SAN DIEGO — Star outfielder Mike Trout was optimistic about his chances to return to the lineup as quickly as possible after joining the Angels’ swelling injured list Tuesday.
Trout has a hamate fracture in his left wrist, an injury that typically takes four to eight weeks to heal. The Angels did not give a timeline for his recovery.
“You never really know,” manager Phil Nevin said. “All the time you hear bone, it’s whatever six, eight [weeks] or I don’t know how it goes. ... I’ve seen guys come back quicker than that, and I’ve seen it be a little longer than that.
“Thankfully it’s the bone. It’s not a ligament or anything like that,” Nevin added. “Mike will be back with us at some point this year. I know he’s hungry. I also know this is hurting him and it’s tough to see.”
The Angels’ injury concerns continued during Tuesday’s 8-5 loss to the San Diego Padres. They pulled two-way star Shohei Ohtani from the mound in the sixth inning after he gave up back-to-back homers and announced he had a blister on his right middle finger. Anthony Rendon, who previously was on the injured list, left the game limping after fouling a pitch off the inside of his knee in the fourth inning.
Rendon was sent for X-rays, which returned negative.
Trout, who has faced long spells on the injured list in the past, was frustrated his work to prevent injuries this season didn’t help him stay in the lineup.
“My body’s feeling great,” said Trout, who suffered the wrist injury while fouling off a pitch in the eighth inning of Monday night’s 10-3 loss at San Diego. “Just getting the routine and staying with it, getting the treatment. My body’s feeling great, and then just a freak thing happens.
“It’s nothing crazy serious. Obviously, I’m gonna miss a little bit of time, but it’s not season-ending.”
The Angelsrecalled Jo Adell from triple A to replace Trout on the roster.
In Tuesday’s loss, the Angels struggled against Padres starter Joe Musgrove (7-2). The right-hander held the Angels to one run —Hunter Renfroe’s fifth-inning homer — and three hits. He struck out 11 and walked one.
Adell, who came into the game in the ninth inning as a pinch-hitter for Ohtani, hit an RBI triple and scored on a sacrifice fly. Four walks and one hit batter in the ninth allowed the Angels to score two additional runs, but it wasn’t enough.
Ohtani kept the Padres scoreless for the first three innings, but Jake Cronenworth hit a two-run double in the fourth to put San Diego up 2-0.
In the sixth, Ohtani gave up consecutive home runs to Xander Bogaerts and Cronenworth. A trainer came out to check on Ohtani, inspecting his finger. He was removed as a pitcher, and Adell pinch-hit for him in his next at-bat in the ninth.
The Angels have 14 players on the injured list, including four regular starters — Trout, Brandon Drury (left shoulder bruise), Zach Neto (oblique strain) and Gio Urshela (left pelvis fracture, out for season) — who played important roles in helping the team move up the standings and stay in playoff contention.
Neto and Drury could return soon after the All-Star break, but the Angels will have to work with their current roster barring any trades.
Nevin held a team meeting ahead of the team’s game against the Padres on Tuesday to address the injuries.
“Everybody in there knows you’re gonna have bumps in the road here once in a while, and we’ve had some guys go down,” Nevin said. “We’ve kind of had that motto since the beginning of the season when those things happen: It’s the next man up and we keep playing.
“No one’s gonna feel sorry for us, and no reason for us to do the same.”
Adell, back up for the third time this season, said that although the circumstances for his return weren’t great, he felt ready to come in to compete.
“No one wants to see Mike go down for any length of time,” Adell said. “But I’m gonna come in, hopefully do my job and keep this thing rocking. We got a really good thing going here, and I want to come back and be a part of that.”
Adell had a .956 on-base-plus slugging percentage and 23 home runsin triple A, including a 514-foot home run last month that was the farthest Statcast-tracked home run hit in a minor league ballpark.
The Angels will spend more time evaluating Trout’s injury before setting up his recovery plan.
Hamate fractures, like any bone fracture, require weeks to heal, according to Dr. Alan Beyer, an orthopedic surgeon and executive medical director of the Hoag Orthopedic Institute. Beyer is not Trout’s physician, but he provided The Times with more general information about wrist fractures.
Hamate fractures rarely require surgery to heal, though some patients have surgery to remove the fractured piece if it does not heal, Beyer said. The average return time to full activity once the bone heals is six to eight weeks. Some with the fractures, however, have resumed regular activity in about one month.
Cleveland’s José Ramírez, for example, fractured his hamate while foul tipping a ball during a game in August 2019. Ramírez had surgery to repair the injury and returned to his team in September, slightly more than four weeks after he got hurt.
“I’ve had a lot of guys reach out that’ve had the surgery before, had this injury before,” Trout said. “I don’t know if I have to have surgery or not. I’ll know in the next couple of days.
“Some guys came back in four weeks, some guys longer. Just see how my body heals.”
