Angels first baseman/designated hitter C.J. Cron will undergo an arthroscopic debridement to address an impingement in his left thumb, the team announced today. Cron has been experiencing pain in the base of his thumb recently according to the team, and as Pedro Moura of the L.A. Times points out (Twitter link), the 26-year-old slugger did suffer a broken left hand back in July. The recovery time on the operation was announced as six to eight weeks, so Cron should be fully ready to go once Spring Training arrives.
Cron landed on the disabled list on July 9 and was sidelined through Aug. 20 with the hand fracture referenced by Moura. His offense upon his return was largely similar to his pre-injury production — though he did experience a mild dip in power — and he finished out the year with a strong .278/.325/.467 slash in a career-high 445 plate appearances. Perhaps more importantly, he continued to make strides in his plate discipline; while his walk rate was still a below-average 5.4 percent, that mark was up from 4.1 percent over his first two big league seasons. And, by cutting back on the number of out-of-zone pitches he chased, Cron was able to drop his strikeout rate from 20.3 percent to 16.9 percent.
While Cron isn’t an elite bat, it seems clear that he posses 20- to 25-homer pop in his bat if he can stay healthy over the life of a full season. To date, the 116 games he tallied in 2016 are a career-high, though, so he’ll hope for a healthier campaign in 2017, which will be the platform year for his first season of arbitration eligibility. Cron can be controlled through the 2020 season via that arbitration process.
Watch for Cron to make another leap forward he was smashing the ball with consistent perihperals both pre injury and at the end when he came back. If he can hit 25 homers with a 350 obp thats a great bat.
Agreed. With Calhoun, and Cron they have 2 young bats that are still improving. I think the demise of the Angels is premature. They won 74 games having 3 starting pitchers go down with arm injuries for the year. And Trout is still Trout.
Angels fans and that injury card they keep pulling. You all saw the Dodgers come withing 2 games of the WS and they had more injuries than you. Rangers had more injuries too and at least they made the playoffs. The Angels are so devoid of talent that a Trout injury would likely lead to one of the worst seasons anyone’s ever seen from a “major league” team.
I’m a Dodgers fan, but my families ties to the Angels goes back to Wrigley Field and the Pacific Coast League. I have a deep admiration for both clubs. The biggest difference that I see is the depth that the Dodgers have. We lost way more than 3 starting pitchers. We even lost the best pitcher in the game for a couple months.
Arte has stripped that ball club. They need to draft well these next two seasons, and then hope they have enough prospects that they can build a team with that 2018 free agency pool. If I’m not mistaken, 2018 is when he can opt out on the stadium lease. Tustin doesn’t want him, and we all know how things went with the city when the name changed. That stadium looks worn out and needs an overhaul like they’ve done with Dodgers stadium. It will be interesting to see how it works out. I think Angels fans SHOULD be upset. It’s like the guy says above me, imagine if Trout had an injury. That would have been a seriously awful team to watch.