Angels lefty Andrew Heaney is headed for a medical examination after experiencing elbow discomfort, as MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger was among those to report (Twitter links). He had been working back from elbow problems this spring.
This is hardly the news the Halos hoped for out of a key member of their staff. The 27-year-old finally turned in a full MLB campaign last year, working to a 4.15 ERA in 180 frames, after missing almost all of the prior two seasons with elbow problems.
Heaney will undergo imaging on his surgically repaired left elbow, GM Billy Eppler notes. The hope will obviously be that all the structural elements — in particular, his replacement ulnar collateral ligament — are in good working order.
Regardless of the outcome of the examination, it seems that Heaney’s timeline will likely be pushed back. He never really got going in camp and will need to be brought along with care.
My heart skipped a beat when I only saw “heading for elbow-” as the notification.
Angels are cursed, but at least they got Trout locked up.
Or the trades of injured pitchers were made by the GM of a rival team.
Continue to rely on injury prone pitchers then act surprised/snake bitten when said injury prone pitchers continue to get injured. The Angel way.
Hopefully this is minor, but with us it rarely is.
Meh, it’s just an exam. If there’s structural damage then yeah, let’s react, but it’s early enough that this may simply be a precaution. You have to wonder if a setback increases the likelihood of Keuchel though…
Keuchel would take 3-4 weeks to be ready. I think the Angels are punting 2019 to give the talent on the farm another year to mature, so why not sign Dallas after the draft?
The Angels should not… ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT, commit any money to 2020.
That would be insanely stupid.
I don’t think “punting” is a proper description, more like a draw play on 3rd&8. It may work but there’s clearly no major commitment to convert 2019. Regardless Keuchel is a multi year contributor. and in 2020 we should be competing. I’d agree on waiting until after June but I highly doubt he lasts that long and I still think a bargain price is on the table
@ macstruts
Care to elaborate? I’d assume you’re banking on us signing an ace caliber pitcher (Gerrit Cole?) on next years market but I don’t think these things are mutually exclusive.. If you can re-purpose Kole Calhoun’s $10.5m into 2/3 of Dallas Keuchel we’d still probably have around $30m of space. Allen/Harvey/Cahill/Calhoun will be off the books and I dont think many of our arb raises will be major. I can see the argument against but “ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT” is a bit strong…
What? Why not? Are you holding out all the $ for some big FA signing no one else is aware of for 2020? Why would signing Keuchal (a recently AS caliber P) be a bad move that “ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT” be done!?
It’s only “just an exam” if it’s a guy who hasn’t been experiencing elbow discomfort after missing most of 2016 and 2017 due to TJ surgery. If it is that guy, and his team isn’t exactly stacked in the starting pitching department, then a reaction of “meh” reflects a bit of head-in-the-sand mentality.
They signed 2 guys who weren’t exactly known for durability this offseason as well. Cahill hits the DL early and often and Harvey hasn’t had a clean bill of health himself eitherZ
I’d argue that it’s a realistic mentality. You said it, we aren’t stacked in the SP department (with or without Heaney) so an over reaction is silly. I know the player and he’s perpetually injured so counting on his health would be foolish. If an expected outcome occurs should it really be more than “Meh”?There’s no purpose to put the cart in front of the horse no matter what his injury history is. The reality is that the Angels are a low-mid 80’s win team. I don’t think that’s changed
If you wanna pitch for the Angels this is what you gotta do.
Of course….
And yet Eppler brought in Cahill and Harvey as answers.
Would you rather have them trade away their minor league talent for Bauer or Kluber? Cahill and Harvey are great stopgap signings.
chalk73 Exactly. Angels likely wouldn’t win the WS this year regardless, they aren’t just a Kluber away from a title. Angels biggest worry is taken care of, Trout is locked up long term. They don’t have to worry about him bolting for Philly as a FA anymore if they keep losing. They can take their time building a title contender around Trout now.
Not to mention all the players that will want to play with Trout. We have some good years ahead as Angels fans.
Yea not to mention all those amazing players that have already signed just because they wanted to play with Trout…. oh wait….
Ohtani says hello
How does this happen to every single Angels starter? At this point, it cannot be coincidence – the odds would be better to win the Powerball multiple times.
That team really needs to examine their pitching conditioning/coaching/training methods, because something is terribly wrong with their franchise.
