Mike Trout and his wife announce they are expecting a baby with an adorable video

TEMPE, Ariz. —  Mike Trout might not be the flashiest player in baseball, but he smiles and laughs wherever he goes. He’s great with kids, can hit a baseball over the fence or leap to intercept one before it goes over, and does whatever his team asks on and off the field.

He is the best player in baseball and, whatever the commissioner might say about how better marketing of Trout requires Trout’s participation, the league ought to be able to figure out how to sell him.

Trout just took a baby step in that direction. On Monday night, he and his wife Jessica announced they are expecting their first child in August — not in a statement, but in an adorable video that included the look on Mike’s face when Jessica delivered the news using Scrabble tiles, the gender reveal (it’s a boy!), the sonogram, and the sharing of the news with their families.

For all that he has heard about letting fans into his life, Trout said the video is the announcement of a baby — not an announcement of some grand new social media presence.

“No,” he said, “just a special moment In our life, and that’s how we showed it.”

Trout, 28, has 2.5 million followers on Twitter and 1.7 million on Instagram.

Joe Maddon, the Angels’ 66-year-old manager, chuckled when he heard about the video Tuesday morning. He said he had not seen it, and in his day baby announcements were not quite so public.

“I’m amused by all that, the way we do that in this day and age,” Maddon said. “But I get it. He has a lot of fans, and the family does, so it’s very cool.

“It’s life-altering, as we all know. Now he becomes third, immediately, in that family. It’s wonderful. It’s absolutely cool.”