Angels Place C.J. Cron On DL

The Angels have placed first baseman C.J. Cron on the disabled list with a foot injury, Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times tweets. Lefty starter Tyler Skaggs also appears likely to head to the DL with oblique trouble. Both players left yesterday’s game against the Rangers — Cron fouled a ball off his foot, while Skaggs told the team he felt a “pinch” in his right side (as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register explains). The Angels have promoted righties Jose Valdez and Daniel Wright, evidently to take the place of Cron and Skaggs on their active roster.

Cron was off to a poor start to his season, batting just .233/.277/.267 while showing little of the power he demonstrated while hitting 16 home runs in each of the last two years. Luis Valbuena is currently several games into a rehab assignment after beginning his season on the DL with a hamstring strain, and he appears likely to take most of the playing time at first should Cron be out for a significant duration.

Skaggs, of course, has had his fair share of injuries, undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2014 and dealing with biceps tendinitis last season. Yesterday, though, he told reporters he was not worried about his current oblique issue. “I am not very concerned,” he said, via Fletcher. “We haven’t talked about an MRI or anything. We’ll take it day to day. … This is a small bump in the road.” Of course, the existence of the 10-day DL would allow the Angels to remove Skaggs from their active roster for only a brief period of time, meaning that it would not necessarily indicate a serious problem if the Angels were to place him there. Skaggs has posted a 3.99 ERA, 8.9 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 29 1/3 innings so far this season.