Outfielder Mike Trout was back in the lineup on Tuesday against the Mariners. The future Hall of Famer was sidelined on Monday with a hand injury. Trout was hit by a 94 mph fastball from Casey Legumina in the eighth inning of Sunday’s game against the Mariners. He was immediately removed from the contest.
Trout singled and scored in his return to the lineup. He was on base for Jorge Soler‘s two-run blast in the first inning. Those wouldn’t be the last fireworks from Soler that evening. Trout’s base hit had an exit velocity above 100 mph, so he would seem to be back to full strength.
The 34-year-old Trout’s production has cooled considerably after a huge opening series. The veteran slugged home runs in the first two games of the campaign. Trout racked up six hits and seven walks in the four-game set against the Astros. He’s recorded just a pair of hits since then.
We’re still working with tiny sample sizes at this point of the season, and the main development for the Angels is that Trout is healthy and available to contribute in the middle of the lineup. He played 130 games last year, his most since 2019. Trout is now back in his familiar spot in center field after spending most of 2025 at DH.
On the pitching side, right-hander Kirby Yates faced hitters on Tuesday, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. The reliever is working his way back from knee inflammation. The 39-year-old was positioned to open the year as the Angels’ closer while Ben Joyce and Robert Stephenson dealt with their own injuries, but Yates hit the IL himself shortly before Opening Day.
The Angels will see how Yates recovers from yesterday’s work and determine the next step in his rehab process, relays Fletcher. He could be headed on a minor league assignment soon. The Angels signed Yates to a one-year, $5MM pact in January. The reliever was the club’s largest spend of the offseason. Los Angeles also added veteran bullpen arms Jordan Romano and Drew Pomeranz to improve a unit that ranked 28th in ERA last season. Romano has taken over as closer, securing four saves across six scoreless innings.
The Angels’ biggest swing of the offseason was sending outfielder Taylor Ward to the Orioles for right-hander Grayson Rodriguez. After four MLB Spring Training appearances with his new club, Rodriguez went down with shoulder inflammation. The former top prospect missed all of 2025 with a lat strain. Injuries have limited him to 43 starts since his big-league debut in 2023. Rodriguez is feeling better and is nearing mound work, per Fletcher.
Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images
You mean returned to the lineup against the Braves.
I dont really get how baseball never figured out the commiserate structure for suspensions between batters and pitchers. 7 days for both is not really equal.
Unfortunately in this case equality would be a 7 game suspension for Soler and a 35 game suspension for Lopez. Starting Pitcher suspensions should be quantified in starts, not team games. So say, 7 games for Soler and 3 starts for Lopez sounds more reasonable
Rs
“7 games for Soler and 3 starts for Lopez sounds more reasonable”
Do you watch baseball?
7 games for Soler is something like 28 plate appearances
3 starts for Lopez is something like 75 plate appearances
Rsox – At first i agreed with you… but then i got to thinking. Equal if you’re talking about games they’ll both play in. But service time and pay I think is what MLB looks at when determining equality. Because, how would 35 games be equality if Lopez was a reliever? Too many variables, it could go on and on…