The Los Angeles Angels hoped star outfielder Mike Trout avoided serious injury to his left thumb after a slide, but MRI results on Monday gave them the news no one wanted to hear. Trout suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb and will land on the disabled list.
For the first time in his career, Trout is headed for the disabled list. While Trout's immediate absence is for the next 10-plus days is already clear out of the picture, the timetable grows fuzzy for just how many weeks further he'll be out. One thing is for certain though, he will miss at least the next four weeks of action.
If Trout opts to undergo surgery, it's a guarantee he misses the next five to eight weeks of action and he'll have to rehab from a surgery. If Trout and team doctors opt to avoid surgery and try to rehab the injury, Trout's timetable for a return turns into much more of a question mark with the possibility of a return sooner than the timetable from surgery, but would carry far more risk.
Losing any star player would be a blow for a team, but no position player in baseball carries the weight and impact that Trout has. Before Sunday's game, he led the majors in home runs (16) and WAR (3.6).
Trout also led the American League in on-base percentage (.463), slugging percentage (.752), OPS (1.215), wRC+ (220) and is fifth in stolen bases (nine). Pair that with the Gold Glove caliber defense in center field and Trout is essentially perfection in the form of a baseball player.
In his absence, Ben Revere will likely see extended playing time. Revere's .220/.235/.340 line with a .575 OPS marks a Grand Canyon level downgrade from Trout at the plate and it puts an Angels team that desperately tried to stay afloat near .500, into a dark abyss where the team's outlook for the rest of the season is now in jeopardy.
There is no way to oversell the impact Trout has on this team. Now without him for the foreseeable future, the Angels will experience their toughest time in recent years and baseball played without the game's best player for the first time since 2010.