ANAHEIM, Calif. – Fresh off the field after playing in his 1,000th career game in the majors, Mike Trout pauses and chuckles at the memory of attending a USA Baseball selection camp for the national 18-and-under team.
Impossible as it is to imagine now, baseball’s best player didn’t make that team, which may be the ultimate demonstration of the fallibility in assessing teenage players. To his memory, it’s the last time he went to a tryout and wasn’t successful, a setback that still seems to irk him.
“I had fun,” says Trout, trying as always to find the positive in any situation. “Getting cut, obviously, I wasn’t too happy about that. It is what it is. I look back, the exposure I got to play in front of the scouts, major-league teams and colleges, it helped me a lot.”
Another takeaway from the experience for Trout, a native of Vineland, N.J., was the development of a friendship with Randal Grichuk, a hard-hitting outfielder from Rosenberg, Texas who also got cut at those tryouts. Both were rising prospects ahead of the 2009 draft and had faced each other in Area Code showcase games.
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Their connection paid off when the Los Angeles Angels used their first two of five first-round picks that year on the duo, taking Grichuk at No. 24 and Trout at No. 25, the former a compensatory pick for the loss of Francisco Rodriguez to the Mets, the latter a compensatory pick for the departure of Mark Teixeira to the Yankees.
“I knew they were interested in him and on draft day, I got drafted and was hoping he would get drafted right after me so we could play together,” says Grichuk, now a right-fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays. “Sure enough it happened like that and we played a couple of seasons together before I got hurt and he took off.”
Says Trout: “We were roommates in rookie ball, we got to know each other a little bit and we grinded through the minor leagues together. He didn’t miss a fastball. His power was incredible for a young kid. We pushed each other. Knowing we got drafted right with each other, both outfielders, both high school kids, we pushed each other to get up here.”
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Trout moved through the system a bit faster than Grichuk, playing in both the rookie and low-A levels in 2009 after they signed. In 2010, they again played together at low-A Cedar Rapids but Grichuk’s progress stalled when he tore a ligament and broke his left wrist and was just starting to rehab his injury in rookie ball when Trout was promoted to advanced-A Rancho Cucamongo.
“He was a good dude,” Grichuk says of 17-year-old Trout. “Obviously he wasn’t who he is now, a first-rounder trying to make it up here, happy-go-lucky guy trying to have a good time. He just kept things light. I would like to say I was the same way. I try to keep things light always. This game will drive you crazy if you take it too seriously at times.”
Trout’s big-league debut came the following summer, while Grichuk didn’t break through until April 28, 2014, after he was traded on Nov. 22, 2013 with fellow outfielder Peter Bourjos to the St. Louis Cardinals for David Freese and Fernando Salas.
By then, Trout was a two-time all-star, won the American League rookie of the year award and finished second twice in MVP voting, a level of success Grichuk didn’t necessarily see coming when both were teenagers.
“Honestly, he was maybe slightly better than most but nothing crazy,” he says. “He had speed, he got out the box super quick so he got a lot of infield singles on routine groundball outs for most guys. So he always hit for a high average and high-A, double-A, the power started to develop and that’s translated into where he’s at today. He was good and you could see he had a very good chance to make it in the big leagues even if he wasn’t a first-rounder, but I’m not going to lie and say we knew he was going to be who he is today.”
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In the midst of a season that projects into one of the most dominant offensive performances of all-time, Trout walked three times, once intentionally, with a groundout and a strikeout during career game No. 1,000. Over his past nine games he’s batting an unfathomable .640 (16-for-25) and has reached base in 32 of his last 42 plate appearances for a .756 on-base percentage.
More highlights in a career full of them.
“From a personal standpoint, obviously the MVPs (2014, 2016) are pretty cool,” says Trout. “From a team standpoint, in ’14, when we clinched a playoff spot and won a division, that was more special than all of them, just to go out there and celebrate with fans and with the team that grinded throughout the whole year. That was something special.”
Across the diamond, Grichuk rocked his eighth homer of the season for the Blue Jays, relishing the second trip to Anaheim in his career, wondering what might have been if the Angels hadn’t traded him.
“Most definitely,” he says. “This is the place I idolized for five years while I was in the minor leagues, hoping to get here one day. Obviously never did with the trade but it’s good to come back and see Trout and see some of the coaching staff and guys that were over here while I was still here. It’s definitely cool.”
