If you've been talking about the Angels' Mark Trumbo lately, it's probably because he's been crushing the ball this season: a batting line of .337/.387/.629 with 12 home runs in 178 at-bats. Now, though, his defense is a topic of conversation.
Remember back in spring training when Trumbo was getting plenty of reps at third base and seemed in line to be the regular at the position? Well, Trumbo hasn't played the hot corner since May 3, and on the season he has just 63.0 defensive innings at third, compared to 37.0 at first base, 64.0 innings in left and 166.2 in right.
As Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register explains, Trumbo hasn't even been taking practice grounders at the position for some time. “Because of the dynamics of where our team is there’s going to be much more outfield than anything else,” manager Mike Scioscia said of Trumbo's deployment. “He’ll still work out at third and we’ll revisit it at some point. But right now I think the positions that he’ll be playing will be the corner outfields, first base and DH, obviously.”
Seemingly, upcoming interleague road games, when the Angels will lose the DH, will test this trend. However, Plunkett reports that the Angels plan to play Albert Pujols at third for at least some of those road games and move Kendrys Morales to first. That, presumably, will leave Mike Trout, Torii Hunter, Peter Bourjos and Trumbo to share three outfield spots.
Needless to say, Scioscia would do well to keep Trumbo, his best power bat this season, in the lineup regardless of where and under what rules the Angels are playing. By the sounds of things, though, Trumbo won't be seeing time at third any time soon.
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