Mike Trout is still getting his legs underneath him as he returns to the outfield, but the Los Angeles Angels star is serious about his recovery from ongoing knee issues as he continues his comeback from a year as the Angels’ full-time DH. So much so that he’s covered 30 feet per second on the base paths, which is considered elite sprint speed by Statcast.
Trout showed off his renewed speed on Saturday in a spring training game against the Arizona Diamondbacks when he tried to beat out an infield hit against the Diamondbacks. He hit 29.9 mph, which is the fastest sprint speed Trout has shown since tearing his meniscus back in April of 2024.
“I feel great,” said Trout, who added that he’s lost roughly five pounds from last year in a report written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “I saw that. So yeah, I feel really good. … 29.9? Huh. I’m going to get to 30. Because I got more in the tank. But the 29.9 surprised me.”
New manager Kurt Suzuki is pleased by this, as you might imagine, and he said he joked about it with Trout before workouts today. Trout wasn’t in the lineup for today’s game against the Dodgers, as the Angels are babying Trout through spring training, but he will start in center field again tomorrow against the Kansas City Royals.
“It’s a great sign and we were all in the clubhouse joking about it,” Suzuki said. “Shoot, that's amazing to see. He feels good. He's moving around good. I think mentally, he's in a good place. So you know, everything's trending in the right direction.”
It’s a surprising development, especially since Trout is 34. He averaged 27.9 mph last year, and he used to avergage just under 29 up to about 29.5.
The important point in all of this so far is that Trout says his left knee feels good after a full offseason, so much so that he’s already returned to left in one spring-training game and is lobbying to return to his old post in center field.
“It’s nothing too crazy over there,” Trout said. “The sun is ridiculous out there for like the first six innings. But yeah, it was all right. I’ll be back in center tomorrow. It’s just one of those things where we talked about it and it’s just to get some reps just in case I have to go out there.”
The idea that Trout can stay healthy through a season of even part-time appearances in the outfield seems far fetched, but he’s calling the shots here, and the Angels aren’t about to tell him to stop. They will try and put up caution flags when necessary, then cross their fingers along with the rest of us and hope the experiment succeeds.