The Angels have activated infielder David Fletcher from the 60-day injured list. He’s in tonight’s lineup at second base. Michael Stefanic was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake in a corresponding move. To create space on the 40-man roster, the Halos transferred veteran infielder Matt Duffy from the 10-day to the 60-day IL.
It has been a rough season for Fletcher, who’s spent the bulk of the year on the shelf. He missed the first three weeks of the year recovering from a strain in his left hip. Fletcher returned to action for about two weeks, then went back on the IL with recurring hip issues. He underwent adductor surgery in mid-May and has spent nearly three months recovering.
In Fletcher’s absence, the Angels have struggled to a 42-56 record that has them ahead of only the A’s, Royals and Tigers in the American League standings. Lack of production at second base has been among the factors for that, as the Halos have gotten a meager .236/.294/.319 showing out of the position. Six players — Fletcher, Stefanic, Duffy, Luis Rengifo, Tyler Wade and Jack Mayfield — have tallied at least 20+ plate appearances as part of the second base rotation.
Duffy has been out since June 27 with what the team originally termed lower back spasms. There hasn’t been much word on his status over the past month, but he’s evidently not close to a return. The 60-day window backdates to his original IL placement, so Duffy won’t be back on the diamond at Angel Stadium until at least the final week of August.
David has been missed all year
I want to see jake Palomaki get called up. long overdue
This pretty much puts them over the top.
Our savior! In Fletch we trust
What a nightmare of a season.
1. Incompetent manager fired during the season. (should’ve never been hired in the first place)
2. Both mega contract position players on the shelf. One who was underperforming badly, the other with a rare condition. Smh
3. Little to no production from multiple positions, chiefly SS and 2b.
4. Multiple BP members who did well last year, got paid, and are now underperforming.
And Fletcher isn’t moving the needle, he was underperforming badly when he was healthy. I hate to say this, it might be time for a tear down and rebuild. The first step, which would be hard for the fan base and org., trade Ohtani. I just can’t believe it came to this.
Good thoughts, although don’t agree on no. 1. I don’t think they need a tear down as much as a trade of Ohtani. Without a bump in total payroll it’s really a no-brainer baseball decision.
I was gonna just put managerial change for No.1, which would signal something has/is going wrong as a team. I understand it’s not ALL on him what has happened. But I do remember questioning a lot of his decisions, which is why I wrote it as I did.
Totally Conin, I and many have the same opinion on Ohtani. If Artie doesn’t bump the payroll up with the big Boyz, then It is basic strategy to just go ahead and trade him now. As much as all of us Angels fans like and want Ohtani, this decision has to be made very soon.
Yes, Its time to trade Ohtani.. as much as I wanted to keep him, its just not going to be good for the team in the long run.
Yeah, it comes down to either watching the Angels win a World Series or Ohtani an MVP(s). I’ll take the former.
Agree with a lot of it- just that the new manager is worse than the previous manager and trading Ohtani wouldn’t be enough- it would just be at most a 1.5 year rental and they can’t expect a transformative haul for that (especially if they wait until the off-season to trade him- or even worse, during the regular season next year). They should trade anyone over 26 who has any trade value and rebuild as extensively as possible. Anyone over 26 because they are at least 4 years away (at best) from reaching contention- so basically anybody over that age can’t be counted on to be a contributor at that point so no point in keeping them.
Worst bad luck mlb team ever.
Detroit, with 9 starting pitchers on the IL this year, would like a word.
So would St. Louis with in and out random action. … still bugged days later by Matz return to an immediate long IL leg injury. Ran awkward to tag rather than toss to GOLDY waiting on the ball.
Hope that Fletch can perform some for the Angels. I have a bit of a soft-spot for his type of play-just spraying singles all around the field.
Guy hit 2hr in 157 games…. terrible
Good to see Fletch back on the field.
Seems like they’re too embarrassed to reveal the extent of Duffy’s injury cause it happened during the Mariners brawl and 1 guy w a broken arm is bad enough, but having 2 injured looks stupid. And they also waited a couple of days to announce that even.
I’ve never seen a guy so scrawny with so many constant nagging injuries that keep him off the field like Duffy. I always thought if he could stay 90% healthy he would be a solid contributor. Just cannot stay on the field for the life of him.