The oft-injured three-time MVP left Wednesday’s game between the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners after running out a ground ball in the third inning.
After the game, manager Ron Washington told reporters that Trout felt soreness in his left knee when he hit the bag and that he was removed from the game as a precaution. It wasn’t immediately clear when Trout will return to the lineup.
Trout experienced his soreness after sprinting to first base after grounding out on this close play:
Here is Mike Trout’s final at-bat of the game as he was pinch-hit for in the top of the fourth inning
The Angels have not announced why Trout was pulled from the game
There was no immediate sign that Trout experienced any issues on the play. But the at-bat was his last of the day. He was replaced in the lineup by Jo Adell for his next scheduled at-bat. The Mariners won the game, 9-3.
Trout, 33, is playing his 15th MLB season, all of which he’s played with the Angels. A 12-time All-Star and three-time AL MVP, he’s one of the greatest hitters of his generation.
Injuries have limited his availability and production over the previous five seasons. Since 2020, Trout has played in more than 82 games in a single season once (119 in 2022). He’s been limited to 53 games or fewer in three of those seasons, including a 29-game outing in 2024.
Trout has struggled through 28 games in 2025. He had a .173/.261/.462 slash line in 104 at-bats prior to Wednesday’s game. His power remains intact when he does make good contact. Trout has nine home runs and 18 RBI on the season.
The oft-injured three-time MVP left Wednesday’s game between the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners after running out a ground ball in the third inning.
After the game, manager Ron Washington told reporters that Trout felt soreness in his left knee when he hit the bag and that he was removed from the game as a precaution. It wasn’t immediately clear when Trout will return to the lineup.
Trout experienced his soreness after sprinting to first base after grounding out on this close play:
Here is Mike Trout’s final at-bat of the game as he was pinch-hit for in the top of the fourth inning
The Angels have not announced why Trout was pulled from the game
There was no immediate sign that Trout experienced any issues on the play. But the at-bat was his last of the day. He was replaced in the lineup by Jo Adell for his next scheduled at-bat. The Mariners won the game, 9-3.
Trout, 33, is playing his 15th MLB season, all of which he’s played with the Angels. A 12-time All-Star and three-time AL MVP, he’s one of the greatest hitters of his generation.
Injuries have limited his availability and production over the previous five seasons. Since 2020, Trout has played in more than 82 games in a single season once (119 in 2022). He’s been limited to 53 games or fewer in three of those seasons, including a 29-game outing in 2024.
Trout has struggled through 28 games in 2025. He had a .173/.261/.462 slash line in 104 at-bats prior to Wednesday’s game. His power remains intact when he does make good contact. Trout has nine home runs and 18 RBI on the season.
A narrow 2-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday could not save the Colorado Rockies from claiming the worst April record in the history of Major League Baseball.
After their 8-2 loss on Tuesday, the Rockies bounced back, putting an end to an eight-game skid and giving them a 5-25 record.
According to The Athletic, the Rockies are on pace to lose 135 games, 14 more than Chicago’s 121 losses last year.
Although the Rockies are not known as a winning franchise, their disastrous start this season boasts a catastrophic drop from previous years. In 33 years as a team, Colorado has only nine winning seasons, and has made the playoffs only five times. The Rockies’ most successful season was in 2007, when they were swept by the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.
At the pace they are moving, the Rockies could give the 1899 Cleveland Spiders a run for their money. That Spiders team holds the worst record in MLB history, 20-134, and went 7-22 in their first 29 games.
“Guys are angry. Guys are pissed. All the adjectives you want to throw out there,” Rockies manager Bud Black said, according to The Athletic. “These guys are professional baseball players who want to win games and want to do well, and it just hasn’t happened as a group. We just don’t have enough guys playing well.”
Fortunately for the Rockies, they have five months to turn their season around. Colorado will begin its next series against the San Francisco Giants on Thursday.
A narrow 2-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday could not save the Colorado Rockies from claiming the worst April record in the history of Major League Baseball.
After their 8-2 loss on Tuesday, the Rockies bounced back, putting an end to an eight-game skid and giving them a 5-25 record.
