Lifelong Angels Fan Paul Skenes Reacts to Meeting Mike Trout

The French novelist Marcel Proust is credited with popularizing the phrase "never meet your heroes, you’ll only be disappointed.”

Perhaps Paul Skenes is unfamiliar with the works of Marcel Proust, or perhaps he merely threw caution to the wind this week at Angel Stadium.

Long before he was considered among the best pitchers in basbeall, Skenes was an Angels fan growing up in Orange County, a two-way star for El Toro High School.

Skenes, who is still just 22 years old, was an impressionable teenager during much of Mike Trout's heyday in Anaheim.

With the Pirates playing the Angels this week, it offered Skenes an opportunity to meet Trout for the first time in person. The two chatted in the outfield prior to Tuesday's game at Angel Stadium.

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“I was walking in from the bullpen, and I just looked up and saw (Trout), so I was a little surprised to see him,” Skenes told reporters Tuesday. “Didn't tell him [I watched him growing up]. Maybe somebody told him that. I don't know. That was kind of a cool moment for me.”

Orange County’s own Paul Skenes was a big Angels fan until the moment he got drafted and met Mike Trout today. He did not tell him he grew up watching him, but they did chat.

“That was a cool moment for me,” Skenes said.

He’ll start at Dodger Stadium on Friday.
— Alden González (@Alden_Gonzalez) April 23, 2025

According to Alex Stumpf of MLB.com, Skenes remembered how “everybody tried to hit like (Trout) when we were growing up, but nobody could.”

Before this week, the last time Skenes walked the Angel Stadium field was on Little League Day at the ballpark.

Skenes was also in attendance for Shohei Ohtani's second major league start with the Angels on April 8, 2018.

"As a two-way guy, that was what I was trying to be before I got drafted," Skenes said of Ohtani last year. "He was an inspiration in a lot of ways.”

Skenes met Ohtani at the 2024 All-Star Game, for which he was chosen to start by National League manager Torey Lovullo.

Skenes was drafted first overall by the Pirates in 2023, forced to shed his fandom of the team he grew up watching for a record-setting $9.2 million signing bonus. He needed less than a year to reach the major leagues.

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The Angels will fortunately miss Skenes this week. He's scheduled to start Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, a game that will air nationally on MLB Network.

Last season, Skenes was named National League Rookie of the Year after going 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts. The right-hander is 2-2 with a 2.87 ERA in five starts this year.

For more Angels news, head over to Angels on SI.