{"id":42734,"date":"2026-08-13T08:14:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42734"},"modified":"2026-08-13T08:14:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:14:44","slug":"mike-trout-brought-the-angels-to-his-private-golf-club-for-team-bonding-then-the-trades-began","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42734","title":{"rendered":"Mike Trout brought the Angels to his private golf club for team bonding. Then the trades began"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>It was Aug. 3, the day of baseball\u2019s trade deadline and an off-day on the East Coast before a series in Baltimore. About a dozen Los Angeles Angels were gathered near the first tee, ready to begin a long-awaited round of golf at the course that Tiger Woods designed for superstar Mike Trout.<\/p>\n<p>Little did the players realize, some of them would be former Angels very soon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seemed like every four or five holes someone was getting the call,\u201d said Trout, who watched his team bonding event turn into one big breakup.<\/p>\n<p>Trout, 35, was eager to host his teammates near his hometown of Millville, N.J., at his private, invitation-only club, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.troutnational-thereserve.com\/?gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23722270996&amp;gbraid=0AAAAA9_wHi91Q29WNublhFa6G6rI86kJ6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Trout National \u2014 The Reserve<\/a>. But he\u2019d planned the outing in the spring, without realizing the date\u2019s significance on the baseball calendar. Nor could he know back then that the Angels, a team that rarely acts as sellers at the deadline, would tear it down.<\/p>\n<p>Suffice it to say, no team ever experienced a deadline day like this.<\/p>\n<p>Three players were traded while taking in the rolling hills of Trout National \u2014 reliever Brent Suter, outfielder Jo Adell and reliever Ryan Zeferjahn. A fourth, reliever Kirby Yates, learned he was dealt after the round was over while in a car heading back to Trout\u2019s home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was pretty wild watching everybody go,\u201d said Yates, a 12-year veteran. \u201cNone of us have ever seen that many guys get traded at once.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter somebody went, we just kept saying, \u2018All right, who\u2019s next?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"4v0TWU60XrBxVRU\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_Root__QeM_i\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_VideoWidth__XjNKI VideoHost_Portrait__XBaJC\">\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Root__AGckL\">\n<div>\n<p>Do trade deadline deals lead to World Series rings?<\/p>\n<p>Joe Crisalli<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A fifth Angel traded that day, right-hander Jos\u00e9 Soriano, wasn\u2019t part of the group, which the previous night boarded a bus upon landing in Baltimore for the two-hour drive to Trout\u2019s home in New Jersey.<\/p>\n<p>Soriano, 27, doesn\u2019t golf. He was asleep in his hotel room when he was awakened by a phone call the next morning informing him he was heading to the Toronto Blue Jays.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone else \u2014 the dozen or so players who stayed overnight at Trout\u2019s home, plus coaches and staffers who arrived on a bus from Baltimore the following morning \u2014 was at Trout National.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m bummed I wasn\u2019t invited,\u201d Angels interim general manager John Mozeliak joked. \u201cI was a little tied up that morning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mozeliak, preoccupied with trade negotiations, did not know nearly half his team was golfing. Trout came to realize, as he organized the outing, that it might be an unusual day. The group, he said, had an idea that trades were coming.<\/p>\n<p>Suter got the first call, right before the players teed off.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone was putting on a green,\u201d Trout said. \u201cWe were all sitting there, all on the tee box.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mozeliak, who conducted the calls with Angels assistant GM David Haynes, told Suter he was going to the Atlanta Braves. Suter, 36, is an 11-year veteran. The Braves are his fifth different team. But it was actually the first time he was dealt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNever in a thousand years did he think he\u2019d get traded,\u201d Zeferjahn said. \u201cHis first question was, \u2018Can I finish the round? Can I golf?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The answer was yes. Mozeliak recalled telling Suter he\u2019d be hearing from the Braves, then concluding the call by saying, \u201cHit \u2018em straight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just instantly started hugging everybody,\u201d Suter said. \u201cLuckily, I was able to play the round and enjoy the last couple hours with the guys before I caught the last flight out of Philly to Atlanta.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The players sensed the action was only beginning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce that happened,\u201d Yates said, referring to the Suter trade, \u201cwe all had a feeling this is probably gonna pick up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adell, 27, was next. He was on the seventh hole, a long par four, when Mozeliak and Haynes informed him he was going to the Cleveland Guardians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was in shock,\u201d Adell said.