As many baseball fans have wondered all offseason what Los Angeles Angels superstar center fielder Mike Trout was thinking this offseason after seeing his former teammate Shohei Ohtani sign a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, look no more, as Trout has finally spoken about the situation.

Earlier this week, Trout appeared on the Angels Recap Show hosted by Trent Rush and was asked about the Angels’ new young core, as well as the absence of Ohtani in the Angels clubhouse. Rush pried for Trout’s reaction to ex-teammate signing with the Dodgers, and received it.

“”Everybody was asking me before he made his decision, I kinda had a feeling it was going to be the Dodgers throughout the year, last year.” Said Trout, “It was just the main talk on the internet. But I’m happy for him, he deserves every bit of it and we’ll see what happens.””

– Per Angels Recap hosted by Trent Rush

As Trout looks to embrace the post-Ohtani era, baseball fans everywhere will always wonder about“the what if” between Trout and Ohtani, as the Angels star duo rarely saw the field together while both struggled to stay healthy over the last six seasons.

During their time together, Ohtani and Trout appeared in just 449 total contests, making it into 46.6% of their total possible games played. The Angels had a record of 194-211 when both were on the field together.

Some final Trout-Ohtani numbers:

They were in the lineup together in just 46.6% of the Angels games over the past six seasons.

The Angels were 194-211 (.480) in those games.

They were 207-258 (.445) with one or neither of them in the lineup.

— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) December 13, 2023

Before suffering a Hamate injury that pretty much ended Trout’s season early last July, the two played in 79 games as a duo. At that time, the Angels were 45-42, but would spend the rest of July without Trout. Despite being without the three-time American League MVP, the Angels were still much in it, having a record of 56-51, but would end up suffering a late-season collapse, going 17-23 following the July 31 trade deadline.

With the Angels looking to usher in the second half of Trout’s Hall of Fame career, he currently sits with good company around him, as he spoke highly on the team’s young core that features Mickey Moniak, Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel, Jo Adell and Logan O’Hoppe.

As Trout is now entering a mentorship role with this young core, the one thing he spoke highly about was holding this group accountable.

“”Just learn everyday, try to get better everyday, feed off of other guys. You see the energy that they bring and night in, night out, we’ll all feed off that. I think it’s a good mixture.” Said Trout, “just seeing them grow, last year was a little bit of a start up for them, now it’s go time. They’re not rookies anymore, they know their roles, they had their struggles, they had their highs and lows but you gotta learn from that and I think if you can build off that positivity and build off that they had last year, it will lead to more success.””

– Per Angels Recap Podcast

Now, it’s time for Trout’s vision to manifest — without his old running mate.