Angels' Mike Trout Breaks Silence on 2023 Struggles

The 32-year-old star believes he knows what ailed him during a rare down year.

Mike Trout was limited to 82 games last season because of injuries. Even when he was on the field, it didn’t go well.

Trout's .263 batting average, .367 on-base percentage and .490 slugging percentage would all have been career lows over any full season in the future Hall of Famer's career.  

Dig a bit deeper, and the numbers look arguably worse. Combined with his age — 32, a time when many hitters struggle to keep pace with the younger, newer crop of fireballing pitchers.

Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group broke down the crux of Trout’s struggles:

Trout’s contact rate was 76% in 2023. He had been at least 80% in every season through 2020. He was at 73% in his injury-shortened 2021 and in 2022. His troubles were especially acute against high velocity. Last year, Trout hit .197 on pitches at 95 mph or harder. The major-league average was .240. Trout had previously never hit worse than .236 on those pitches, and as recently as 2022 he hit .290.

Fletcher also asked Trout why he believes he struggled when healthy in 2023:

“I know what I’m doing wrong. I created a bad habit in the last year or two that I’m trying to get out of.”

— Mike Trout,

via Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group

Trout told Fletcher the habit is known as “sliding,” as opposed to keeping a firm base, which caused his hips to drop and lower the point of contact below the ball’s center rather than squaring it up.

It's not uncommon for hitters or pitchers to develop bad mechanical habits while trying to play through injuries. Turns out, even one of the greatest hitters of his generation isn't immune to the phenomenon.

Trout's willingness and ability to adapt his own game, and adapt to how he's pitched, is perhaps without peer. Angels general manager Perry Minasian recently told Halos Today not to count Trout out of any potential MVP conversations. 

Given his track record, his return to health — and now, his ability to identify what ailed him in 2023 — it's too soon to discount a return to form by the Angels' best player in 2024.