’s the best at everything. His only weakness — not even a weakness. His only average to above-average tool is his arm, and that’s me nitpicking. He’s still throwing guys out. He still has an accurate arm. He’s the best hitter in the game. He’s in the conversation for best baserunner. He plays center field and might win his first Gold Glove this year.
“He’s just clearly been the best for a long time; there’s never been a stretch of time where you’ve had doubts about that. There was a little bit of time where I thought I could be the best hitter in the game. And then he came along and let me know, ‘I’m so sorry about that.’ ”
“He has been the best player since he’s been in the majors, and he’s never not been the best player,” Diamondbacks ace Zack Greinke says. “Probably why he’s so good is that he’s up there with the best in every part of the game. The thing that makes him even better is I don’t know if he’s had any slumps. He’s always the best player. Even at his worst, he’s still one of the best.”
On his experience with the All-Star Game, Trout says he feels more relaxed now and knows what to expect. He laughs when asked if he feels like a host to younger players in the game but says he is glad to help show them the ropes.
“Obviously if they have questions, I’ll definitely answer them,” he says. “Obviously I’m here. If they need anything, I’m here to help.”
Trout peps up a little when asked about his teammates: how much he has learned from Albert Pujols, how special it has been to watch and get to know Shohei Ohtani. A reporter who covers the Eagles asks Trout about his favorite NFL team, and the outfielder explains how exciting it was to watch them win the Super Bowl.
“Mike, one more thing: Can you give a ‘hello’ to Angels fans back home?” asks one reporter.
“Sure, yeah,” Trout says. “Hey, Angels fans back home! I’m going to represent you guys tomorrow. I’m going to go out and play hard, and we’ll see what happens.”
Trout spends a lot of time thinking about his answer when asked to name his most stylish teammate, then settles on Luis Valbuena. Asked his least stylish teammate, he names Ohtani.
“Sometimes he wears the same shirts a couple days in a row on the road,” he says. “I don’t want to put him on blast, but ...”
Then he clarifies. “He’s a good friend of mine.”
Trout’s transcendent baseball greatness has come in the era of the 24-hour news cycle, where athletes’ popularity and visibility are frequently conflated with their ability to generate fodder for hot takes. But his demeanor appears about as consistent as his on-field performance, and so his rise to stardom has come with questions about his relative inability to register as a national name on par with his equals — in that there are any — in football and basketball.
“I try to do as much as I can but keep it to a point where I can still play baseball,” he says when asked about off-field promotional activities. “Obviously you want to get out there, but you’ve got to pick and choose, for sure.”
Since 2012, Trout has not gone more than two consecutive games without reaching base safely. His teammates have long praised him for his even temper. And it could be that the keel that prevents Trout from generating headlines with his mouth is the same that allows him to keep doing it with his bat. In the media session Monday, Trout appears thrown only when asked by a young reporter if he believes in aliens.
“Wow,” he says. “Ahhh ... I don’t know. No.”
This is Mike Trout: Extraordinarily talented, friendly and patient with fans and media, and unlikely to generate any hotly contested sound bites. It’s all part of the whole, and the whole Mike Trout is the guy achieving unprecedented baseball accomplishments. That it’s not enough to fire up the hype machine is an indictment only of the hype machine.