Angels outfielder Justin Upton has been diagnosed with turf toe, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reports on Twitter. He’ll be added to the injured list for the start of the season.
That’s unfortunate news for the Halos, particularly at this stage of camp and with Shohei Ohtani still building back. It’s not yet clear how long Upton will be sidelined, but he’ll surely be brought along cautiously to ensure that this issue doesn’t linger.
The Angels don’t exactly have an appealing back-up plan, but they’ll have to make do without Upton for at least a few weeks. There are only three other outfielders on the 40-man roster at this point: Michael Hermosillo, who’s expected to be on the IL as well, and stalwarts Mike Trout and Kole Calhoun. Peter Bourjos could end up seeing the lion’s share of time. Fellow non-roster invitees Cesar Puello and Jarrett Parker are also possibilities, though the latter is also not at full health at the moment.
Upton was a horrible signing. Pasted his prime. Unfortunately angels have him for this season plus an additional 3
I agree that it’s not a good signing, but he’s definitely not passed his prime, he’ll probably be able to keep hitting 30+ bombs the next 5 years. But his defense will regress, which will make his contract an overpay.
Upton is very streaky! Problem for team because he carries team for one month with Babe Ruth play and then sinks team with Mendoza bat for the rest of the season. His numbers at year end say he had good year but in actuality, he had one super month.
But if you look at his monthly splits there was no Super month. His numbers were pretty evenly spread out with his highest OPS totals occurring in 3 months from June through August. The one month crap is just a narrative made up by some fans somewhere.
Is that just like Mookie Betts? In 2017 he only had one month with an OPS higher than .870, but two other months with an OPS below .700 or in 2016 when he had 3 months with an OPS below .800 and 2 other months where it was over 1.050. Both of those years he was top 6 in MVP voting, but his season totals were carried by 1-2 great months.
blame arte moreno who signed him, pujols, and also said garret anderson would be a HOFamer if he had been a yankee. moreno is a joke
I’m sure many teams would love to have the “joke” of Arte Moreno. I mean he spends in the top 5 every year. What a joke!
So hes even more a joke then, because he spends but doesnt win. Thanks for proving my point.
if a multi-billionaire is a joke what are you? upton was signed by the gm not by m0reno. yes, pujols was signed by him but he got extra billion from fox for signing ap.
All signings are by approval of the owner. Wait you don’t actually think the owner works for the GM do you?
saying yes and actively seeking to sign are 2 different things.
Yeah, no.
The GM has a budget. The owner weighs in if the budget is to be exceeded. That was clearly the case with Pujols (because of the size and length of the deal), and with Hamilton (because of the total dollars). But Billy Eppler wouldn’t be working as the Angels’ GM if he needed a note from mom to get any player signed, and few players would want to be part of that culture.
That was not the case with Upton, who basically got one more year, but pushed 2018-2020 dollars down to that last year (the year after Pujols’s deal is over). That gave the team financial flexibility. Nothing about the signing required the intervention of ownership—in fact, the restructuring of Upton’s deal helped the Angels in the near term.
Desperate move, like Pujols, to get help for Trout.
I wouldn’t say horrible signing. There’s constant banter that Trout has no support and here’s a chance to get some support, so they re-sign J-up. My question is, if you’re Eppler and don’t bring Upton back, then what’s your fall back move? Sign nobody and Trout sees zero or lack of help and or the market for Upton goes up? If you’re the GM who loses on Trout extending, good luck with the endless jokes. Justin has time to rebound with a mostly likely inflated contract. But at the time of need, bringing him back was the only move. Eppler had to move fast and it’s better to have the devil you know vs the devil you don’t know. Trust Eppler.
And yet J-Up had 30 HR, a 122 OPS+, and a 3.8 WAR last season, which was better than anything they’ve gotten from LF since Garrett Anderson. Using Torii Hunter as a comp, Upton has already exceeded Torii’s production in his first year with the Angels (21 HR, 111 OPS+, 3.5 WAR) for the same AAV as Hunter, adjusted for inflation. His contract is a bargain. Machado and Harper making $30+ million in AAV for 2.8 and 1.3 WAR respectively, but Upton is a bad signing with higher value at $10-15 million less in AAV. The Angels stole Upton.
