CITIZENS BANK BALLPARK (Philadelphia) — Mike Trout circled this date months ago. Tuesday's MLB All-Star Game sits 45 minutes from Millville, New Jersey, where Trout grew up rooting for the Phillies and bleeding Eagles green. Getting back here was personal.
Staying healthy was the hard part. Trout hadn't started an All-Star Game since 2019. He hadn't even been selected to one since 2023.
"I'm never taking anything for granted in this game," Trout told me on Monday. This year, fans voted Trout in as a starting outfielder, a slash line of .237/.390/.473, 18 homers, 39 RBIs, and his most stolen bases (seven) since his 2019 MVP season carrying him there. Then a hamstring strain in mid-June threatened to keep him home again.
But, just 17 missed games later, Trout was back in the Angels' lineup as a designated hitter just days before the All-Star break. He was healthy and headed to Philly. For the 12-time All-Star who has spent a career as the face of this game, it wasn't just a return.
It was a relief. "You don't know when your last game is," Trout said. "When an injury can pop up.
Especially the last few years, it's been a little bit tough for me. I'm just excited to start." It’s easy to see that starting the All-Star Game means a lot to Trout. Trout found it tough to explain just how meaningful it is for him to be leading off for the American League on Tuesday.
He slowed down when reflecting on how difficult the past few years have been for him as he dealt with a laundry list of injuries that limited him to playing just 396 games for five seasons from 2021-2025, or roughly 79 games per season. Plus, he didn’t want to let down his family and friends with a big contingent scheduled to make the short trip to Philly this week. "Well, I only have 20 tickets," Trout said.
"I mean, that's a lot. So I had to cut it down a little bit. I know a lot of people that are coming.
It's been on the calendar for a while." Trout’s celebrity status runs deep. Besides pitcher Justin Verlander, who announced he’s retiring at the end of this season and is at the All-Star Game as the Commissioner's Legend Pick, Trout had the largest media scrum among all AL players on Monday. And Trout also has a huge fan in the AL’s All-Star clubhouse, though he’s completely unaware that this player grew up idolizing him years before he became, well, Mike Trout.
"I learned a lot from him — and he doesn’t know it," fellow AL All-Star and Twins outfielder Byron Buxton told me on Monday. "But I learned a lot from him growing up. I even watched him in the minor leagues." Buxton and Trout share more similarities than their star power.
Both players are homegrown, one-team-for-life talents. And both, oddly enough, once wore a Cedar Rapids Kernels uniform. The minor-league franchise spent 20 years as the Angels' Single-A affiliate before flipping to the Twins in 2013.
Trout came first. He played 81 games there in 2010, an 18-year-old outfielder on his way up. Two years later, after a show-stopping big-league debut when Trout recorded the highest WAR (10.5) in MLB, he won the AL Rookie of the Year award, and Cedar Rapids hung his picture at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Buxton followed in 2013, a 19-year-old outfielder playing 68 games in a Cedar Rapids uniform in the same ballpark. "Every day I walked in, I got to see his picture," Buxton said. "Man, he was on the top of my list as someone I watched all the time." Even that small similarity with Trout — playing for the same minor-league affiliate as him thanks to a team change — used to remind Buxton that he was on the right path in his baseball journey.
Buxton even tried to copy Trout’s physical build. Even though the Twins outfielder debuted in the big leagues in 2015 as a skinny speedster, he added 21 pounds of muscle before the 2019 season to try and add more slug to his game. "Coming up, he played the game 110%," Buxton said of emulating Trout’s game.
"100% down the line. Putting his body on the line, and things like that. It was something that, when I came up, I was like, alright.
That's how I wanna be. Obviously I wasn't his size, or like the body build that he has. You had to kind of find that the more you played throughout your career.
And it's something that, over the years, I figured out my frame to where I look back and I'm like, alright, I'm like him now." This is the second time that Buxton has shared a clubhouse with Trout, both having been named All-Stars in 2022 despite Trout not appearing in the game. He would’ve shared a lineup with him if the Minnesota outfielder wasn't on the injured list with a hip strain. While they’re both in Philly, does Buxton plan on telling Trout how much he influenced his career?
"Nah, I'll let him do his own thing," Buxton said. "Maybe after he retires. Which is a long time from now for him." In reality, Trout should be used to being a hero to his peers.
Cardinals manager Oli Marmol, who was selected by NL manager Dave Roberts to be a part of his All-Star coaching staff, told me that Trout garners a ton of respect from players of all ages, all around the league, because they admire his tenacity. After dealing with numerous injuries, particularly later in his career, Trout is still playing at an MVP-caliber level when he’s healthy enough to take the field. "He’s had his struggles, but he’s come out on the other side of it," Marmol said.
"He can speak to both sides of handling failure and success, and the longevity that he brings to the table speaks for itself." Like Buxton, so many of this year’s All-Stars grew up watching the three-time MVP become a staple at every All-Star Game. Royals All-Star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. was asked multiple times in his media scrum on Monday who he most enjoyed watching growing up, and every time, his answer was Trout. From 2012-2019, Trout had an incredible run of being selected for eight consecutive All-Star Games.
Not only was he statistically the best player in the major leagues for the majority of that run, but he also embodied what it meant to play the game the right way. "It's so cool to share a locker room with him," Tigers All-Star infielder Kevin McGonigle told me. "Lately, I've appreciated the way he plays the game and understanding what it takes to get his body ready to be on the field.
It's a grind, and he's been doing this a long time." "He was always the guy I looked up to, just by how he plays the game," Orioles All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman told me. "His attitude and his ability. It seemed like he played the game right, and in a way that I really admired.
Just seemed like he goes about stuff in the right way. And I love that. It's been awesome to get to know him a little better.
Talk with him a little bit. He's just an awesome guy and a great player." Trout is too modest to spend any time thinking about how much of an impact he’s made on his peers and baseball fans alike. Still, he understands that part of being a veteran is imparting some wisdom to the younger generation.
So, on Monday, he shared some advice with All-Star first-timers. "Just enjoy it," Trout said. "It goes by quick.
So slow everything down. It's pretty simple. These next two days go by quick, so enjoy every moment.
Capture it. Take pictures. Enjoy it with your family.
It's a special honor to be here."
