The Angels announced today that left-hander Andrew Heaney has been placed on the disabled list with a strained flexor muscle in his left forearm (Twitter link). As Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes, Heaney’s velocity dipped from 93-94 mph in the first inning of last night’s season debut to 90-91 mph in the second inning, and he was working at 88-89 mph by the end of his six innings. Heaney complained of some “tightness” in his left forearm following the outing.
While forearm tightness is an ominous ailment, as it’s often a precursor to Tommy John surgery, MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez tweets that doctors have assured the Angels that Heaney’s ulnar collateral ligament is healthy. In regards to the possibility of Tommy John, GM Billy Eppler told Gonzalez (Twitter link): “All I can say is that with the muscle strain, you’d rather hear the word muscle than ligament.” Gonzalez also tweets that an initial clinical exam showed Heaney’s UCL to be in good shape, and a followup MRI confirmed that diagnosis. The MLB.com scribe adds that there’s no timetable for Heaney to resume throwing, though Fletcher tweets that Eppler says Heaney will rest his arm for a couple of weeks before the club proceeds.
While the fact that Heaney appears positioned to avoid a catastrophic injury is good news for the Angels, the absence of their No. 2 starter from an already injury-ravaged rotation is disconcerting all the same. Anaheim already has C.J. Wilson on the disabled list, and with Heaney joining him, they’re left with Garrett Richards, Hector Santiago, Matt Shoemaker and Jered Weaver, the latter of whom has had his own physical issues and been struggling to get his velocity even into the mid-80s this spring. Nick Tropeano will likely be recalled to replace Heaney on the roster and in the rotation, and lefty Tyler Skaggs could eventually emerge as an option. Those options aside, losing Heaney for any significant amount of time would be a blow to an Angels roster that entered the season with a number of question marks.
Angel’s baby
wow, crazy how all throughout the offseason Angels fans (myself included) prided ourselves on our starting pitching depth. Wilson down, Heaney down, Weaver dying, and shoemaker struggling… it is such a different picture now. Tropeano might get more than 20 starts in the MLB this year.
I hope they bring Rasmus back into the rotation. He was a gamer filling in for Richards end of 2014.
I agree with you laangels we could do a lot worse that stretching him out. I believe he is out of options so would also open up a slot for another reliever.
Injuries notwithstanding, this is an awful roster made even worse with this injury. A nightmare for both fans and the GM. Nice job Arte.
Tough loss. Good luck guys
This is going to be a long season 🙁
I hope we can become a top team again before Trout becomes a FA. It would be a shame for him to leave.
So true. LAA are almost in a crisis position. I thought you guys had a great plan with trout, Pujols and Hamilton set as core your 2+ years ago. Now you are looking at how to build around the best player in bball with a boatload of injuries and little trade value in the minors.
I have poo-poohed those who have opened the discussion around figuring out what you could get for Trout, but it may be something you have to evaluate (just to know).
You need 1-2 significant contributors/year from your minors (plus 2-4 to shuffle to/from AAA for depth). If your minors are as weak as the rankings say, you might be 3+ years away from rebuilding your pipeline .. Would (2) mlb (star) youngsters + 1 top 10 prospect + 1 top 30 prospect be enough?? Tough situation, but would be interesting information to know what his market might be
160 games to play and the situation is dire. Been a while since I’ve felt this way.
I felt that way about the Rangers at the beginning of last year due to all of their injuries. Then somehow they came back to make the season worthwhile. Hang in there,
Same thought went through my mind, then I remembered the strength (and depth) of your (Rangers) minors and the opposite situation (by BA, MLB, etc rankings) for the Angels..
Honestly LAA feels more like my cubs when theo took over (very expensive payroll, lots of dead money, ‘nothing’ in the MiLB pipeline). Was a ‘brutal’ 3 years, that even theo got hammered for … Until last year. Of course we had an even worse hand (we had nothing even close to Trout), and theo/Jed did a heck of a job ‘buying (mid career) misfits’, giving them a chance to play, then flipping them for younger talent..
(Earlier) I was asking the question about what kind of value ‘might’ trading Trout have in accelerating a strengthening of the 25 man, 40 man and ??? I don’t wish anyone to go through what we went through, but we seem to coming out the back side much healthier …
Now we can’t hit OR pitch! Jesus the Angels last few offseason a have been horrendous. We are wasting mike Trout’s prime. I hate to say it, but if things don’t improve by 2018 Angels should consider trading Trout for a king’s ransom.