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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 15: Mike Trout #27 of the Los Angeles Angels hits a two-run home run during the fifth inning of the game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on April 15, 2026 in New York City. All players are wearing the number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. (Photo by Dustin Satloff\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Angels<\/a> star Mike Trout<\/a> is drawing comparisons to some of baseball\u2019s biggest legends again.<\/p>\n After hitting five home runs in a four-game series against the New York Yankees<\/a>, Angels hitting coach Brady Anderson recently doubled down<\/a> on Trout\u2019s place next to history.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look up the all-time OPS leaders, you\u2019re quickly reminded,\u201d Anderson said Thursday, per The Athletic\u2019s Ken Rosenthal. \u201cAs you go down the top 20 you get to Mantle, then DiMaggio, then Trout. His name is right in the middle of the game\u2019s all-time legends, and rightfully so.\u201d<\/p>\n Trout hit five home runs in a four-game series at Yankee Stadium, including a 446-foot blast in the finale. He became the first visiting player to homer in four consecutive games at the current Yankee Stadium and joined a short list of players to hit five home runs in a single series against the Yankees.<\/p>\n Angels Are Seeing Vintage Trout Again<\/p>\n The numbers behind the surge are amazing, and yet not totally out of the blue.<\/p>\n Through the early part of the season, Trout\u2019s OPS has climbed back above 1.000. He has also cut his strikeout rate significantly compared to last season, while improving contact and in-zone contact rates.<\/p>\n Trout said the difference comes down to routine and preparation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty close,\u201d Trout said when asked if this is the best he has felt in years. \u201cI felt good at the end of last year. But I\u2019m just seeing the ball and staying with a routine and having a good game plan up there.\u201d<\/p>\n Health remains the biggest variable for Trout and the Angels.<\/p>\n From 2021 through 2025, injuries limited Trout to fewer total games than he missed. That stretch created uncertainty about how much production he had left. The early signs this season suggest the physical side is stabilizing again.<\/p>\n He has returned to center field regularly and is moving well defensively, another sign that his body is cooperating.<\/p>\n Legacy Conversation Returning<\/p>\n For several years, the focus centered on availability rather than production. When he was healthy, the performance remained strong, but the missed time made it harder to sustain momentum.<\/p>\n Opposing players have taken notice as well. Yankees slugger Aaron Judge<\/a> referred to Trout as the \u201cgreatest of all time\u201d earlier this week. What fans are currently witnessing is the version of Trout that looks bizarrely familiar to anyone who watched him during his peak years.<\/p>\n It is still early in the season, and the same condition applies as always: Trout needs to stay healthy.<\/p>\n But the early performance has changed the tone around him. Instead of asking whether he can still produce at an elite level, the conversation is shifting back<\/a> to how long he can maintain it.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, not surprising,\u201d Los Angeles manager Kurt Suzuki<\/a> said in response to Trout becoming the first to hit five homers in a series in the Bronx (ESPN). \u201cWhen you\u2019re with Mike every day, there\u2019s nothing that you believe that he can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, Trout is doing what he has done many times throughout his career \u2014 producing at the highest level that baseball has ever seen.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDerek Hryn<\/a> Derek Hryn is a writer for Heavy.com. He has extensive experience covering the NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA football and basketball, along with providing expert fantasy football analysis for DraftKings and SB Nation. His work has been featured at Sports Illustrated, USA Today, NBC Sports, The New York Post, and others. More about Derek Hryn<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Angels\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 15: Mike Trout #27 of the Los Angeles Angels hits a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,5,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-677547","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\/116419646961889190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677547","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=677547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}