Correction on Machado. His 2.8 was with the Dodgers alone. He had a 5.7 WAR overall. My bad on that. Still, the way the current market has been established, $21 million AAV for Upton is a steal.
Considering how bad most of the Angels’ big free agent signings have been Upton hitting .257 with 30 homers is a far cry from horrible
pro tip: try the reply button to reply to people
Peter Bourjos, this is your chance to shine. You’ve been given opportunities in STL, PHILLY, TB and ATL. Not many guys get this many chances. Hit or get released when Upton and Hermosillo are healthy. Make it happen. I like your defense and speed, but you need to start putting the bat on the ball more consistently. Your spring numbers have faded.
Angels should trade for Sox’ JJ.
We don’t need him anymore.
Art has the cash.
Jon Jay? First of all, he sucks beyond suck. Secondly, he’s on the DL. Lastly, he sucks. They don’t need a 34 year old, slow, rag armed, flair hitting pos like Jay.
Wtf is turf toe? Also I am still double taking at every instance of “injured list”.
i guess you could google it unless your time ran out on a library pc.
Library PC. Awesome.
Toe ligament sprain, and it’s pretty painful.
Kick a brick wall barefoot multiple times and find out.
Upton without question a top ten LF, likely closer to 5 than ten. His wRC+ last year was 124. He’s 31 years old. He plays 140+ games every year and this year will likely be no different.
It’s not a bad signing. At least not yet. Fans are reactionary. This is a perfect case in point.
agree. sounds like the fans who wanted Trout in philly are taking additional shots at the previous regime’s mistakes
When is Ohtani supposed to be able to hit again?
My guess is early May, but don’t expect him to DH more than 5 games a week. He’s rehabbing from Tommy John and days he does pitching work, I don’t think he’s going to start at DH. He may pinch hit, but I don’t think he’ll start those days.
Not a big deal for this is a 3rd to 4th place team.
Year after year after year this team is 20 games out, under .500, and nowhere near making the playoffs.
Best of luck Angel fans.
Troll.
Jeez you must be a blast to be around!
He is gotta be the most pathetic left fielder (defensively) gonna miss him in the lineup big time tho, no one in this line up now scares me except for that one guy.smelling a very slow start for angels
As a Tigers fan I can tell you JUp was much loved in Detroit. Yeah, inconsistent, but when he is on he can carry a team. And he is usually “on” more than one month a year. It was an over pay but imho he is an asset
Which of the Baseball Gods did the Angels piss off so badly??
Angels hired bad training staff. Period. Turf toe does not happen if player does rest, ice, compress, elevate (RICE). Basic stuff.
He hurt his toe running into the wall on Monday,so good call doc
Turf toe is a sprain.
Yes it is,he did it running into the concrete base of the wall.I watched it happen
I stand pat, RICE for stubbed toe should not require more than a few days for recover. Angel’s head trainer has online degree from California University of Pennsylvania. Unqualified man leads to team big problems.
Pujols to LF??
A chair could play LF better than Pujols right now.
I’m curious how the Opening Day roster is going to look in terms of outfileders. I’m guessing Trout/Bourjos/Calhoun start in the OF but who’s 4th? Puello? Parker? Walsh?Does Fletcher get reps there if Upton’s IL stay is short?
If Ward makes the club I can see Fletch getting a chunk of work in LF but that’s not a certainty. Lots of interesting roster moves for the Halos
That’s stupid. Pujols may not be as agile as most ball players but he can sure outplay a chair. For a joke, it is not funny.
Regrettably, for one of the great players of the era, it is currently true.
“may not be as agile” – yeah possibly
Smh. Yeah it’s just the beginning of the season but it already seems like a slow start should be in store for the Angels with all their injuries. Hard to feel bad for a guy that just signed a $430 million extension, but baseball needs it’s best player on the playoff stage more frequently
Upton needs 878 K’s to break Reggie Jackson’s career record. I doubt he breaks it but Giancarlo Stanton should.