Mike Trout is heading back to California after just two innings of work in Triple-A Salt Lake.
The Los Angeles Angels star felt something wrong in his surgically repaired knee after his lone at-bat Tuesday, Salt Lake Bees manager Keith Johnson said. Trout talked with the Bees staff during the game and they removed him from the lineup out of precaution.
Trout is now flying back to the Angels to get his knee evaluated. There is currently no timetable for his return to his rehab assignment.
“After the at-bat, after he came back in, he felt the need to say something,” Johnson said. “We took him out as a precaution.”
Trout tore his meniscus on April 29. Tuesday was his first appearance in a live game at any level since.
After Trout was pulled from the lineup, the Angels originally listed him as day-to-day. Angels manager Ron Washington said Trout could DH in Salt Lake as he continued to rehab on Wednesday.
But hours later, the organization changed course and pulled Trout from the Bees roster. He is done with his rehab assignment for now. Johnson said he wasn’t sure what exactly led to the decision.
“I just think if there is anything that needs to be done, they want to do it with people who are very familiar with him — with his injury and with the organization,” Johnson said. “I’m not sure if you can read into it, or if there is anything I’ve been told about that. I’m just sure if there are people that he needs to see, rather than it be the doctors down here, they’d rather it be the doctors that know him, know his history.”
Johnson said he originally anticipated Trout being with the Bees through the end of the week before the Angels called him back up.
“I know what I’m told. When they determine these guys are ready, they make that call. But yeah, we were anticipating him being here through the week,” he said. “... He and [Angels general manager] Perry [Minasian], Wash and the medical people will get together [now] and see what course they are going to follow.”
Trout went through a full warmup on Tuesday that included taking batting practice, running bases and shagging fly balls.
He played two innings in center field and made one appearance at the plate.
Johnson said he didn’t notice anything wrong with Trout throughout the day.
“All things were trending in the right direction. He checked all the boxes,” the Bees manager said. “There were a few things over the course of the time [in Salt Lake] he wanted to make sure he checked off the box. "
Among the main objectives of Trout’s rehab assignment, Johnson said, was to see how Trout felt doing baseball-specific movements. That included sliding, tracking balls in the outfield and taking an extra base. A large point of emphasis for Trout, he said, would be seeing how his knee reacted to getting ready to play, then going through a game where he cooled down between innings.
“It was just a normal progression for a major league rehab guy. Try to get him out there, on his feet,” he said. “I’m not sure if I’m going into the specifics of it. But just get him back out there and see how he was feeling. The defensive side wasn’t so much for the defense, but just see how his body was going to react to standing around, coming back getting cool, and then going back and getting hot. That was the biggest thing.”
Typically, the injury takes around a month or two to get healthy. Trout is now approaching the three-month mark. Notably, tennis player Novak Djokovic returned just weeks after the same injury. He was playing in the Wimbledon final this month.
“I know there is a huge sense of frustration from his part,” Johnson said of Trout. “He knows he can help our big league ball club win and he wants to get back out there for himself. But at the same time, nobody knows his body better than him. So it is a situation where he felt the need to say something. And they are going to make sure that everything is right and move from there.”
Johnson will wait to see how the Angels proceed with Trout after he gets evaluated.
“He knows his body. [Getting pulled was] just him trying to make sure he did everything he could to take care of himself and try to be on the front end of things as a precaution,” Johnson said.
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