The Launch Angle

Mike Trout is back, if only because he’s not gotten injured yet this year. From his MLB debut until September of 2019, Trout only had one IL stint, a UCL tear in his left thumb limiting him to 114 games in 2017. In 2019, he went on the IL for just the second time, with right foot inflammation and 19 games left in the season. That didn’t stop him from winning his 3rd Al MVP that year.

The 2019 AL MVP would be his last though. Since then, he’s lost significant time to injury and spent time on the IL every season except for the COVID pandemic abbreviated 2020 season.

66 games into the season in the 2026 season, Trout remains IL-free. Hey, sometimes it’s not about making the Dean’s List, it’s just about getting that award for attendance.

He’s making the Dean’s List though too in 2026. A couple months short of his 35th birthday, Trout ranks 12th in the AL with a 145 wRC+, his highest wRC+ since 2022, and that number undersells how well Trout has been hitting. By exit velocity and launch angle, Trout has actually been hitting the ball better than his traditional stats would lead you to believe. He is underperforming his xStats across the board.

Mike Trout, in his 16th MLB season, is third in the majors with both a .422 xwOBA and a 1.000 OPS (Behind Yordan Alvarez and James Wood).

The last time Trout had an xOPS that high was 2021, where he only played in 36 games. Before that, the last time his xOPS reached the 1.000 mark was his 2019 MVP season.

Curiously, he’s doing it with the third lowest batting average of his career, a .232 mark. In his “pre-rookie” 2011 season, he hit .220 in 40 games. In 2024, he also hit .220 in a season injury-limited to 29 games. .261 is also his second lowest xBA since 2015. He had a .236 xBA in 2025, and xStats are not available pre-2015.

How is his xOPS that high then? His xSLG of .576 is great, 7th in the majors, but Mike Trout has had even better xSLG’s in the past. What he’s doing better than he ever has in his career is take walks. That’s no small feat, because Trout has been fantastic at drawing walks in his career. He has led the AL in walks 3 times in his career. Through 6/6/26, he has 60 walks, highest in the majors.

His 20.9% walk rate in 2026 is the best mark of his career. It is just the second time it’s exceeded 20%; he had a 20.1% walk rate in 2018. It’s also the second highest walk rate in the majors in 2026, behind only Nick Kurtz, who Astros fans are used to seeing take jogs instead of walks.

The ABS system has helped. He’s challenged 7 times this season and been right 5 of them. He’s also swinging less. His 37.7% swing rate is the lowest he’s had since 2020. Yes, part of that is because his O-Swing rate is the lowest it’s been in 5 years, but he’s also taking more called strikes, with a CStr% mark of 19.7%, his highest since 2020 as well.

In 2026, he’s not swinging unless it’s perfect, and when he does swing, he’s been crushing it. Otherwise, he’s content to take his walk.

Don’t let Trout’s recent box scores fool you. Trout’s game logs over the last month might make you think that he’s dropped off from his hot start to the season, and for a period he had. On May 5, he was batting .262 on the season with an OPS of 1.000, and that’s trailed down to his current .232 and .865. But looking at his rolling xSLG and BB% charts for May and June, while he did experience a dip, he’s back to drawing walks at a high clip and hitting the ball well, even if the newspaper box scores lines haven’t reflected it.

Mike Trout is back and dangerous. He’s historically not been his usual generational self playing the Astros at Daikin Park. That’s not the case when he’s at home, at Angel Stadium.

Astros @ Angels Game Information and Gamethread Details

The Angels (25-41) are the only team in the AL West with a worse record than the Astros (30-37). They have the worst record in the AL, and if the Astros want to make up ground in the division, it’s imperative that they bank wins against the Angels.

Starting for the Angels is Grayson Rodriguez. Rodriguez pitched for the Orioles in 2023-24, and was having a great 2024 season, going 13-4 with a 3.86 ERA, 10.0 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9, until his season was cut short by right lat/teres discomfort. He missed the entire 2025 season with numerous elbow, shoulder and lat issues. In the offseason, was traded to the Angels.

4 starts into his 2026 season comeback, Rodriguez isn’t seeing the results he would like. He is 2-2, carries a 9.50 ERA, a 1.889 WHIP, a 8.5 K/9 and a high 5.5 BB/9. Most recently he gave up 8 runs, 7 earned against the Rockies (the only MLB team with a worse record than the Angels) over 3.2 IP.

The Astros send their AL May Pitcher of the Month Spencer Arrighetti to the mound. Arrighetti came back down to earth in his last start after overperforming his peripherals in May, but this is still a game that the Astros need to and ought to take.

This post will be updated with starting lineups as they are made available.

The game will be broadcast at 9:38 p.m. CT on SCHN with radio coverage on KBME 790 AM.

We hope you will join us and the rest of the Launch Angle community for the game! The turnout has been amazing on the TLA Discord Server for the game threads.

Join us again for today’s game. Just join the Discord server using this link: https://launch-angle.com/discord .

For more detailed instructions, please see the Guide to the Launch Angle.

If you’ve participated in game threads on other Astros sites in the past, you will probably see a lot of familiar names. Chat, lurk, do whatever! (But please say “hi”, so we know you’re not a bot.)

Feature photo by Jeffrey Hayes. Creative Commons License.