According to The Athletic, the Rockies are on pace to lose 135 games, 14 more than Chicago’s 121 losses last year.
Although the Rockies are not known as a winning franchise, their disastrous start this season boasts a catastrophic drop from previous years. In 33 years as a team, Colorado has only nine winning seasons, and has made the playoffs only five times. The Rockies’ most successful season was in 2007, when they were swept by the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.
At the pace they are moving, the Rockies could give the 1899 Cleveland Spiders a run for their money. That Spiders team holds the worst record in MLB history, 20-134, and went 7-22 in their first 29 games.
“Guys are angry. Guys are pissed. All the adjectives you want to throw out there,” Rockies manager Bud Black said, according to The Athletic. “These guys are professional baseball players who want to win games and want to do well, and it just hasn’t happened as a group. We just don’t have enough guys playing well.”
Fortunately for the Rockies, they have five months to turn their season around. Colorado will begin its next series against the San Francisco Giants on Thursday.
Mike Trout was sidelined on Wednesday with knee soreness. (Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Mike Trout is dealing with another injury scare.
The oft-injured three-time MVP left Wednesday’s game between the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners after running out a ground ball in the third inning.
After the game, manager Ron Washington told reporters that Trout felt soreness in his left knee when he hit the bag and that he was removed from the game as a precaution. It wasn’t immediately clear when Trout will be able to return to the lineup.
Here’s the play in which Trout experienced his soreness. He sprinted to first base after hitting a ground ball and was called out on a close play.
Here is Mike Trout’s final at-bat of the game as he was pinch-hit for in the top of the fourth inning
The Angels have not announced why Trout was pulled from the game
There was no immediate sign that Trout experienced any issues on the play. But the at-bat was his last of the day. He was replaced in the lineup by Jo Adell for his next scheduled at-bat. The Mariners won the game, 9-3.
Trout, 33, is playing his 15th MLB season, all of which he’s played with the Angels. A 12-time All-Star and three-time AL MVP, he’s one of the greatest hitters of his generation.
But injuries have limited his availability and production over the previous five seasons. Since 2020, Trout’s played in more than 82 games in a single season just once (119 in 2022). He’s been limited to 53 games or fewer in three of those seasons, including a 29-game outing in 2024.
Trout has struggled so far through 28 games in 2025. He had a .173/.261/.462 slash line in 104 at-bats prior to Wednesday’s game. But his power remains intact when he does make good contact. Trout has nine home runs and 18 RBI on the season.
Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels was named the 2025 NBA Most Improved Player on Wednesday, winning the award over Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham and L.A. Clippers big Ivica Zubac.
Daniels ran away with the award. He earned 44 first-place votes and 332 total points, nearly double what Zubac earned for his second-place finish. Cunningham finished third with 122 points.
Daniels arrived in Atlanta this past season after two years with the New Orleans Pelicans and saw his numbers soar with the Hawks. He capped off his first campaign with career-best averages of 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and a league-leading three steals per game.
His shooting also improved from 43.5% in his first two seasons to 49.3% this year. Daniels’ performance earned him a starting spot in the rotation, which he did not get in two years with the Pelicans.
Cunningham averaged 26.1 points and 9.1 assists this season with the Pistons, whom he helped lead to the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Zubac averaged 16.8 points and a career-high 12.6 rebounds this season with the Clippers.
Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels was named the 2025 NBA Most Improved Player on Wednesday, winning the award over Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham and L.A. Clippers big Ivica Zubac.
Daniels ran away with the award. He earned 44 first-place votes and 332 total points, nearly double what Zubac earned for his second-place finish. Cunningham finished third with 122 points.
Daniels arrived in Atlanta this past season after two years with the New Orleans Pelicans and saw his numbers soar with the Hawks. He capped off his first campaign with career-best averages of 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and a league-leading three steals per game.
His shooting also improved from 43.5% in his first two seasons to 49.3% this year. Daniels’ performance earned him a starting spot in the rotation, which he did not get in two years with the Pelicans.
Cunningham averaged 26.1 points and 9.1 assists this season with the Pistons, whom he helped lead to the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Zubac averaged 16.8 points and a career-high 12.6 rebounds this season with the Clippers.
