Angels Place Justin Upton On 10-Day Injured List, Recall Kean Wong
The Angels placed outfielder Justin Upton on the 10-day injured list today, per Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group (via Twitter). Upton’s been suffering from a sore back. To claim Upton’s roster spot, Kean Wong was recalled from Triple-A.
The Angels felt the sting of Upton’s absence today via some defensive miscues in the outfield as some players were forced to play out of position, notes Fletcher. Upton isn’t necessarily renowned as a defensive maven in left field, but he at least has plenty of experience playing the position. Taylor Ward was tasked with manning left field today, and in a classic Maddonian bit of maneuvering, starting pitcher Griffin Canning took on the defensive challenge late in Wednesday’s contest.
Beyond the defensive question, Upton’s bat will certainly be missed — he’s been on fire in June. Upton has a 199 wRC+ with a .338/.463/.531 slash line in 80 plate appearances this month. The hot streak has largely coincided with Upton taking over the leadoff spot in manager Joe Maddon’s lineup. Luis Rengifo has been given a few opportunities in that spot since Upton went down, while Shohei Ohtani took on the challenge in tonight’s game.
It doesn’t help that the Angels are already without outfielders Mike Trout and Dexter Fowler. In Trout’s case, there’s still no timetable for this return, per Fletcher. He has yet to resume any kind of baseball activities, suggesting the Angels will need to find a way to forge ahead without him for the time being.
Wong, 26, has hit .184/.205/.289 in 42 plate appearances with the Angels this season. He’s been significantly better in Triple-A, where he owns a .350/.388/.525 line in 85 trips to the plate.
Angels’ Jose Quintana Moved To Bullpen
JUNE 22: Quintana will indeed work out of the bullpen, manager Joe Maddon tells reporters (including J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group).
JUNE 21: Left-hander Jose Quintana is back on the Angels’ active roster after being reinstated off the 10-day injured list. Another roster moves seems to be coming for the team, as the Halos also announced that right-handers Jaime Barria and Chris Rodriguez were optioned to the minors (Barria to Triple-A and Rodriguez to Double-A) after yesterday’s game.
Quintana hit the IL on May 31 due to shoulder inflammation, continuing a tough beginning to his tenure in Anaheim. Quintana had a 7.22 ERA over his first 33 2/3 innings of the season, though his SIERA is only 4.48 — a very low 58.6% strand rate and a whopping .400 BABIP have contributed to Quintana’s lack of bottom-line success. On the plus side, the southpaw has a career-best 30.1% strikeout rate.
The Angels signed Quintana to a one-year, $8MM contract in free agency last winter with the expectation that the veteran would at least bring some durability and innings-eating ability to the pitching staff, yet Quintana’s return to the 26-man roster might not necessarily auger a return to the rotation. The Halos are already working with a six-man staff, and Patrick Sandoval has pitched well as Quintana’s fill-in. While youngster Griffin Canning has been inconsistent and Dylan Bundy has been rocked over his recent starts, it doesn’t seem like either would be displaced for Quintana, so the veteran lefty might find himself in the bullpen.
A long-relief or swingman role would allow the Angels to keep Quintana relatively stretched out for a return to the rotation if necessary, and a stint in the pen could help Quintana get on track. Los Angeles can use all the bullpen help it can get, as the Halos relief corps ranks in the bottom third of the league in most pitching categories.
Angels Sign Brian Johnson
Left-hander Brian Johnson, who had been pitching for the Milwaukee Milkmen of the independent American Association, has signed a minor league pact with the Angels, per an announcement from the Milkmen (Twitter link).
Johnson, now 30 years old, was the No. 31 overall draft pick by the Red Sox back in 2012 and rated as one of the organization’s top pitching prospects over the next six years. The lefty dealt with shoulder, hip and elbow injuries throughout his time with the Sox, however, which combined to limit his effectiveness. He was a serviceable option with the Red Sox from 2017-18 before struggling in 2019 and ultimately going unclaimed on waivers. Boston released him in 2020, after the left-hander pitched to a 4.74 ERA in parts of four seasons at the MLB level (171 innings).
Johnson made just two appearance for the Milkmen this season, during which time he hurled five shutout innings with seven hits, no walks and eight strikeouts. He’ll presumably head to the Angels’ Salt Lake affiliate in Triple-A — a level at which he’s pitched to a 3.21 ERA with a 20.2 percent strikeout rate and a 9.0 percent walk rate over the life of 278 innings.
The Angels have had far better health in the organization in 2021 than they have in recent years. Reliever Luke Bard is currently the only pitcher on the Major League injured list for the Halos, but many of their veteran arms have struggled. Jose Quintana (7.22) and Dylan Bundy (6.68) have career-worst ERA marks, while Griffin Canning (5.07), Andrew Heaney (4.45) and Alex Cobb (4.41) have more passable but still-underwhelming results. Cobb, in particular, has had some poor luck in terms of balls in play and stranding runners, though his 21.2 K-BB% and 60.6 percent grounder rate are both excellent.
