Yesterday, Mike Trout made his return from injury known. He had three hits, including a home run, in four at-bats to help propel the Los Angeles Angels over the Boston Red Sox. It was a notable victory for an Angels team that has been flagging as of late. Trout played a big part in that victory, as he has in almost every Angels victory in the last 10 years. Can his recent return help propel the Angels to the playoffs for the first time in over a decade?
MIKE TROUT MOONSHOT pic.twitter.com/4LOx0E4y5n
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 2, 2025
Mike Trout Shines in Injury Return, Reverses Angels Losing Streak
Angels Playoff Drought
The Angels haven’t been to the postseason since 2014. Their last appearance was in 2014. Despite having two MVP winners in Trout and Shohei Ohtani for six years during that timeframe, they have been unable to break through. It has been a mire of bad pitching, bad depth, bad coaching, and bad talent acquisition and development that has kept the Angels out of October.
Notably, usually with teams with long playoff droughts, the reason is that the franchise management is too cheap to assemble a winning team. This is not the case for the Angels. The problem is that they spend money horribly. During their drought, they gave massive contracts to Albert Pujols, Anthony Rendon, and Josh Hamilton. All of these guys were great players elsewhere but significantly underperformed for the Halos, which is a running theme for the team. It also hasn’t helped that the Houston Astros have emerged as a juggernaut team that has won the AL West almost every year, beating up on the Angels to do so.
Upcoming Schedule and Angels’ Postseason Chances
This year hasn’t looked great so far. The Angels are currently sitting at 27-32. However, the AL West seems weaker than it has in years. The Astros look mortal and far removed from their dynasty teams. The Seattle Mariners are on top, but seemingly only by default at 32-26, which is the lowest win total for any division leader in MLB.
Furthermore, the most encouraging sign for the Halos is that they miraculously have put together a good starting rotation this year. It has been a calling card of the Angels for the last decade to have a horrible rotation wasting the offensive greatness of Trout and Ohtani. This year, things are different. Jose Soriano, Tyler Anderson, and Yusei Kikuchi are all putting together good seasons at the top of the rotation. This especially applies to Kikuchi, who has a 134 ERA+, meaning that he is pitching 34% better than the average pitcher. Even the rookie Jack Kochanowicz and the aged veteran “Professor” Kyle Hendricks are putting together decent seasons. In fact, the Angels are the only team in the league to only use five starters, as their starters haven’t missed a single game.
The Last Word
Since Trout’s return, he appears to have gotten his mojo back after a disappointing start to the year. But the rotation could be what propels the Halos to take advantage of a relatively weak AL West and finally break the playoff drought. The Angels have a great fanbase who deserve to see a winning playoff team after a decade of failure and futility from the Halos. The fans have been there for the team the entire time during the drought. We’ll see if the team can finally be there for the fans this year.
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