The Los Angeles Angels‘ first half produced exactly one thing worth circling, and it happens tonight in Philadelphia. Mike Trout will start in center field and bat leadoff for the American League in the All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park — roughly 40 miles from his hometown of Millville, New Jersey, per MLB.com. It is his 12th All-Star selection and his first appearance in the game since 2023.
The leadoff assignment is a nod to the occasion, and the numbers behind the selection hold up on their own. Trout enters the break hitting .237 with 18 home runs, 39 RBIs and an .863 OPS across 78 games, with seven stolen bases. The batting average is thin, but the power has stayed on schedule — a home run roughly every four games — and the .863 OPS says the at-bats have been far more productive than the average suggests.
None of it has translated for the team around him. The Angels reached the break at 38-59, last in the AL West, 11.5 games behind Texas, and they lost their final two games before the break. Fair-minded accounting says the first half included real individual bright spots, Trout’s power chief among them, and also that the franchise has now played half a season without stringing enough of them together to matter. Tonight is a break from that ledger. A Millville kid who grew up in Phillies country gets introduced first, in front of what amounts to a home crowd, in a ballpark 40 miles from where he learned the game.
The second half will bring harder questions: whether the front office sells at the August 3 deadline, and which of the young position players earn September evaluation time. Those can wait a day.
For fantasy managers, Trout remains what the first half showed: a batting-average liability with top-25 power value. The 18 homers in 78 games project to a 35-plus pace over a full season, so he stays rostered everywhere and starts in three-outfielder formats, average be damned.
