It was late afternoon on the Fourth of July when Angels manager Kurt Suzuki gathered his team and staff in the home clubhouse for a pregame meeting. If you looked closely, you could find a clue as to what was afoot. Angels senior director of communications Adam Chodzko held up a phone facing toward the room. That’s when center fielder Mike Trout, with his wife and two sons following the video stream on Chodzko’s phone, heard Suzuki announce that he was voted as an All-Star Game starter.
“They were on FaceTime,” Trout says of his wife, Jessica, and sons Beckham, 5, and Jordy, 2. “They found out the same time I did. So that was pretty cool.”
It is the 11th time Trout has been elected to start an All-Star Game. Only Cal Ripken and George Brett have been honored so often in American League history. This one, though, was unique and, for Trout, emotional. Beset by injuries in recent years, he is going back to the All-Star Game for the first time since in 2023 and playing in one for the first time since 2019. And this one happens to be in Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, the ballpark closest to his home in Millville, N.J., 40 miles away.
This All-Star Game stands as a fitting venue to confirm the renaissance season of Trout, a two-time All-Star Game MVP who turns 35 next month. His on-base percentage (.388) is the highest it’s been in five years. He has played more than two-thirds of his team’s games in center field for the first time in four years. He has hit 18 home runs, the most at the break by a center fielder 34 or older since Ken Griffey Jr. 20 years ago. His sprint speed and bat speed have improved this year. Who does that as they age through their mid-30s?
All of that is nothing compared to the feeling Trout knows again in the batter’s box. After a winter addressing his workout regimen and his diet, Trout rediscovered the joy of what he loves best on the field.
“I can feel it in my body after the work I put in,” he says. “If you look at the past few years, it’s a weird thing because in the past I still would do the things I needed to prepare, but it was a confidence thing, getting my body back underneath me—knowing that I could still go out there and compete.
“I love hitting. There's nothing better than hitting. I enjoy it. You can ask anybody in the Angels’ clubhouse or the coaches or whatever. I'm just a guy that likes to study the game and just to compete at the plate. And so, for me the feeling of when it's right, like when we played in New York [in April, with five home runs in four games], there's nothing better than that when you're feeling good at the plate. That's the ultimate. So, yeah, that fun is back, for sure.”
The renaissance of Trout began largely unnoticed last year as another miserable Angels season ran out. He was slugging .419 on Sept. 9, headed toward his worst slugging season since his 40-game debut as a teenager. But as he regained strength in his left knee, the source of several injuries over the previous two seasons, Trout began driving the ball with authority. For the remainder of the season, covering 17 games, Trout slugged .567 and hit six homers. A spark was lit.
“Looking back, that’s when it started, over the last three weeks of last season,” he says. “I took that into the offseason and made it my goal not to go through another season like that [with injuries].”
Under the guidance of his personal trainer and Angels trainers, Trout switched his regimen to include more frequent, mobility-based workouts with less intense weight training.
“I have everybody on the same page so I can continue what I've been doing in the offseason, just taking right into spring training,” he says. “The things I've done in the past, I did different this year. I used to work out once or twice a week pretty heavy. Now I modified it, as in I'm doing something every single day with the strength guy. He comes up with a plan where it's like upper [body] Monday, lower Tuesday, core Wednesday, and then like maybe a mobility Wednesday with the core, and then do the same thing over again. But it's not a heavy lift. It's more of just ‘keep the body going.’
“In the past, I would do an upper body lift and lower body lift and then have a day or two off from the weight room. But now, I've been consistent since day one of spring. I haven't missed a day of working out before the game, getting my body right, preparing myself, and I think that's helped a lot because it's not more about just getting stronger and building muscle. It's more of just preparing your body and keeping your muscles strong and healthy.
“For me in the past it was more like I felt the mindset was like, ‘Okay, well, my body's a little sore. I need to cut back on a workout day or just not do too much before.’ And now it's more like if I can just keep a happy balance of maintaining that same focus every single day, my body actually feels a lot better.”
Trout also made changes to how he eats.
“I got a chef in the offseason, which was big,” he says. “Three or four times a week she would come in and she'd cook for us right there. And then she'd make me a post-workout meal and a lunch for the following day.
“It was more like I still want to have the family meal, me grilling a few nights or Jess cooking for us, because Jess can cook really well. So, it's a good balance with that.
“I'm kind of a picky eater. If it tastes good, I'll eat it, and that was basically what the whole message was to her. Like, I'll try anything, and if I like it, I'll eat it. I'm a big steak guy—a lot of meat, chicken, fish. So, then I expanded in the offseason with trying a few different things that usually if I see it on the plate, I wouldn't eat. I think it's a combination of all that and offseason training-wise, it was more of getting mobility. And obviously, there were days where I was trying to lift heavy weights and stuff, but it was more agility, mobility, flexibility and work like that. It was a good balance.”
There was one more change he needed in place for a better season. He told Suzuki, the Angels’ rookie manager and a former teammate, he wanted to return to center field after in 2025 playing only at designated hitter (106 games) and right field (22 games).
“I feel like being in the outfield balances it out instead of just hitting,” he says.
Trout this season has started 64 games in center field and 12 as a DH. He has remained healthy other than a hamstring strain that sidelined him for three weeks. Meanwhile, pitchers keep feeding Trout fastballs, knowing he is a renowned low-ball, breaking ball hitter who in recent years struggled against four-seamers (.228 from 2023–25). No hitter sees more four-seam fastballs this year than Trout (43.6%). But the old scouting report no longer works so well against him. Through Wednesday, only Ben Rice of the Yankees and Sal Stewart of the Reds were better against four-seamers, according to Run Value, than Trout.
Even with a rejuvenated Trout, though, the Angels are again irrelevant to the AL pennant race. Trout hasn’t played on a winning team in 11 years. The Angels are 727–886 (.451) in that time while burning through 213 pitchers, only one of whom has won more than 25 games (Shohei Ohtani), seven managers and three general managers. A fourth GM is on the way as soon as interim GM John Mozeliak identifies that person.
15 years ago today, Mike Trout made his MLB debut.
— SleeperAngels (@SleeperAngels) July 8, 2026
He was 19 years old. pic.twitter.com/BjsxkcX2f7
This year’s Angels could challenge the 2024 Angels for the most losses in franchise history (99). Trout has 4 ½ years and about $160 million remaining on his contract. He has veto power over any trade. He said he intends to speak with Mozeliak about the future of the team. Mozeliak told the Los Angeles Times a trade of Trout to the Phillies is “not happening.”
“I haven't really talked to him yet,” Trout says, “because I knew he was getting thrown into a fire and he's got a lot on his plate right now with the draft and everything. I really haven't had a chance to sit down with him and talk to him. I’ve talked to him in passing. But nothing like sitting sit down just to see what the vision is. But I obviously see what he says in the papers, and he knows what needs to be done to get us to the next level for sure.”
Trout’s future with the Angels is sure to be a front-burner topic in Philadelphia, especially with how he has played this season. The first time Trout played in an All-Star Game was in 2012, so long ago he replaced Josh Hamilton in left field and singled off R.A. Dickey.
That season was the start of a historic 12-year run in which Trout was selected to every AL All-Star team (no game was played in 2020) and posted a slash line of .303/.414/.586 for an OPS of 1.001. Now he returns, not quite with those jaw-dropping numbers of his youthful prime, but the knowledge of something more satisfying at his age. With his legs steady beneath him, he can still fire that familiar short-armed, lightning bolt of a swing of his and know once again the fun of being great.
