The Angels placed left-hander Drew Pomeranz on the 15-day injured list today due to left elbow inflammation. Right-hander Ryan Johnson was reinstated from the IL in a corresponding move.
The Halos haven’t provided many details about the injury to Pomeranz, but it’s notable in light of his history. Ongoing issues with his throwing arm, including multiple surgeries, lead to Pomeranz not pitching in the majors from 2022 to 2024. He had a bounceback season in 2025, posting a 2.17 earned run average over 49 2/3 innings with the Cubs.
That prompted the Halos to sign Pomeranz to a one-year, $4MM deal for the 2026 season. That gambit hasn’t worked out so far, as the 37-year-old has a 7.20 ERA through 15 innings. His 16.7% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate are both significantly worse than last year, when he struck out 28.1% of opponents and only walked 7.4%.
For now, Johnson will apparently take his spot in the bullpen. The Halos have handled Johnson very strangely thus far in his career. He was drafted in the summer of 2024, 74th overall, but didn’t pitch in the minors that year. He then cracked the club’s big league roster to open the 2025 season, despite not having any professional experience. He pitched poorly out of the bullpen for a few weeks before being optioned all the way down to High-A. He finished the year pitching well at that level as a starter.
Here in 2026, he made the big league rotation out of camp but then hit the IL due to a virus after just one start. He recently began a rehab assignment, tossing 3 1/3 innings on May 3rd, followed by five innings on May 8th.
It appears that Johnson is now available out of the big league bullpen. “I see him as a guy that can do both,” manager Kurt Suzuki said to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. “I think if we need him as a starter, we can keep him as a starter. If we need him in the bullpen, he can do that. I think the luxury of having RJ is he can do everything.”
From the outside, it appears to be a bizarrely unconventional approach, something that has cropped up with other pitchers to lesser degrees. Alek Manoah began the season on the IL due to a finger issue. He made one official rehab appearances of 4 1/3 innings at the beginning of May. He was quickly added to the big league roster. His first appearance for the Halos was a single-inning relief outing. The next time out, he tossed five innings of long relief. Grayson Rodriguez, who began the season on the IL due to shoulder inflammation, has made two rehab appearances recently. The first was five innings and the second 4 2/3. He may be quickly reinstated at the big league level for his next appearance.
Those all feel like fairly hasty rehab assignments and activations. If a club were breaking convention and had a strong reputation for being on the cutting edge of analytics, that would be intriguing. The Angels have the opposite reputation, so it feels like they’re just winging things. Considering Manoah and Rodriguez both have extensive injury histories, that doesn’t seem like a prudent approach. The Halos haven’t been good for a while and currently have the worst record in baseball at 16-28, so perhaps they are trying to do anything they can to stop the bleeding.
Yusei Kikuchi is currently on the injured list and will be shut down for a few more weeks. José Soriano is firmly entrenched at the front of the rotation. Reid Detmers, Jack Kochanowicz and Walbert Ureña should have spots behind Soriano for now. Perhaps some combination of Manoah, Rodriguez and Johnson will cover the final spot.
Turning to the position player group, a separate column from Fletcher notes that Vaughn Grissom has been getting some work in left field, with Oswald Peraza to soon join him. Both infielders are hitting well while outfielder Josh Lowe has been struggling. Lowe has a .160/.211/.283 line on the season so far. Some of that is due to a .188 batting average on balls in play but his 5.2% walk rate and 29.6% strikeout rate are also below league average and his own career stats.
Grissom is currently sporting a .264/.353/.431 line while Peraza has a .279/.344/.477 slash. The Angels have Zach Neto at shortstop most days, with Yoán Moncada at third and Nolan Schanuel at first. That leaves Grissom and Peraza battling for playing time at second base, in addition to occasionally spelling the other infielders. Neither player has any professional outfield experience, apart from some brief winter ball action for Grissom. If one or both of them can take to left field, it could provide Suzuki some extra flexibility in setting his ideal lineup.
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images
Using one of your best pitching prospects as an up and down swingman without a clearly defined role. Another incredible display of player development by the angels.
Johnson should be at AA starting every five days. Such ridiculous malpractice for a promising young pitcher, in an organization with such a thin pitching pipeline at the upper levels of the minors.
I agree 100%. Johnson had a lot of potential that the Angels just wasted. He might not get a good big league career simply because he was drafted by the Angels. Of course, there’s busts, but his ceiling was just incredible. The Angels have destroyed Johnson and I pray for any prospects in the Angels system. I wonder what they’ll do to Tyler Brenmer
As I read this article I’m reminded of the scene in Moneyball where Art Howe tells Billy Beane that he will continue to construct his lineups in way he can defend when interviewing for jobs with other clubs. Perry Minasian is probably going to have a hard time during the next hiring cycle.
I don’t see him getting a GM job again anytime soon
I feel bad for a solid pro like Kurt Suzuki who’s forced to try to keep a straight face while defending the moves.
And Suzuki is doing it on a one year deal with zero job security
The levels of dysfunction in the Angels organization are truly something to behold.
The best part of this season is it will be Minasian’s last.
Well The Angels ballpark is 2 miles east of Disneyland. Shall we label this
Adventureland?
Fantasyland?
Tommorow land?
No Man’s Land
Nothing is working out for Suzuki. Maybe his luck will change. Maybe, maybe, maybe. To be this lousy and still in contention, is great fortune. Haven’t lost complete faith yet. Maybe, they can sweep the dodgers. If, if, if. Lots of ifs, with arte on top. Dumb, dumb. I thought Henley wanted to help the angels.
Moncada and Lowe have no business on a major league roster at this point. Neither one of them would be starting on any team but ours. We still have no LH power bat, our corner infield is a f’n joke.
Since we can’t 86 Arte Moreno right now, the Angels need to make the changes they can control and that starts with replacing the general manager before the trade deadline. This team needs a new GM in place immediately, someone with a real plan, real urgency, and a real vision for winning, even if that’s not important to Arte Moreno.
Perry Minasian? It’s time. Four years of roster confusion, no bullpen stability, no identity, and no direction. Move on now, not after the season. And let’s be real Moreno will probably hire another GM with no experience, but that still doesn’t mean Minasian should stay.
Kurt Suzuki? Also done. The lineup decisions, the bullpen usage, the in‑game management it’s all been a mess. This team looks unprepared every night, and that falls on leadership. And now the injuries are starting to pile up, which only exposes the lack of structure even more.
Shanauel is not to bad @ 1B
Picking up Grissom, Peraza and Rodriguez was nice. Grissom’s best position might be COF. That’s not a terrible lineup. Soriano could be a viable starter. This team doesn’t have to be terrible. 75 wins is a reasonable goal, with the ability to sell high on some veterans.
“Babe what’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing, just thinking about 2017 Drew Pomeranz”
Angels should cut bait on Pomeranz, trade him and whatever warm body in the Angels system that the Blue Jays would take for DFA’d Eric Lauer’s soon-to-be sunk cost contract in an even money deal.
Won’t net the Angels any game-changing results, but adding Lauer may at least keep them from putting Johnson or some other minor leaguer not deserving of the punishment in the LAA rotation.
Trade Neto, play guzman.