The Angels’ bid to snap an eight-year playoff drought — and convince Shohei Ohtani to stay with the club in free agency — just took a massive blow.
Superstar center fielder Mike Trout was placed on the injured list Tuesday after he was diagnosed with a fracture of the hamate bone in his left hand.
The three-time MVP could be out for at least a month, according to multiple reports.
Trout, 31, left Monday night’s game against the Padres in San Diego in the eighth inning after getting hurt taking a swing.
He said after the game that his wrist “doesn’t feel great.”
“I can’t describe the pain I felt,” Trout said. “I never felt it before, ever, before this. I never had wrist problems or anything. Just freak things.”
Trout is hitting .263 with an .862 OPS, 18 home runs and 44 RBIs this season.
The injury is crushing for the Angels, who entered Tuesday 45-42 and sat three games behind the final wild-card spot in the American League.
The Angels last made the playoffs in 2014, when they were swept by the Royals in the ALDS, the only playoff appearance of Trout’s career.
They last won a playoff series in 2009, sweeping the Red Sox in the ALDS before falling to the Yankees in the ALCS in six games.
Trout has expressed how important returning to the postseason is with respect to convincing Ohtani to say as the two-way star approaches free agency this winter.
Ohtani is having an otherworldly season, hitting .303 with a 1.054 OPS, 31 home runs, 68 RBIs, 61 runs and 11 stolen bases.
On the mound, he has 127 strikeouts in 95 ⅓ innings with a 3.02 ERA across 16 starts.