<\/p>\n<p>The 10th overall pick in the 2017 draft, Adell had spent his entire career in the Angels organization. And while he knew a trade was possible, the end came suddenly, in a way he never imagined.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou were hearing some cheers and some hugs going on throughout the golf course as guys were getting traded,\u201d Adell said. \u201cWe got to hole nine and I was pretty much giving out hugs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019d be gone by the turn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt least I got to play half the course, though,\u201d Adell said. \u201cThat\u2019s the positive.\u201d<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"306urvjtXLlXdkl\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_Root__QeM_i\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_VideoWidth__XjNKI VideoHost_Portrait__XBaJC\">\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Root__AGckL\">\n<div>\n<p>Why the Red Sox resurgence is historic<\/p>\n<p>Ken Rosenthal and Johnny Sweet<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Even those that weren\u2019t ultimately traded endured a strange day.<\/p>\n<p>As the round continued, a report surfaced that left-hander Reid Detmers had been traded to the Chicago Cubs. For weeks, Detmers had endured speculation that he was a candidate to be traded. The report, though, turned out to be inaccurate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it was good he was golfing,\u201d said Trout, whose group included Yates and Detmers. \u201cIt took his mind off it. When that trade with the Cubs came out, that\u2019s when we started asking questions. But we knew it wasn\u2019t legit. We were right there with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Detmers completed his round and remained an Angel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were kind of waiting for his phone to ring,\u201d Yates said. \u201cAnd it never did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zeferjahn, 28, did not originally plan to go on the golf trip, describing himself as a last-minute addition. With four additional years of club control remaining, he also was not an obvious candidate to move.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of the deadline, however, Zeferjahn\u2019s 33.5 percent strikeout rate was ninth-best among major-league relievers. Teams coveted him. The Cubs landed him.<\/p>\n<p>Around the 12th or 13th hole, Zeferjahn said, it started raining. The players gathered in a hut to stay dry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s when I got the call,\u201d Zeferjahn said. \u201cI was like, \u2018Wow.\u2019 It was a surreal moment with everyone around. (The other players) were telling me about the Cubs. It was nice with everyone together one last time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once the round of golf was complete, the players piled into cars to return to Trout\u2019s home. But the whirlwind of trades still wasn\u2019t over.<\/p>\n<p>Yates, who, like Suter, had joined the Angels on a one-year deal, was stunned to receive his call.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t think I had a chance,\u201d Yates said. \u201cI did not think there was a market for a 39-year-old throwing 90 mph.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was, in the form of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Yates went just before the buzzer. His trade was reported publicly right at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Yates made his way to Milwaukee, where the Pirates were opening a series against the Brewers, and threw a scoreless inning the next night.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the surviving Angels took a bus right back to the team hotel in Baltimore. Others stopped at Trout\u2019s house first before getting on their own bus. Trout drove to Baltimore with his parents the next day.<\/p>\n<p>Back in Anaheim, Mozeliak sorted through his five deals, appreciative that the players who were golfing \u201ctook it in great spirit\u201d when informed of their respective moves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess if you\u2019re going to get news like that,\u201d Mozeliak said, \u201cyou might as well be having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Trout, the flurry of trades was somewhat expected, \u201cjust because of the rumors and stuff.\u201d But the day he planned for his teammates at Trout National sure wasn\u2019t what he initially envisioned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was just different,\u201d Trout said. \u201cWe were all enjoying a round of golf. It was different, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With apologies to Jim Nantz, call it a deadline day unlike any other.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2014<em> The Athletic\u2019s<\/em> Sahadev Sharma contributed to this report.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was Aug. 3, the day of baseball\u2019s trade deadline and an off-day on the East Coast before a series in Baltimore. About a dozen Los Angeles Angels were gathered near the first tee, ready to begin a long-awaited round of golf at the course that Tiger Woods designed for superstar Mike Trout. Little did&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/08\/09221009\/GettyImages-1159087151-scaled.jpg?width=1200&height=630&fit=cover","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}