Kendrys Morales will undergo a second ankle surgery and is out for the season, according to Scott Miller of CBS Sports (on Twitter). Morales' rehab had stalled, so he went to Colorado for a second opinion this week, according to Mike DiGiovanna of the LA Times. The first baseman has not played or run at full speed since last May 29th, when he broke his left ankle in a walk-off celebration.
Catcher Bobby Wilson has five games of MLB experience at first and Howie Kendrick, who is now playing left field for the Angels, has played 69 games at first. The bulk of the playing time will presumably continue to go to Mark Trumbo, the powerful rookie who has a .270/.311/.486 line with 6 homers through 119 plate appearances this year.
Morales, 27, earns $2.975MM through arbitration this year and is under team control through 2013. He hit .306/.355/.569 with 34 homers in 2009, finishing 5th in the AL MVP voting.
at least mark trumbo is effective…
^Sort of. Too many Ks
More like not enough BB’s.
+1
Not enough for whom? He’s leading all rookies.
The rookies this season so far have been pathetic. He has 6 walks in 122 PA’s, that’s also pathetic. He can slug, yes, but his OBP is terrible so far.
OUCH.
It just keeps getting worse for Angels fans…Brandon Wood flopping, Vernon Wells…now this. Brutal.
Yeah first place sucks…
Check back in August
Have you been paying attention the last 10 years?
These aren’t the ’02 Angels, I’m not convinced that they’re the best in the division in 2011. I’m not ready to crown them on May 12th, we still have nearly 130 games to go.
they weren’t the best in the division during the regular season in ’02 as well (wild card)
If you actually think Texas isn’t going to rocket up the standings you are insane.
Vernon Wells is a good player, with a bad contract
This is very bad, bescause Texas has a freaking POWER HOUSE, the Angels have speed and old vetrans on the downside of their carrers, but GREAT pitching.. Hopefully Tony can wake up and get some power on that team, then you’ll see everyones AVG raise..
Angels have the best avg. in the AL, and the second best ERA in the AL. Texas’ pitching is sub par but they do have good power. Not worried about Texas.
In a whopping ~35 game sample size
What is the problem with sample size here? The Angels high average or the Texas pitching being poor.
One of those was expected … the other is hardly a reach.
The Angels can get guys on base – they just can’t drive them in. Meanwhile, Texas was operating with smoke and mirrors in the 2010 when it came to pitching.
Still, without Morales this is a huge loss for the Angels. They REALLY needed him (what team could really afford to lose a 300/35 hitter?).
It’s a tiny sample size
It’s more than 1/5 of the season. I wouldn’t base the last 80% on it alone, but I wouldn’t discount it as garbage either.
I’m glad somebody else agrees with me. We’re about 1/4 into the season. I think it’s time to drop the “small sample size” defense.
So we should just concede that the Angels have the best hitters and second best pitching in the AL? I can see the pitching staying pretty good with that 1-2 punch, but the hitting just doesn’t jive with me. We’ll see how that holds up in 125+ games.
This is largely the same team that had 9 .300 hitters in their starting lineup in August of ’09. What’s so crazy about them coming back from a horrific 2010?
And that 2009 team probably would have done fine without Hunter and Vladdy at all — they missed nearly 2 months a piece…
I didn’t say they couldn’t bounce back, just that those two things Jake M cited are based on a small sample size and unlikely to be maintained for 162 games.
YES! Go back and look at 2009, and then look at the current lineup.
Hey look, a million responses saying the exact same thing. The Angels have the highest BABIP in all of baseball, meaning their batting average is likely due for a regression. Your best hitter from 2009 is not gonna play. Older guys like Abreu and Hunter are…2 years older than they were in 2009. Figgins had a really good 09 and is gone (not a bad thing for the Angels though).
I’m not saying they’re complete garbage, just that they’re unlikely to maintain their standing in the league as the best hitting team and second best pitching. If you don’t believe me we’ll have to agree to disagree. Check back in September and we’ll see who’s right.
I wouldn’t call it garbage…just highly unlikely to stand the test of 162 games.
Most of the the Angels lineup is filled with the same hitters who made up that 2009 offense…
Study Angels hitters dude.
Look up 2009, and then look at the Angels current lineup…
The Angels lineup is full of hitters who know how to hit — probably didn’t even need to acquire a bat in the offseason. The only thing the Angels really need to worry about is their bullpen. A move should be made there.
Good job trading Mike Napoli LAA.
Trading Mike Napoli is one of the reasons the Angels are back to the top of the AL in hitting!
you are smart enough to realize that you traded Napoli for Vernon Wells right??
and Vernon Wells is going to be around for 4 more years.
The Vernon Wells trade might be the worst in the history of baseball. In the very least top 5.
It was a great job! Dropped dead weight in both he and Rivera, which would have hindered the Angels’ hopes of being at the top of the AL in hitting. =-)
Hey at least he didn’t break his leg getting a game winning homerun. Oh wait.
tool
who would have thought such a freak injury would cost him 2 years
AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! (Rational comment to follow. Currently beating head against wall.)
And you are seriously surprised by this?
Remember all those getting upset about Morales as a potential non-tender guy….
Fact is, he’s only once had over 200 at-bats in a season and only once played in as many as 60 games in a season. When healthy he can hit….but we’ll see if he can get there.
He was there when he broke his leg!
Maybe this opens up the door for LAA to acquire Branyan as a cost effective stop gap.
Nope.
I remember being at that game where you tried to jump on home plate.. ahh memories.
Wow. That was one damaging HR!
I expect him to be nontendered
Jesus a walkoff celebration he breaks his ankle when he lands from jumping on home plate and he’s now going to miss almost 2 years of baseball. That sucks. Even Carl Pavano feels bad for him lol.
Oh well. It’s about time A’s take over first place anyways!
Sure could use Napoli now. That Wells trade is actually getting worse for the Angels!
Mike Trout? Atkins? Crede?
And all because that celebration of a walk-off GS… tragic.
he’s better than any options they have now, thats the point
No it isn’t. Napoli is a horrible situational hitter and will never be a big power threat through a full season. Dropping the dead weight of Napoli and Rivera are 2 of the main reasons the Angels are back to the top of the AL in team batting average.
And why exactly would we need to make that move? Without Vernon Wells in the lineup, the Angels offense seems to be a much better team w/ RISP. The moves that really need to be made are at the back end of the bullpen (Heath Bell).
Reagins did go out and get Derrek Lee; only Lee vetoed the deal because the Angels were a little too far back. To expect Reagins to make a deal last July (to get the Angels back into contention) is both naive and ignorant. We were almost out of race and plenty of other teams were in the same position. I think there’s some vanity that plays into Halos fans being upset about Reagins APPARENTLY not making the right moves last year. It will be Trumbo and Kendrick at 1B, and that is more than a lot of teams in MLB can ask for!
denial
While its idiotic to discuss ‘batting average’ I will dumb down and indulge, just to prove you wrong..
A) Juan Rivera is a career .280 hitter
B) Mike Napoli is a career .250 hitter, with a career slugging of .487 (important for 1B)
So ya, you’re wrong.
Yea the team with the best bullpen era needs to improve. *sarcasm
Ahhhh the ‘ watch the games crowd’ should have known