ANAHEIM -- On his final swing of the year, Angels superstar Mike Trout smacked a solo homer, giving him five blasts over his last seven games to end an otherwise up-and-down season on a high note.
After hitting career homer No. 400 in Colorado on Sept. 20, Trout met with the media on Tuesday and said he finally fixed a flaw in his mechanics that caused him to have a down year by his standards. Trout showed off that revamped swing over the final week of the season, hitting four homers over his last four games, including a solo blast in the first inning of a 6-2 loss to the Astros in the season finale on Sunday at Angel Stadium.
“He talked with you guys openly about how he’s been feeling these last few weeks and getting past and through the milestone,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “He put that behind him pretty quick, huh? So I think he's in a good spot heading into the winter.”
Trout crushed a 3-2 fastball from right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. to put the Angels on the board early. It was absolutely demolished, as it left the bat at 111 mph and went a projected 443 feet to left-center, per Statcast. It was the 26th homer for the year for Trout and No. 404 in his illustrious 12-year career.
The Angels made sure Trout went out with a bang, as he was lifted for pinch-hitter Logan O’Hoppe in the third inning.
“I wish we still had more to play,” Trout said. “But definitely a confidence-booster for just battling the whole year. The biggest thing was just seeing the baseball.”
Trout, a three-time AL MVP and 11-time All-Star, finished his season batting .232/.359/.439 with 26 homers, 14 doubles and 64 RBIs in 130 games. And while his on-base percentage and slugging percentage remain above-average, it wasn’t a typical MVP-like year for Trout, who has a career .294/.406/.570 slash line. One of the issues was a big increase in strikeouts, as he struck out in 32 percent of his plate appearances, which is much higher than his career strikeout rate of 23.1 percent.
“Definitely one of my goals for next year is to cut down on strikeouts,” Trout said. “It’s something I can work on with my two-strike approach, whether it's lowering the leg kick or just trying to be a lot earlier.”
Trout, though, did play in his most games since 2019, when he played in 134 games and won the AL MVP Award for a third time. He played 53 games during the shortened 2020 season, 36 games in ’21 because of a calf injury, 119 in '22 because of back issues, 82 in '23 due a hamate fracture and 29 last year because of a twice torn meniscus in his left knee.
That same knee bothered Trout for most of the 2025 season, as he suffered a bone bruise stepping on the first-base bag in Seattle on April 30. He returned exactly a month later on May 30, but he was relegated to designated hitter the rest of the season after starting out the year in right field. Trout was moved from center to right in an effort to stay healthy, but he only ended up playing 22 games in right, while serving as DH 106 times.
Trout, 34, said he believes the offseason will give it time to heal, but he indicated it could be an issue that pops up because the bones in his knee are susceptible to colliding with each other due to the cartilage and meniscus that were repaired during his two surgeries last year.
“I definitely want to be out there as much as I can next year,” Trout said. “But after the two surgeries, if I hit it a certain way, the two bones hit each other. It was good DHing, but it sucks I wasn’t on the field. But I’m going to go into the offseason and try to work on strengthening my knee.”
But Trout said he’d like to return to the outfield next year and is excited to continue to work on his swing this offseason, especially after an encouraging finish to the year. He hit .333/.417/1.095 over his final seven games of the season, including homering twice on Friday to hand the Astros a devastating loss that contributed to them missing the postseason for the first time since 2015.
“It's definitely a confidence-builder for the offseason,” Trout said. “And I know what I need to work on and I can master it.”