10-9 over Arizona. First win of the spring, fourteen hits, the offense had a pulse. Manoah's velocity numbers get their own post because they deserve proper attention.
I got all of this from box scores and Jeff Fletcher's wrap-up, because the Angels aren't putting any of this on television — which is its own small statement about how the organisation regards its fanbase, but let's leave that aside. What I know about Saturday I know from numbers and second-hand accounts.
From what the reporters on the ground wrote: Trout played center field for one inning. One at-bat, hit and a walk, then he was pulled. Bollinger's notes said he moved around without any obvious issue. The bone bruise that effectively turned him into a full-time DH by April last year doesn't seem to be bothering him in February camp, and the beat reporters who were there weren't raising alarms.
I've been trying to decide how I feel about this since Saturday and I keep landing in the same uncomfortable place: I want Trout in center field, and I'm nervous about Trout in center field.
He's 34, post-surgery, missed significant time in three of the last four seasons. One inning in February is not the concern. The concern is July, when he's been tracking fly balls for four months on a surgically repaired knee and the Angels need him healthy for a stretch run, and the question of whether this was wise gets asked too late to change anything. This organisation has a documented habit of making decisions that feel fine in February and cost them something in August.
Maybe his medical team has this completely mapped out and I'm catastrophising from a box score. I hope so.
I just remember the last several times something looked fine in February.