Third baseman Max Muncy, reacting after hitting a homer in the second inning, is among a group of key position players for the Dodgers who are the oldest in MLB. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
With the Lakers, Clippers and Kings all one loss from summer vacation, the sporting eyes of Los Angeles turn to the Dodgers.
If you’ve been busy watching the NBA and NHL playoffs, let us catch you up on the Dodgers. After a start so good that folks giddily wondered if the Dodgers could win every game, and after a couple of runs so bad that the Dodgers twice fell into third place in the National League West, the opening month is over and the verdict is in: The Dodgers are who we thought they are.
They are in first place, in the toughest division in the major leagues. They have 21 victories, the most by any Dodgers team at the end of April since their streak of annual postseason appearances started in 2013. They are on pace to win 110 games, and their odds of making the playoffs stand at 98.3%, according to Baseball Prospectus.
There are 29 major league teams that start the season hoping to advance to the playoffs, and then there are the Dodgers, who start planning for October in March. For all the angst about the Dodgers’ injured pitchers, well, that is all part of the plan.
The Dodgers awoke Wednesday with 13 pitchers on the injured list, the most of any major league team, matching the combined total of the rest of the NL West. They have 32 pitchers under control: on the active roster, on a minor league option, on the injured list, or on two-way status (Shohei Ohtani, who is expected to resume pitching later this season).
They do not try to find five starting pitchers and ride them all season. They do try to end up with five healthy and effective starters for the postseason, and they try to maximize their chances to do that by collecting as many pitchers as they can, with the support of an ownership group willing to pay players to rehabilitate.
No one pitched more innings last season than Gavin Stone, at 140. In 2013, Clayton Kershaw pitched 259 innings, including the postseason.
However, as the Dodgers have become acutely aware of managing the workloads of their starting pitchers, they have not prioritized managing the workloads of their key position players.
The Dodgers have the oldest group of position players in the majors, and the sustained success means extra weeks on the schedule every year.
Over the past five years, Mookie Betts has 205 postseason at-bats and Freddie Freeman 175. Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees has 119 and, among NL West rivals, Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks has 66 and Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres has 48.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the team has discussed that issue, but mostly in regard to catching. Will Smith had 105 at-bats last April and 76 this April; backup Austin Barnes had 21 at-bats last April and 32 this April (and he is batting .250 this April, 27 points above his career average).
Among other position players, Roberts said, “I don’t know if that tax of playing an extra month is necessarily a disadvantage for the following season.”
The Dodgers’ renowned research and development department has not done a deep dive into that question, according to president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.
“So much of our focus is on pitching,” Friedman said, “and, after a long season, what the offseason program looks like, what the ramp-up looks like, what the season looks like. I don’t worry about it that much on the position player front.”
While “load management” is established in the NBA lexicon, Roberts said he is less concerned in baseball because the postseason features more off days than the regular season, including nearly a week off after the regular season if your team is one of the top two seeds in each league.
“They’re actually more antsy and rested than we would actually like,” Roberts said. “It’s a tricky one.
“To give Freddie Freeman off days to say that you’re managing his workload, I think it just makes some people feel better that they’ll be ready for the postseason. There’s no correlation. And it’s not an exact science.”
Freeman said the Dodgers do manage his workload, but not always with days off. On Tuesday night, with the Dodgers enjoying a big lead, Freeman was removed after six innings.
“They do such a good job of load management here,” said the 35-year-old Freeman, “and I’m reluctantly to starting to get on board with it as I get older.
“I ingrained in myself that I get paid to do a job and I do my job. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around, ‘You’re not doing your job today.’ ”
On Wednesday, Freeman homered, singled and drove in two runs. The Dodgers again ran up the lead, and again they removed him after six innings.
In less than a week, the Mets’ bullpen has lost a pair of lefty relievers to injuries. While the severity of A.J. Minter’s recent lat strain remains unclear, the team announced Wednesday afternoon that Danny Young has been placed on the 15-day injured list with an elbow sprain.