Johnson adds yet another experienced left-handed arm to an Angels organization that is deep in southpaw options. In addition to Quintana and Heaney, the club currently has Patrick Sandoval, Tony Watson, Alex Claudio and Jose Suarez on the MLB roster. Dillon Peters and Jose Quijada are both on the 40-man roster but currently in Triple-A, while Thomas Pannone and Packy Naughton give the Halos another pair of non-roster options down in Salt Lake.
Latest On Mike Trout’s Calf Injury
One month to the day after Mike Trout suffered a right calf strain, his injury rehab is “going good, I feel great,” the star outfielder said as part of an in-game interview during tonight’s Tigers/Angels game (hat tip to Brent Maguire). Trout is looking to “hopefully start some baseball activity in the next few days and go from there,” though he stressed that he is waiting to get the green light from doctors before going ahead with any sort of running drills.
Trout’s injury carried a rough timeline of 6-8 weeks, so if Trout is indeed almost on the verge of starting baseball activities after a month, that is a good sign that he might be back on the low end of that estimated absence.
Obviously the sooner Trout is able to return the better for the Angels, who took a 33-35 record into tonight’s contest with Detroit. A recent six-game winning streak gave the Halos a winning record for the first time since May 1, though three consecutive losses has brought them back under the .500 mark. Nine games back of the division lead and seven games back of the second AL wild card spot, Anaheim needs to make up at least some of that ground by the time Trout returns to have any chance at the postseason. If not, the Angels could be deadline sellers and staring at their seven consecutive season without any playoff baseball.
2021 was on pace to be perhaps Trout’s best season yet, considering that his 194 wRC+/OPS+ at the time of his injury represented a new career best. (In baseball history, the list of players with full seasons better than 194 wRC+ is not a long one.) Trout was hitting .333/.466/.624 with eight home runs over his first 146 plate appearances, and it’s fair to guess that the Angels would be a bigger factor in the AL West race if he had been healthy over the last month, though the Halos have been a respectable 15-13 since Trout hit the injured list.
Pirates Rule 5 Pick Jose Soriano Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
TODAY: Soriano underwent Tommy John surgery yesterday, Tomcyzk told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Kevin Gorman and other reporters.
JUNE 10: The Pirates selected right-hander Jose Soriano out of the Angels organization with the top pick in last December’s Rule 5 Draft, knowing at the time he still required several months of rehab following 2020 Tommy John surgery. The hope was to get some innings out of Soriano at some point this summer, but Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomcyzk told reporters yesterday that Soriano has new damage in his pitching elbow (Twitter link via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Mike Persak). Another surgery is now possible.
It’s a discouraging outcome for the 22-year-old Soriano, who is now nearly 16 months removed from that 2020 Tommy John procedure. He’d progressed his rehab to the point where he’d been cleared to pitch in minor league games as a ramp-up to his MLB debut, but based on his results, it’s clear that something was amiss. Soriano appeared in two games, the first of which included three shutout innings with one hit, no walks and five punchouts. In his second outing, Soriano faced 10 batters but was clobbered for seven runs on five hits and three walks while only recording two outs.
[Related: 2020 Rule 5 Draft Results | April Update On Rule 5 Draftees]
Entering the season, Soriano was ranked as the Pirates’ No. 18 prospect at Baseball America, No. 22 at FanGraphs and No. 24 at MLB.com. He’s praised as a hard-throwing righty with potential closer upside thanks to an upper-90s heater that can touch triple digits and a power curveball. His 2019 season in A-ball showed off plenty of that upside (2.55 ERA, 26 percent strikeout rate, 52.8 percent grounder rate) but also underscored one of the most pressing red flags in the righty’s outlook (15 percent walk rate).
The new injury casts doubt on whether Soriano will pitch for the Pirates in 2021 — or at all. He’s already on the 60-day injured list, so the Bucs can keep him there until season’s end without any ramification, even if he undergoes another surgery. When the offseason rolls around, however, they’d need to determine whether they want to carry Soriano throughout the winter in hopes of getting some innings from him in 2022. Soriano would retain his Rule 5 status into next season, meaning he still couldn’t be optioned to the minors until spending at least 90 days on the active roster.
If at any point the Pirates decide to cut bait, Soriano would be placed on waivers before being offered back to the Angels, who would not need to carry him on the 40-man roster.
Injury Notes: deGrom, Mondesi, Kim, Rendon, Davidson, Means
It’s the Year of the Injury, and this post will house many of the evening’s updates on that front.
- Let’s start off with some good news for everyone except the Cubs: Mets ace Jacob deGrom is set to start tomorrow night. DeGrom left his start Friday due to right flexor tendinitis, but the MRI came back clean.
- Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi was reinstated from the IL, with reliever Ronald Bolanos going on it. Mondesi, who strained his hamstring on May 31st, is active but not in tonight’s lineup.
- Cardinals lefty Kwang Hyun Kim is also off the IL, and is starting tonight against the Marlins. Kim had a brief IL stint for lower back soreness.
