Los Angeles Angels place Mike Trout on paternity leave list

Mike Trout, whose wife is scheduled to give birth to the couple's first child this summer, was placed on the paternity leave list by the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday.

Trout's wife, Jessica, was originally expected to deliver sometime in August. The limit for a stint on the paternity leave list is three days. Trout will continue his Tier 1 testing schedule while he's away, which means COVID-19 tests every other day for those who are asymptomatic. So long as he continues to test negative, he can return to the Angels without interruption and would not require any sort of quarantine.

Trout and Jessica already had a name picked out but wanted to keep it a secret until the delivery.

The three-time MVP was originally hesitant about playing this season in the midst of a pandemic, concerned mostly about contracting the coronavirus and passing it to his wife, a scenario that would at the very least force them both into quarantine and keep them from seeing their newborn. But Trout's concerns seemed to subside somewhat after baseball resumed at the start of July.

"I just can't wait to meet him," Trout said the day before the Angels' season opener on July 24, which marked the start of his ninth full season in the big leagues. "We're excited. Jessica has been really strong and brave. I don't know how women do it."