{"id":651741,"date":"2026-03-30T03:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T03:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651741\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T03:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T03:09:15","slug":"trout-has-dipped-into-the-fountain-of-youth-and-looks-like-his-past-self-to-start-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651741\/","title":{"rendered":"Trout has dipped into the fountain of youth and looks like his past self to start the season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Angels<\/a> are enjoying a nice start to the 2026 season. Splitting the opening series with the Houston Astros<\/a>, 2-2, things are looking up for them in this pivotal year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many players have been stepping up, but only one is really making a difference above everyone else. Everyone, please welcome back three-time American League Most Valuable Player, center fielder Mike Trout.<\/p>\n

This franchise has had to endure some hard times over the last couple of seasons, and that includes Trout himself. He has had some underwhelming seasons, with only one standout run in 2022. But now, it seems like the clock has reversed back to the mid-2010’s and No. 27 is playing some solid baseball<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Power is back on<\/p>\n

From 2020 through the end of last season, Trout has had a rough go of it. With only 119 home runs, a batting average of .264. That is abysmally low compared to his MVP-years a few seasons prior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This season has seen the power come back to life in the opening series against Houston. Trout is currently batting .456, with two longballs and seven walks. Those walks are the most in the majors. Trout’s six hits on the year are good enough for a share of the third-most in all of baseball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Angels have a chance to be a sleeper in the AL West, and Trout can be a catalyst for that. There is still a long season to go, but you cannot ignore what he has done so far, and history shows what damage he can do.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Angels are enjoying a nice start to the 2026 season. Splitting the opening series with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,5,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-651741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-angels","8":"tag-angels","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-angels","12":"tag-laangels","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-angels","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesangels","17":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116315931482471924","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}