- Angels manager Joe Maddon told reporters the injured list has been ruled out for third baseman Anthony Rendon, who’s recovering from a mild triceps strain. Rendon has struggled at the plate this year, with a 90 wRC+ in 191 plate appearances. By measure of OPS, his .679 mark is the worst single-season 45-game slump of Rendon’s career since his 2013 rookie season.
- Luis Severino‘s rehab start injury Saturday was described as a Grade 2 groin strain by Yankees manager Aaron Boone. This will set him back about a month, leading to a possible late July/early August return.
- Braves southpaw Tucker Davidson left tonight’s start after 53 pitches with left forearm tightness, according to the team. Davidson entered the night unscored-upon in his last 11 2/3 innings, spanning a pair of starts.
- Orioles ace John Means, pulled from a June 5th start in the first inning, began playing catch for the first time since the injury according to MLB.com’s Joe Trezza. Means may be able to return by month’s end. With a 2.28 ERA and a no-hitter on the season, the lefty seems a lock for the All-Star Game.
Angels Claim Jack Mayfield Off Waivers From Mariners
The Angels claimed Jack Mayfield off waivers from the Mariners, per announcements from both teams. Los Angeles has optioned Mayfield to Triple-A Salt Lake. The Angels already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so no other move was necessary.
Seattle designated Mayfield for assignment earlier this week. The utilityman now heads back to Los Angeles, where he began the 2021 season. The Angels acquired Mayfield from the Braves in exchange for cash considerations back in February but designated him for assignment two months later. Seattle claimed the 30-year-old off waivers, but his stint in the Mariners organization comes to an end after just over a month.
Mayfield has appeared in the big leagues in each of the past three seasons, spending the entirety of his time in the AL West. He broke in with the Astros in 2019 and has seen the briefest of time with the Angels and Mariners this season. He’s done very little offensively at the highest level, hitting just .168/.195/.259 across career 150 plate appearances. Nevertheless, his combination of defensive versatility and roster flexibility (he has a pair of minor league option years remaining) has continued to generate interest from teams.
Brewers Acquire Hunter Strickland From Angels For Cash Considerations
The Brewers have acquired right-hander Hunter Strickland from the Angels today in exchange for cash considerations. Both teams have announced the deal. The Angels had designated Strickland for assignment earlier this week.
Strickland has at various point in recent seasons provided quality bullpen work in uniform for the Mets, Nationals, Rays, Angels, and Mariners going back to 2019, when he won a World Series ring with the Nats. Prior to that, he was a steady hand out of the Giants’ pen from 2014 to 2018. The Brewers will be his third team of 2021. He has a 4.03 ERA/5.03 FIP in 22 1/3 innings with the Rays and Angels, though he particularly struggled in his short time with the Angels, giving up seven earned runs in just 6 1/3 innings of work.
To make rooom on the 40-man roster, the Brewers transferred Travis Shaw to the 60-day injured list. Shaw provided the media with an update today. He will attempt to rehab his shoulder dislocation, but if there’s not enough improvement at a certain point, he will be shut down for the year, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (via Twitter).
Angels Designate Hunter Strickland For Assignment
The Angels announced that they have designated veteran right-handed reliever Hunter Strickland for assignment. In a corresponding move, the club recalled righty James Hoyt.
Strickland has only been with the Angels for a few weeks, as the team acquired him from the Rays for cash considerations or a player to be named later on May 15. At that point, Strickland owned a stingy 1.69 ERA with a 24.2 percent strikeout rate and a 9.1 percent walk rate in 16 innings, but he was unable to continue that effectiveness as an Angel. The 32-year-old now sports a 4.03 ERA with a 20 percent strikeout rate against a 10 percent walk rate through 22 1/3 frames.
The Angels could find a taker in a trade for Strickland, who has enjoyed a solid career despite recent struggles. Otherwise, considering Strickland has been outrighted in the past and has enough service time, he may elect to test free agency if he doesn’t want to join the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate.
Angels Reinstate Jose Iglesias From Injured List, Option Jose Rojas
The Angels have reinstated shortstop Jose Iglesias from the injured list, per Jack Harris of the LA Times (via Twitter). Jose Rojas was optioned to create the open roster spot.
Iglesias went down on May 28th with a left hamstring strain, though by the looks of it, that move was made retroactive to May 25th, the last time Iglesias appeared in a ballgame. Regardless, he’s back and easing back into action as the designated hitter tonight. For the season, he’s hitting .283/.317/.396 with four home runs and two stolen bases over 167 plate appearances.
Rojas, 28, made his Major League debut this season, and he’s seen relatively regular duty for most of the season. Appearing in 43 games, the multi-positional, lefty-swinger has batted .190/.246/.364 across 130 plate appearances. Rojas has started 10 games at second, 11 at third, one game in left and seven in right field while also appearing in two games at first.
With Anthony Rendon healthy, the Angels are hoping they won’t need as much coverage at the hot corner, and Iglesias’ return mitigates their need up the middle. Kean Wong and Phil Gosselin will be the primary backups on the infield, while Taylor Ward has laid claim to a role as a corner outfielder. Gosselin and Wong are also both capable of playing in the grass.