“It’s crazy because I look back, I’m like, I don’t even know when I did it.”

Trout said he noticed an “ache” in his left knee running back to the dugout in the third inning against the Phillies on Monday, but he didn’t think anything of it.

“[I] was hitting, running, didn’t feel nothing. Scoring from second, nothing. It was just after when I did activity, and I sat down, and I got back up, that’s when I’d start feeling it.”

After feeling it out throughout the game, Trout mentioned his discomfort to team trainers in the late innings of the game. After being told to see how he felt the next day, he told the team he needed it checked out, where he found out he had torn his meniscus.

Meniscus injuries tend to keep players out between 2-3 months, depending on the severity of the tear. Since 2020, there have been 12 meniscus injuries across the MLB, all but one required surgery. The only player who did not go under the knife was Angels pitcher, Andrew Velazquez in 2022. Velazquez now pitches for the Tigers Triple-A affiliate in Toledo.

Injuries have been the story of Mike Trout’s career over the last seven years. Trout has missed 281 days over the last seven seasons and has only played in 49% of his games between 2021-2023.

A wrist injury, a back injury, a broken bone in his hand, and a calf strain have sidelined him at certain points since 2018, and he hasn’t played over 120 games in a season since 2019; which happens to be the last time he won AL MVP.