The roster move was retroactive to April 27, a day after Young made his last appearance. It wasn’t the strongest month for the 31-year-old, as he logged a 4.32 ERA across 8.1 innings (10 games) with 13 strikeouts.
Young’s stint as the lone southpaw in the bullpen was brief, and with youngster Brandon Waddell expected to pitch in bulk relief against the Diamondbacks on Wednesday night, the Mets may only have right-handed relievers at their disposal for the foreseeable future.
In a corresponding move, the Mets recalled righty Chris Devenski from Triple-A Syracuse and transferred lefty Brooks Raley to the 60-day injured list.
The longtime TNT broadcaster, and soon-to-be ESPN broadcaster, had plenty to say about the Lakers on Wednesday during an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show,” two days after they fell behind 3-1 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
To put it simply, Barkley wasn’t surprised. He also had some words for how his future employers at ESPN treat the team:
“The Lakers, I told you two months ago, six weeks ago, the Lakers aren’t a good team. They got two really, really good players, but not a good team. ESPN just swings on them like everything tastes like chicken, but the Lakers are not a good team. They’re going to lose either this round or next round, but more likely this round. They’re not very good.”
Asked to expand on the Lakers’ future with Luka Dončić and LeBron James, Barkley didn’t sound optimistic about the team’s current roster, which was assembled somewhat haphazardly via the trade that brought Dončić to Los Angeles.
Charles Barkley has seen enough from the Lakers, and their ESPN coverage. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
“The Lakers are not going to be a contender with the team they have now. Your best player can’t be 40. That makes no sense whatsoever. Your best player can’t be 40. And JJ was wrong the other night to play those guys the entire second half because, No. 1, it’s probably going to affect them tonight. It definitely affected them down the stretch the other night. Both of those guys missed lay-ups and they made some mental mistakes with the ball.
“This is not the Lakers’ year. And people think I hate on the Lakers. I told you. I said, ‘The Lakers aren’t a good team.’ But ESPN was just swinging on them like they were damn King Kong.”
The Lakers are certainly in an interesting spot despite benefiting from perhaps the most shocking trade in NBA history. Getting a 25-year-old All-NBA player like Dončić is a gift, but as the Dallas Mavericks showed, his presence alone doesn’t get the job done.
It’s worth remembering Los Angeles also tried to pair Dončić with a big man who fit his talents with the Mark Williams trade, but then the team spiked the deal after seeing the Charlotte Hornets center’s medicals. Jaxson Hayes, the team’s current starting center, played four minutes in Game 4, while Alex Len, the only other traditional big man on the roster, was a DNP.
Just as Patrick was preparing to change the subject, Barkley interjected with an additional point about how ESPN has covered Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future with the Milwaukee Bucks and contrasted it to the environment during his playing days:
“Dan, you know, the clowns at ESPN, they always make me laugh,” he told Patrick. “Dan, you know, I’m going to be a straight shooter. It’s interesting how they were discussing Giannis [Antetokounmpo] this week, like, ‘Should Giannis want to leave?’ I clearly don’t remember when I played, I don’t remember saying, ‘We need to get Charles Barkley some help in Philadelphia, or Phoenix, or Karl Malone in Utah. Patrick Ewing some help in New York.’ I remember the guys in the media kissing my ass and Karl’s ass, and Patrick’s ass. ‘Well, Giannis should want to leave Milwaukee now, because he can’t win the championship.’ I wonder where all the guys were when I played, asking me to get some help.
“I mean, they were kissing. They were like loving the Lakers, loving the Celtics, loving Michael [Jordan], loving the Pistons. But I don’t remember all these kiss-asses back in the day, saying, ‘You know, we need to get Charles Barkley some help, because he can’t win a championship in Philly or Phoenix.’ It makes me laugh. They’re like, ‘Giannis gotta leave Milwaukee.’ You know, that already started. Like, wow. Y’all more concerned about us other great players back in our day, but y’all of a sudden now y’all like, ‘Giannis has got to leave Milwaukee now. Is his championship window closed?’ I’m like, ‘Man, thanks for helping me out when I went out there with nobody.”
You have to figure ESPN knew this going in, but you can never expect Charles Barkley to speak with a filter.
