Angels outfielder Chris Young has undergone right hip surgery, per a club announcement. He will need an additional procedure on his left hip as well. Both are to address labral tears.
The 34-year-old’s outlook isn’t immediately clear, but it seems reasonable to guess it’ll be challenging for him to make it back this year. He has already been on the shelf for a month with a hamstring strain. With just two months of the season left to be played, Young may be looking at a return next spring.
Regardless, the Halos likely will not get value on the $2MM they invested in Young over the winter. That was certainly a reasonable amount to pay for the veteran reserve, who has mostly provided solid overall output over his 13-year career. Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out as hoped.
In 128 plate appearances on the year, Young carries only a .168/.252/.363 batting line with six home runs. It’s fair to note that he’s only carrying a .183 BABIP, but Young is also producing soft contact at a whopping 38.5% rate and his strikeout rate has jumped to 28.9% after sitting in the twenty percent range in recent years. Plus, he has graded as a below-average defender in the outfield.
Young has been more effective against left-handers (85 wRC+) than against same-handed pitchers, but obviously he has lagged even in that regard. The expectation was that he’d provide something of a platoon partner for Kole Calhoun and a back-up for Mike Trout and Justin Upton, helping to form a highly productive outfield unit on a contending team. Instead, with the since-rejuvenated Calhoun embroiled in a miserable slump to begin the year, right field became one of the problem areas for a club that has fallen short of expectations.
Now we know why he was hitting .168/.252/.363 with 6 HR, 13 RBI and a 37/11 K/BB ratio across 128 PA…
Good luck, Chris Young!
“Now we know why he was hitting .168/252/363 . . . “
Post hoc ergo propter hoc. It’s the oldest fallacy in the book of logic, xabial. You should know better than that. Considering that
1) he’s thirty four, and
2) even when he was good he wasn’t that good
isn’t it just possible that, like many his age, he is simply no longer able to play baseball at the ML level?
Nothing that Steroids couldn’t fix so he just needs an appointment with DR AROID he broke down fast once he was off the juice!
“AROID he broke down fast once he was off the juice.” (sic)
1) Depends on what you mean by “fast.” ARod had one decent season after his suspension, and one must assume he was as carefully tested that year as any player in MLB.
2) Once again we’re looking at a player (ARod) who broke down at age 35. That isn’t unusual. Far more players are out of baseball by age 35 than are able to continue playing MLB at that age.
3) What does anything in the OP or any of the comments have to do with ARod? The connection between the subject of this thread and your comment is tenuous, at best.
Literally shut up
Okay….. and?
Troll
Dude was a stud in AZ. I remember watching him kill the Giants. Best of luck, just stay out of the NL please.
Stud? Really? .239/.318/.437 as a D-Back and .227/.324/.392 lifetime against SF
Chris get well and best of luck!
Yet another player with a decent track record who comes to the Angels and craters. He will leave and get back on track with another team
They need to fire the hole coach staff
Agreed! I don’t know what a hole coach does, let alone a whole staff of hole coaches…
Wishing Chris Young a full recovery. Now the Angels can add Ward to the 40 man roster. Call him up and give him an opportunity.
another guy with horrid numbers and wasted salary. the two Young’s along with Valbuena are the Three Stooges of Anaheim.