Mike Trout, at first reluctant about baseball’s plans to stage a season in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, communicated some idealism with the season opener drawing nearer.
“I’m playing,” Trout said Wednesday in a video conference with media two days before his Los Angeles Angels open on the road against the Oakland Athletics.
Trout’s wife, Jessica, is because of bring forth the couple’s first child, a boy, on Aug. 3. Subtleties still can’t seem to be worked out, however Trout hopes to be available for the delivery.
The due date lands on an off day for the Angels, directly before a six-game excursion to Seattle and Arlington, Texas.
Trout said he is stressed over how COVID-19 may spread when groups start to travel, however he said he is commonly satisfied with the manner in which the procedure has gone up until now. He doesn’t accept any of his Angels colleagues have tried positive for the coronavirus since in-take screening finished up.
“The guys have been respectful of others,” Trout said. “Everyone’s been taking responsibility to wear a mask and social distance and just be safe, and we’re seeing that. The results are there. Just gotta pick it up and stay on it when we go on the road. Obviously, people say that traveling you can get it. Going to different cities where it’s really bad right now, it’s gonna be tough. But as of right now, everything is great.”
Trout hasn’t dominated a season finisher match in his in any case famous profession, yet the three-time MVP dwells at the focal point of an Angels group overflowing with star power. The group’s enormous offseason securing, Anthony Rendon, is right now nursing a diagonal physical issue that is improving however will regardless keep him out for at any rate the initial two games.
Angels supervisor Joe Maddon said Rendon is “on a pretty good path,” and the group trusts he will return before the initial four-game series wraps.
The greatest concern – for the Angels and each other group – is the chance of a outbreak of coronavirus cases, which can be prevented only with unrelenting discipline.
Trout is stressed over testing positive and passing the infection to his better half, which would at any rate power every one of them to isolate away from their infant kid. Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder A.J. Pollock experienced a comparable circumstance during the shutdown, as he went 14 days without seeing his untimely girl in the wake of testing positive. His significant other needed to isolate for 10 days, despite the fact that she didn’t test positive.
“If there was an outbreak, we’d have to evaluate the situation and go from there,” Trout said. “I gotta do what’s right for the family. But everything’s been great so far. I’ve been locked in on baseball. It’s a little bit different since last time I talked to you, seeing what the protocols are and what we’re doing. In between innings the other night, I was sitting in the front row of a stadium, not in a dugout. It was kind of different. But that’s the new norm.”
Trout went 0-for-2 with a strikeout in Wednesday night’s exhibition game against San Diego. The Angels’ home opener is Tuesday against Seattle.
