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Angels Activate Andrelton Simmons, Designate Wilfredo Tovar

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The Angels announced today that star shortstop Andrelton Simmons has been activated from the injured list. He is returning from a long absence due to a severe ankle sprain.

Infielder Wilfredo Tovar was designated for assignment to create roster space. In other news, the club officially placed Griffin Canning on the injured list — he was declared out for the season yesterday — while recalling southpaw Jose Suarez.

It’s all but certainly too little, too late for the sinking Halos. But it’s still good to see Simmons return to action. The peerless defensive aficionado hadn’t been hitting quite as well as he did in his prior two campaigns, but will now have a chance to get back on track before the season wraps up.

Tovar, 28, received his lengthiest stint in the majors this year for the Angels. Through 88 plate appearances in 31 games, he managed only a .193/.239/.253 slash line.

Angels Select Miguel Del Pozo’s Contract, Option Jose Suarez To Triple-A

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Prior to Sunday’s game, the Angels selected the contract of left-hander Miguel Del Pozo from Triple-A.  Fellow left-hander Jose Suarez was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move.  Del Pozo didn’t pitch in the Angels’ 9-2 victory over the White Sox, so he is still looking for his first official Major League appearance.

Originally signed as an 18-year-old prospect by the Marlins in 2010, Del Pozo spent his entire pro career in Miami’s organization until last offseason, when he was outrighted off the team’s 40-man roster and he chose to become a free agent.  After signing a minors contract with the Rangers, Del Pozo was dealt to Los Angeles earlier this month in a post-deadline trade (allowed since Del Pozo wasn’t on a Major League contract).

Despite his long stretch in the minors, Del Pozo didn’t even pitch at the Triple-A level until this season.  The 26-year-old lefty has a 4.28 ERA, 10.4 K/9, and 2.53 K/BB rate over 332 minor league innings, working out of the bullpen for 191 of his 207 career games.  Del Pozo will join Adalberto Mejia as the only left-handers in the Halos’ righty-heavy pen.

Suarez’s first taste of Major League action wasn’t a smooth one, as the rookie southpaw posted a 6.75 ERA over 53 1/3 innings, starting 11 of his 12 games.  While Suarez managed an 8.9 K/9 and a respectable 2.41 K/BB rate, he was bedeviled by home runs, as Suarez allowed 16 big flies in his brief time in the Los Angeles rotation.

Fangraphs (79th) and Baseball America (97th) each ranked Suarez within their list of the game’s top 100 prospects at the time of his promotion in late May, so his rocky start was something of a letdown for an Angels team that is starved for pitching.  Still, Suarez is only 21 years old and only in his fifth season in pro ball.  His issues may have also stemmed not from inexperience, but from a tendency to tip pitches, manager Brad Ausmus told media (including Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times).

Angels To Promote Jose Suarez

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The Angels will promote one of their top pitching prospects this weekend when 21-year-old lefty Jose Suarez takes the hill for his MLB debut on Sunday, as first reported by Halos Prospects (Twitter link).

Suarez is currently ranked as the game’s No. 97 overall prospect by Baseball America and No. 79 overall at Fangraphs. The Venezuelan-born southpaw soared through three levels in the minors in 2018, pitching to a combined 3.92 ERA with 10.9 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 through 117 innings. He’s only appeared in five games (four starts) so far in 2019, all of which have come at the Triple-A level. In 23 innings, he’s worked to a 3.91 ERA with a 20-to-11 K/BB ratio and a 42.9 percent ground-ball rate. He’s averaged nearly 10 strikeouts per nine innings pitched throughout his minor league career.

When he arrives on the scene, Suarez will at least temporarily join the Angels’ other top pitching prospect, right-hander Griffin Caning, in the big league rotation. If nothing else, it’s an exciting pair of arms for Halos fans to dream upon as the rest of the rotation deals with familiar injury issues and some poor showings from offseason signees.

The Angels entered the season hopeful that better health from their in-house arms and the winter signings of Matt Harvey and Trevor Cahill to one-year pacts would yield better results than they’d gotten in recent seasons. Instead, both Harvey (currently on the injured list) and Cahill have earned run averages north of 6.00. Meanwhile, left-hander Andrew Heaney, arguably the team’s most talented starter, has made just one appearance after otherwise spending the season on the IL himself.

Struggles from the rotation have been a key factor — but not the only factor — in another lackluster start for the Angels, who currently sit at 27-29. They’re trailing the division-leading Astros by a 9.5-game margin but could still have Wild Card aspirations, as the AL Wild Card race is currently rife with mediocrity. The Rays and Yankees are currently only separated by a half game in the AL East, but whichever falls back to the Wild Card spot on a given day has a stranglehold on the first of the two AL slots. At the moment, that’s the 35-19 Rays, who have a seven-game lead over the two teams tied for the second position.

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