Angels' Mike Trout Activated from IL After Recovery from Back Injury
Mike Trout is back for the Los Angeles Angels ahead of Friday's game against the Detroit Tigers.
The Angels officially activated their All-Star outfielder from the injured list after he missed 30 games with a back injury.
The move was expected after Trout told reporters prior to Wednesday's game against the Seattle Mariners he was on track to play this weekend.
"Everything feels great," Trout said. "I had a recovery day yesterday and I'm doing some stuff today, and hopefully I'll be in there on Friday. I'm full-go."
Trout took batting practice on the field last week when the Angels were hosting the Minnesota Twins. He faced live pitching on Monday and had a workout on Wednesday.
The Angels waited until July 18 to place Trout on the injured list with rib cage inflammation. He hadn't appeared in a game since July 12 with what the club originally said was back spasms.
There was concern about Trout's long-term future after the team's head athletic trainer, Mike Forstad, told reporters on July 27 the three-time American League MVP had a "pretty rare condition" in his spine that could affect him for the rest of his career.
Trout downplayed the situation when he caught wind of Forstad's comments.
"I got back and my phone was blowing up: 'My career is over,'" he said. "It's just rare for a baseball player. I just have to stay on top of it."
There was no indication from his performance prior to going on the injured list that anything might be wrong. Trout has a .270/.368/.599 slash line with 24 homers and 51 RBI in 282 at-bats this season.
The Angels are in the midst of another disappointing year despite having arguably the two most dominant players of this era in Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Their 51-67 record is the fourth-worst mark in the AL, 12.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays for the final wild-card spot.