Preach! I’ve had this same debate with my Angels fan “friend” countless times. At some point this becomes the error on the team/management for some reason. We can only speculate but results prove something is awry
I think teams evaluate pitchers differently, and obviously there is something in the Angels evaluation process that values risky pitchers, and that’s a thing they need to fix. I know the Angels have been way late to embracing modern analytics, and that’s also something at play here – so many smart people have been snapped up by teams over the last few years, and that’s not just people analyzing spin rate or numbers – they are also predicting injury risk and looking at mechanics using all that data.
An example is the Dodgers and Rich Hill. For years and years Hill was considered a marginal major league pitcher, because he couldn’t stay healthy and he couldn’t really get through a lineup three times. The Dodgers acquired him and basically told him : “throw the curve all the time. We’ll get you out of the game as quickly as possible.” And they have done it. Rich Hill has been tremendous in very limited work with the Dodgers. He rarely lasts past the 5th inning – but he helps the team win games. The Angels need to look at the smart teams and how they are building pitching staffs.
The Los Angeles Angels of Dr. Andrew’s clinic.
Ya it’s time to sway Keuchel
Would have been much better off going after Charlie Morton earlier in the offseason who IMO was the bargain sign this year at 2/32m and at least the pitcher of Keuchel, if not better.
Morton went to Tampa because he wanted to be close to home, he has said as much in interviews. Angels had zero chance of signing him, especially at that discounted rate
hope it is nothing to worry about!
An MRI showed nothing… right?
That said, this is not good news. The Angels can’t compete and have their staff on the DL.
it’s not like heaney’s elbow is broken off. it’s just an exam, you know?
So it goes.
It’s a broken record with this guy… unbelievable.
Literally copy and paste!
Love the pessimism. We are one game into 2019 and one pitcher has an issue and some of you have thrown the season away. One player does not make or break a season. We have depth to absorb the worst case scenario with Heaney thanks to Eppler. So chill.
The Angels are projected to finish 81-81, 8th in the AL. The only shot they have is multiple breaks going their way and no major injuries to the very few above average, key guys they employ
Yesterday the Angels learned the closest thing they have to even a #2 starter, the only one expected to throw more than 150 innings and post a WAR above 2.0 – well, he’s going to see a specialist on Monday to see if he will even be able to take a mound in 2019
Your comment seems to not only completely ignore the reality of the situation the Angels are in, but even does so by trying to assert pitchers are interchangeable regardless of ability.
Reality is, the Angels absolutely can not afford to lose Heaney, and Stratton is not a comparable pitcher.
“The Angels are projected to finish 81-81, 8th in the AL. The only shot they have is multiple breaks going their way and no major injuries to the very few above average, key guys they employ”
Projections are nothing more than conjecture. Any team that wins the WS does so because they had few injuries and some good breaks, so that’s the same for every team in the history of baseball.
Your response to my comment is based entirely on speculation. Reality comes as the season plays out. The Angels have a talented core of solid players with plenty in the farm system to back fill.
Projections are made off hard facts and 100+ years worth of realities and trends. It is what you are giving that is nothing but blind conjecture based off nothing but your wishful desires.
Also, you will be hard pressed to find many playoff teams that didn’t have at least some injuries to key players and strokes of back luck. Good teams are deep enough to over come it though. Bad, shallow teams end up under 500 and whining about injuries being the problem (as has been the case with the Angels for years now)
Right now the Angels have zero depth at all, and currently sport just 2 healthy players that are expected to produce at an above average rate. They are also rostering many replacement level guys (multiple they literally picked up off the cut list, often from other poor teams) – it all combines for a bottom-10 in the game ranking at C, 1B, 2B, 3B, RF, RP and we can add SP if their only true above average starter is to miss more time.
All the wishful thinking in the world will never erase the hard facts that make that the case.
Well, you’re obviously very passionate about the Angels losing so I hope the team you do root for does well.
Darkstar is 100% correct. Projections are based off of fact. No matter how you cut it the Angels roster is entirely lacking when compared to Houston, NYY, Boston, and so on. The real problem is that with any more significant injuries the roster they will put forth is not even comparable to the Oaklands or Minnesotas of the world.
Having the best player in baseball is an awesome privilege for the Angels and Angels fans, but it does not cover up the fact that the rest of the team is spare parts and Hail Mary rebound candidates
Hey Shield. I’m well aware of the weaknesses in the Angel’s line up. But, speculation, albeit based in fact in some instances, is still speculation. For example, how many trolls on here “speculated” that Trout would be a Philly and sited all the “facts” they had to support it. We’re now 2 games into the season. I’m not ready to write it off. Reality will unfold as the season progresses. That’s all I’m saying.
i’m sick and tired of pitchers that can’t hang. cut Heaney cut Skaggs cut Tropeano cut them all.