Angels News: Dodgers Star Provides Optimistic View for Halos With Loss of Mike Trout

The Angels were flying high.

They were very much in contention for a Wild Card spot in the American League and perhaps on the brink of reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2014.

Health wasn't much of an issue for the Angels either, and their usually maligned pitching staff was surpassing expectations.

It seemed like the stars were finally aligning for the Angels to not only play baseball in October, but perhaps make a run if they got there.

Then they dropped nine of ten games and Mike Trout broke his hand.

Now they're a game under .500, five games back in the race for that precious wild card spot, and absent their heart and soul of their team through August.

That usual stroke of bad luck that the team had dodged for months at long last came to sting them in the most crucial time of the most crucial of seasons -- with two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani set to become a free agent at its conclusion.

But all hope may not be lost for the Halos, as Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

For a quick history lesson, Freeman was playing for the Atlanta Braves in 2021 when they went through a remarkably similar setback.

Atlanta lost superstar outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. midway through the season when he tore his ACL.

Just like that, their heart and soul was lost and the Braves went into a freefall, sitting at 44-44 at the All Star break with a chance at the playoffs looking lost.

According to Freeman, trades at the deadline gave the team a pulse and the team began their climb back.

“It’s not about who you bring in, it’s just that someone comes in,” Freeman said. “Instead of cashing in the season when we lost Acuña, (Anthopoulos) starts bringing guys in, and it’s like ‘OK, we’re still gonna go for this thing.’”

Atlanta got a trio of sluggers in Eddie Rosario, Jorge Soler, and Joc Pederson, and each played a key part in the Braves' resurgence, one that ended with Atlanta winning one of the most unlikely World Series championships.

The Angels are in a similar spot, and recent trades for Eduardo Escobar and Mike Moustakas may just be the Halos' jolt.

For Freeman, those moves two years ago shifted the mindset for the Braves and gave them the hope that they may just be able to go out and do something without their star.

“No one ever thought we’d be able to do what we did without Ronald, but somehow we came together as a unit real fast,” Freeman said. “I think it was pretty clear once Alex made that first Joc move, we were still going for this thing.”

The Braves made the run of all runs, winning a title when no one thought possible.

Even though the Angels took a haymaker with the loss of Trout, they still have the talent throughout the roster to stay afloat without their icon.

Just that prospect may seem impossible given the Halos' slip, but the Angels still have the opportunity to fight their way back with their season on life support.

It won't be easy. That's a definite. But the Angels have a path they can follow in the Braves' own fight.

There's two and a half months remaining in a season that could very well define the future of the franchise. We'll see if the Angels can take a lesson from the path that was laid before them and claw their way back to relevancy.