Angels Activate Andrelton Simmons From Injured List

The Angels have activated shortstop Andrelton Simmons from the 10-day injured list, with right-hander Jaime Barria heading down to Triple-A following last night’s game. (Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group was among those to report the news.)

Simmons will return to action a little over a month after suffering a Grade 3 ankle sprain back on May 21.  It represents a remarkably quick recovery, all things considered, given that Grade 3 sprains are usually severe enough to merit absences in the range of 8-to-12 weeks.  However, Simmons was able to begin a rehab assignment last week and, despite a very minor setback over the weekend, he’ll now be back in his usual spot quarterbacking the Angels’ infield.

As Fletcher noted in another tweet earlier today, the Angels now have Simmons, Justin Upton, Shohei Ohtani, and Andrew Heaney all active for the first time all season.  Despite these injuries and some middling-at-best performances from the rotation and bullpen, Los Angeles has held its ground, entering today’s play with a 41-40 record.  This puts them four games out of a wild card position, and 8.5 games behind the slumping Astros in the AL West race.  The Halos can’t be counted out of the postseason hunt by any means, especially if they were to add an arm or two before the July 31 trade deadline.

Simmons had a .298/.323/.415 slash line over 195 plate appearances at the time of his injury, representing a 99 wRC+ and a dip below the slightly above-average offensive production he delivered in the previous two seasons.  Perhaps more troubling is his lack of hard contract, as Simmons has only a .276 xwOBA (well below his already-modest .320 wOBA).  His defense had also somewhat declined, if only in comparison to his usual all-world standards — Simmons has “only” a 14.4 UZR/150 and +4 Defensive Runs Saved over 379 innings at short this year, numbers that are still the envy of just about every other shortstop in the game.