LOS ANGELES _ Mike Trout will undergo season-ending right foot surgery this week, the Angels announced Sunday.
Trout will have the procedure to remove a Morton's neuroma from his right foot. Having last played on Sept. 7, Trout said Saturday night he was hoping to return to the lineup for the team's series finale against the Tampa Bay Rays. But he still felt pain in his foot during pregame on-field activities Sunday, leading to the decision to end his season. Morton's neuroma is a condition that causes pain in the the ball of the foot.
"Tested the foot again, wasn't getting any better," Angels manager Brad Ausmus said. "Kind of exhausted all non-surgical possibilities. So at this point, he'll have the surgery to have the neuroma removed from his foot."
The All-Star center fielder finishes the season with a .291 batting average, 1.083 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, a career-high 45 home runs, and 8.6 wins-above-replacement according to Fangraphs. He is still a frontrunner for his third career MVP award and entered Sunday leading the American League in home runs, on-base-plus-slugging percentage and wins-above-replacement. But he won't be able to pad his stats over the final two weeks.
Ausmus said the pain was bad enough that, even if the Angels were in the playoff race, he doesn't believe Trout would have been able to play.
"I think when he woke up this morning and came out here and tested it, he realized it's not a pain he can deal with," Ausmus said. "He performed at a very high level and I think he understands that at this point forcing himself on the field with a neuroma in his foot wouldn't be productive."
Injuries have decimated the 2-3-4 spots Angels' batting order. The team shut down Shohei Ohtani and Justin Upton for the season last week because of knee injuries.
