Let’s get right to it today …
MIKE TROUT, RF LAA (inflamed knee)
Think about the last time you watched a right fielder. He jogged out to his position, he got in some warm up tosses, and a couple times a night, they move to field a fly ball or get a grounder back to the infield. I don’t have the data on how many times they have to do something on a dead sprint or dive, or make a big throw to the plate, but it exists.
But is that significantly different from a center fielder?
Ignore the jog out to the field. He’ll do that, round trip, about nine times a game. The movement around the field itself is along the lines of how a goalie in soccer moves - not much, until they really have to. That latter has been studied a lot - “Quantification of External Training Load Among Elite-Level Soccer Goalkeepers During a Competitive Microcycle” is a typical high level study. You won’t find similar in baseball, I’ll wager.
Given all that, why do the Angels think Mike Trout moving to right field makes him any less likely to be injured? Trout couldn’t identify a cause of his original injury:
Trout, 32, said the hardest part is he’s not even sure when he sustained the injury. He had no knee issues leading up to Monday’s series opener, but felt something while jogging off the field in the third inning. Trout continued to play through the injury, including stealing second base in the seventh inning and scoring the eventual winning run from second base on a wild pitch. But his knee continued to worsen and he underwent an MRI exam on Tuesday that revealed the damage.
His recurrence was similarly undramatic. If we look at the duties of CF vs RF in general, they’re largely the same. CF covers a bit more ground, or should by the convention of the position if not the layout of the field. It isn’t as if Trout will have his back to a short Yankee Stadium or a Fenway monster. There’s a bit more risk he runs into a wall and slightly more that he runs into another fielder in right, but it’s minuscule. Even though knowing ground covered data exists, there’s no evidence that this move reduces injury. It’s conventional thinking, but thinking that’s without substance. It’s doing it like this, because that’s how we’ve always done it. Aging or injured? Move down the defensive spectrum.
We’ve seen plenty of players with major leg injuries continue their careers as DHs - Harold Baines, Edgar Martinez, Yordan Alvarez. There’s at least some anecdotal evidence that DH has less injuries. Trout isn’t hobbled like any of those guys. He had a surgery that is considered as minor as they come and despite the complication, it’s still largely successful in the short and medium terms. The Angels don’t listen to me (nor should they) but I’ll give them one piece of advice here: get Ken Griffey Jr. in there. He’s not a medical expert, but no one’s gone through something as close.
GIANCARLO STANTON, DH NYY (inflamed elbows)
I’ve already discussed the unusual nature of Giancarlo Stanton’s elbow issues, but I want to point out how something like this can be a sign of things to come. It’s well known that the best indication of future injury is past injury, even to different areas. One of the things that’s becoming clearer, though it is still an emerging science in the sports space, is that inflammation is a major issue. There enough “-itises” out there to know this is true, but dealing with the inflammation has gone from ice to no ice, to massage to compression and percussion and beyond. We’ve gone from aspirin to advil to specialized biologics that are changing lives for those with autoimmune disorders and some of that is coming back to sports.
When we see an unusual issue like this, the question that comes to my mind is what the underlying causes are. As I said on Foul Territory, it’s not like Stanton is hitting more than others off the HitTrax or Trajekt, leading to overuse injuries. Instead, something is creating an irritant and his body is responding to it in a way that says, very simply, stop doing that. He can’t stop hitting, absent a retirement which no one is suggesting, for very long. But is this response merely action/reaction? Your heel gets a blister if the shoe rubs it wrong, but inflammation isn’t always as simple.
Is this a precursor or sign of problems to come? It’s not good, but note that Stanton and Boone both say this has been ongoing and managed. This is just a very unusual thing and one of the reasons Stanton is so frustrating. There always seems to be something keeping him back from making use of the prodigious talent.
EVAN CARTER, OF TEX (inflamed back)
Evan Carter declined to provide a full diagnosis or explanation of his back injury. While I understand why he doesn’t want to address it, I do want to raise a couple points about this. It’s certainly his right to have medical autonomy and privacy, but that does need to be balanced with the fact that his job is made possible by the public’s desire to see him play. No one cares when your neighbor Bob has back surgery and is off work from his office job. Carter’s making six figures because fans want to see him play. They care about him in ways he likely doesn’t understand.
Much like with teams, hiding information doesn’t help. There’s always leaks, there’s always speculation, and the simple truth usually clears things up and ends the questions. “Putting coins in the trust jar” is how I’ve referred to it and it goes for players as much as teams. The team that’s most transparent and open? The Kansas City Chiefs, so don’t tell me it hurts your chances by doing so.
The worst of this is that the uncertainty leads almost everyone to think the worst case is correct. For a player this young to already have back issues is enough, but if this is something that could be easily managed or even controlled, let alone fixed, it would be understandable. Context is everything in sports, but especially so with injuries.
After the procedure last fall, the hope was that Carter would be able to come back and resume his career. Even if this is just management of his workload, there’s still niggling worries here, ones that don’t have to be there. Carter bears close watching and his value remains in huge flux. If healthy and back to his previous level, Carter and Wyatt Langford could be one of the best young outfield combos in the league. I’m not quite as high on Alejandro Osuna as some, but add him to the discussion in ‘26.
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