{"id":806978,"date":"2026-09-17T03:24:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T03:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/806978\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T03:24:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T03:24:46","slug":"angels-mike-trout-still-trying-to-improve-center-field-defense-daily-breeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/806978\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels\u2019 Mike Trout still trying to improve center field defense \u2013 Daily Breeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANAHEIM \u2014 Four hours before Wednesday\u2019s game, Mike Trout was in center field at Angel Stadium, working on playing balls hit to the angled corner. The night before, Trout had admittedly misplayed a ball there<\/a>, leading to a triple and a run for the Seattle Mariners.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows that ball probably needs to be caught,\u201d outfield coach Adam Eaton said. \u201cSo he said, \u2018You know what, we\u2019re going to fix it. We\u2019ll fix it the next day.\u2019 So we came out early and I try to help him any way I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the latest example of Trout acknowledging that he\u2019s not the player he used to be in center field. At 35, he is by far the oldest everyday center fielder in the majors.<\/p>\n

Trout started in center for the 108th time this season on Wednesday. Cedric Mullins, 31, is the only other player in his 30s to start at least 100 games in center field this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little different than when I was younger, because when I was younger I was diving all over the place,\u201d Trout said. \u201cI felt like I can make a dive and be good. I think there\u2019s times where the game\u2019s on the line and I\u2019ve got to dive to make a play. I\u2019m going to do whatever I can to catch it. I still tell myself I can catch everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Trout acknowledged he has to \u201cprotect my body\u201d at times. That means that he doesn\u2019t catch all the balls that younger center fielders catch. Defensive metrics rate him well below average<\/a> this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor where he\u2019s at in his career, he\u2019s doing OK,\u201d Eaton said. \u201cHis efficiencies on his routes are really good. Getting to the baseball has been up and down for most of the year. But he makes intelligent decisions, which helps. Having your superstar in the lineup, in center field, every single day is a boost for our boys, and to see how he works and how he goes about his business. There\u2019s things other than making the play or not. That\u2019s definitely what it comes down to. But it\u2019s always great to have your superstar in the lineup every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trout had not played 100 games in center field since 2022, and he\u2019s likely to finish this season with more games in center field than in any season since 2019, when he was a 27-year-old on his way to his third American League MVP award.<\/p>\n

After a short-lived experiment with him in right field last season, Trout moved back to center this season because it\u2019s where he was most comfortable. The Angels, who had no one better, went along with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you feel more engaged,\u201d Trout said. \u201cIf I\u2019m not helping the team at the plate, you try to take some hits away from other people. There\u2019s a balance to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen what will happen next year. Trout said he\u2019ll have those conversations over the winter.<\/p>\n

For now, he\u2019s satisfied that he\u2019s done what he\u2019s done in center this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of myself for being out there every day, the majority of the year, being able to finish strong here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

NATERA OUT, BACHMAN IN<\/p>\n

Left-hander Samy Natera Jr. was placed on the injured list with forearm inflammation. Natera underwent an MRI exam on the recently completed trip, and he said he\u2019s scheduled for another one on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary, but we\u2019ll see what happens,\u201d Natera said.<\/p>\n

Natera had been on the injured list in August with a back injury, but he said he felt fine when he came back from that. He said \u201cat some point during the road trip, it just didn\u2019t feel right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Natera pitched three times in four days last week, which suggests that he hadn\u2019t mentioned anything to the Angels until after that. Natera gave up three runs during a blown save on Friday in Washington<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Natera, 26, finishes his rookie season with a 3.13 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 31\u2154 innings. He had moved into a high-leverage role, so any long-term injury would be a big loss for the bullpen in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love the way he attacks hitters,\u201d Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a great fastball and loves to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Natera was replaced on the roster by right-hander Sam Bachman, who had been out for more than a month with a nerve issue. Bachman acknowledged that he pitched for a couple of weeks after the All-Star break without feeling his best.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just hard mentally to go out there and be convicted when the body isn\u2019t really meshing with that,\u201d Bachman said. \u201cWhen your body feels good, you\u2019re not thinking about how it could feel or not finishing pitches. You kind of get out of your mechanics and it\u2019s hard to have conviction in that when you know your body can\u2019t help you do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

SETBACK FOR SCHANUEL<\/p>\n

First baseman Nolan Schanuel, who is on the IL with a strained intercostal muscle<\/a>, had been scheduled to play a rehab game at Triple-A on Tuesday, but he \u201cfelt a little irritation,\u201d Suzuki said, so he\u2019s going to \u201ctake a step back a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schanuel last played on Aug. 20. With less than two weeks to go in the regular season, he now might run out of time to return. Suzuki said there\u2019s still a chance he can come back because a position player doesn\u2019t need the kind of buildup that a pitcher does.<\/p>\n

UP NEXT<\/p>\n

Twins (RHP Taj Bradley, 11-6, 3.81 ERA) at Angels (RHP Walbert Ure\u00f1a, 9-10, 2.88 ERA), Thursday, 6:38 p.m., ABTV, 830 AM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM \u2014 Four hours before Wednesday\u2019s game, Mike Trout was in center field at Angel Stadium, working on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,5,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,603,4,185],"class_list":["post-806978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-angels","tag-angels","tag-baseball","tag-la","tag-la-angels","tag-laangels","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesangels","tag-mike-trout","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117284245583633905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806978","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=806978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}