Angels reliever Keynan Middleton is going on the 10-day DL after being diagnosed with damage to his ulnar collateral ligament, as MLB.com’s Maria Guardado was among those to report (Twitter links). He is headed for a second opinion.
Clearly, that’s unwelcome news for the 24-year-old righty. It’s not known at this point just how severe the damage is; it seems team and player are looking to gather information before deciding upon a course of treatment. In the most serious cases, of course, UCL injuries require extensive surgery (most famously, the Tommy John procedure) that comes with upwards of a year of rehab.
As things stand, then, we simply don’t know how long Middleton will be sidelined. Given that there’s a problem with the ligament, though, even the most optimistic scenario will involve a fairly lengthy DL stint. And the risk of the rest-and-rehab — which is sometimes accompanied by stem cell and/or platelet-rich plasma treatment — is that the player may end up delaying his procedure and thus also his ultimate point of return.
Given the stakes, the Angels and Middleton will understandably weigh the decision carefully. He had become firmly ensconced in the team’s bullpen hierarchy, even locking up six saves this year for the Halos. Even losing a few months of work from Middleton will increase the pressure on other arms in the Los Angeles pen.
Today’s news comes after Middleton had turned in 17 2/3 innings of 2.04 ERA pitching to open the season. Of course, there were already some signs of concern. Middleton was doling out a few too many free passes (4.6 per nine) and had seen his swinging-strike rate plummet from an eye-opening 16.6% in 2017 down to 9.5% to begin the current year.
While the Angels are no doubt aware that the young hurler still has a ways to go to prove he’s a reliable late-inning force, the team surely would have preferred to continue giving him that opportunity. Now, the Halos’ roster’s already-unimposing high-leverage mix appears all the more in need of buttressing at the trade deadline. With the club off to a strong start but facing a tough year-long fight for the postseason, it would not be surprising at all to see GM Billy Eppler focus on adding arms this summer.
An injury to an Angels pitcher? What a surprise.
Oh no that’s bad
Any athlete who dyes their hair to match their teams jersey is a douche
Pretty much
What about dying your goatee like Scott Spiezio?
He’s an Angel, what do you expect?
Sandfrog was a horrible band.
The irony that the dude called “rockhard” has opinions on whats douchey is troll level all-star..
Jokes aside, he put on like 25 lbs in less than a year and while I’m not willing to attribute the injury to that, there is pretty solid historical information that says that big increases in weight can really hurt the body’s ability to complete repetitive tasks off.
Have you seen the dude? He looks rock solid
Not True.
Regards,
CC Sabathia
Sound like a keyboard troll, I presume a astros or mariners fan maybe even rangers. I will say the salty look isnt a good one, no one deserves injuries. Think before you speak classless troll.
And that’s an acceptable excuse for this kind of nasty trolling response on an articles about how he’s hurt?? I don’t think Keynan Middleton is the one who’s the douche here……
Tanaka and Ervin Santana successfully rehabbed a partially torn UCL with rest & rehab. Keep your hopes up Angels’ fans.
I don’t know who this guy is, but looking at his stats, I saw he is worth 0.7 WAR already and 2.04 ERA, clearly he’s an effective reliever.
Then why follow/respond to baseball when you dont know a person?
Come on dude not every fan knows every single active player? I know who he is and follow baseball close enough but I don’t know EVERY player..
And what’s wrong with a nice positive comment wishing the guy and his fans well? Referencing players who’ve had similar injuries with positive results is a perfectly good comment.
I think your response is rude and unnecessary and this kind of attitude makes newer fans or more casual fans feel unwelcome which I think is completely rotten.
Thank you, hzt502. I truly appreciate that.
He’s a hard thrower, that’s what I’ve seen from him. Looked like he had pretty good stuff for being only 24
This is why I signed up mlbtr forums, other than for the breaking news you usually get before anyone else.
I’ve never seen Middleton play. I’ve never even heard of him — as I’ve said— I just like hearing inside reports, you can only get from teams’ fanbases, and I’d love to hear from Angels’ fans or anyone.
Thank you!! Makes it all worthwhile. (A lot of rude people here lately)
I’m so scared for Ohtani, he really did pick the worst team to be a pitcher for.
Lol dodgers lol
*fan
Lol Angel lol
HaloShane is WestCoastRyan even dumber sock.
Why is Halo even in your name ? Why not put effort into being a fan of a team instead of dissing your team
I don’t think he/she/it is an Angel fan. Just a coincidental name. Like a Cubs fan named FriarSteve.
I’m too sexy
You mean the only team to play in LA and win World Series there? The team that won 5 more WS than the Angels?
You mean the team that has actually won a WS in the twentieth century ?
Oh u mean those 5 WS they won for a different city? So do they even count then for a “true LA team”? Lol dodger fans are funny creatures. The only fans that get butthurt over a city being in a name. Fun fact: the Angels aren’t the only pro team to use the name of the market they’re close to: Braves, Rays, Cowboys, Redskins, Niners, Dolphins, Bills, NY Giants, NY Jets, Suns, Pistons, Coyotes all play in different cities than their name implies… also the Angels organization was born in LA, can’t say the same for the Brooklyn Dodgers of Los Angeles
Another UCL issue tell me there isn’t a pattern they need a top to bottom review of their training, exercises, and anything to do with their pitching program.
If it’s a tear it doesn’t happen suddenly (unless there is traumatic injury like falling and bracing yourself causing severe hyperextension”. Tears are a cumulative thing caused by years of overuse, especially when younger. As Middleton said when he was drafted “This is everything I ever wanted. “I’ve been playing since I was 4, and this is all I ever wanted to do.”
Kids have been throwing way too many innings growing up, for decades now, and throwing as hard as they can all of the time. It continues into college and the pros. It doesn’t just happen suddenly. The tendon stretches and stretches until it tears.
Throw a few prospects at the Royals for Kelvin Herrera. KC needs to start the rebuild now.