Mike Trout, initially hesitant about baseball’s plans to organize a season amid the coronavirus pandemic, expressed some optimism with the season opener.
“I’m playing,” Trout said Wednesday in a video conference with the media two days before his Los Angeles Angels opened on the road against the Oakland Athletics.
Trout’s wife Jessica will give birth to the couple’s first child, a boy, on August 3. Details have yet to be resolved, but Trout hopes to be present for the delivery.
The expiration date lands on a day off for the Angels, just before a six-game road trip to Seattle and Arlington, Texas.
Trout said he is concerned about how COVID-19 could spread when teams start traveling, but said he is generally satisfied with how the process has gone so far. He doesn’t think any of his Angels teammates have tested positive for the coronavirus since the screening test ended.
“The boys have been respectful of each other,” said Trout. “Everyone has taken responsibility for wearing a mask and social distance and being safe, and we are seeing it. The results are there. I just have to pick it up and stay on it when we hit the road. Obviously, people say traveling can get it. Going to different cities where it’s really bad right now, it’s going to be difficult. But from now on, everything is great. “
Trout has not won a playoff game in his illustrious career, but the three-time MVP resides in the center of an Angels team packed with star power. The team’s big acquisition during the offseason, Anthony Rendon, is currently suffering from a oblique injury that is improving but will nevertheless keep him out for at least the first two games.
Angels manager Joe Maddon said Rendon is “on a pretty good path,” and the team hopes he will return before the four-game series ends.
The biggest concern, for the Angels and all other teams, is the possibility of an outbreak of coronavirus cases, which can only be prevented with unrelenting discipline.
Trout is concerned about testing positive and passing the virus on to his wife, which would at least force each of them to be quarantined away from their newborn son. Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder AJ Pollock went through a similar situation during the shutdown as he went 14 days without seeing his premature daughter after testing positive. His wife had to be quarantined for 10 days, even though she did not test positive.
“If there was an outbreak, we would have to assess the situation and go from there,” said Trout. “I have to do the right thing for the family. But so far everything has been great. I’ve locked myself in baseball. It’s a little bit different since the last time I spoke to you, seeing what the protocols are and what we’re doing. Among the Tickets, the other night, I was sitting in the front row of a stadium, not on a bench. It was something different. But that’s the new norm. “
Trout went 0-2 with a strikeout in Wednesday night’s exhibition game against San Diego. The Angels’ opening game is Tuesday against Seattle.
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