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Mike Trout

West Notes: Kershaw, Rendon, Trout

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The Dodgers expect to get ace Clayton Kershaw back sometime in August, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter). That makes for a significant chunk of time away for Kershaw, who hit the injured list on July 17th. A couple of weeks time away isn’t jaw-dropping for most, but for one of if not the best pitcher of his generation, any amount of time away must concern the Dodger faithful. Kershaw owns a 3.39 ERA/2.99 FIP over 106 1/3 innings this season. Elsewhere in LA…

  • Anthony Rendon isn’t feeling much better, though the Angels don’t classify his injury right now as serious. He won’t be back until the end of July or early part of August, per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter). Rendon hasn’t yet gotten going at the plate this season, suffering as he has from a number of ailments. His 98 wRC+ isn’t awful for most, but it’s far from what we’ve come to expect from Rendon.
  • Mike Trout, Harris adds, has yet to receive a rehab assignment, though he continues to progress nicely. Despite missing Trout, the Angels have remained afloat in the playoff hunt with an even 45-45 record.

Angels Notes: Trout, Upton, Rendon, Minasian, Trades

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The Angels are expecting some major reinforcements to their lineup, though the exact timing of at least two of those bats is still up in the air.  GM Perry Minasian told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger (Twitter links) and other reporters that the team hasn’t yet determined a start date for Mike Trout’s minor league rehab assignment, while Justin Upton might need a rehab assignment of his own before he is activated from the 10-day injured list.

A right calf strain sent Trout to the injured list back on May 18, and a subsequent shift to the 60-day IL meant that Trout won’t be able to return until July 17 at the earliest.  Given the long layoff, a rehab stint certainly seems necessary for Trout, and the exact length of the assignment will be determined by both the condition of Trout’s calf and how long it will take the superstar to get fully ramped up for big league game action.  Trout has already been participating in baseball activities, so if the rehab assignment gets underway soon, it is possible he might be ready to go when first eligible to be activated from the IL a week from today.

Upton has been on the IL since June 25 due to a sore back, and he has already missed more time than expected with what was initially thought to be a fairly minor issue.  The outfielder will now be sidelined through the All-Star break, though there still isn’t yet any indication that Upton won’t be eligible for reinstatement in time for the Angels’ first second-half game on July 16.  (Upton could do any necessary rehab work in minor league games during the break.)

In better news for the team, Minasian said Anthony Rendon should be ready to return by the time the second half begins.  Rendon was retroactively placed on the 10-day injured list on July 5 due to a left hamstring strain, so he’ll end up missing a minimal amount of time if he does indeed get activated on July 16.

Needless to say, getting Trout, Upton, and Rendon back as quickly as possible will go a long way towards determining the Angels’ fate for the 2021 season as a whole, and in the more immediate near-future of their trade deadline plans.  Despite multiple key injuries and well-documented pitching and defensive problems, Los Angeles still has a 44-43 record, and is a modest 4.5 games back in the AL wild card race.  No deadline addition could compare to getting Trout and the red-hot Upton (with an 1.020 OPS in 112 PA since becoming the Angels’ leadoff hitter) back in the lineup, and while Rendon has struggled with injuries and inconsistency this year, the third baseman has a superstar track record.

With this in mind, Minasian said his front office is considering adding players before the trade deadline, though the GM stopped short of using a traditional “seller” or “buyer” label to describe his team.  All options appear to be under consideration, however, as Minasian said the Angels were open to acquiring rental players under contract only for the remainder of the 2021 season.

Fangraphs gives the Halos a 16.5% percent chance at reaching the playoffs, though the x-factors of Trout, Upton, and Rendon could change the equation considerably.  If all three are in form upon returning from the IL, the Angels will have one of the scariest lineups in baseball, so Minasian surely has to be focusing on pitching upgrades in his trade explorations.  One would imagine that the Angels might still lean towards buying at the deadline even if they’re still hanging around the .500 mark come July 30, though Minasian isn’t likely to make a full-on shopping spree if L.A. is still something of a longshot for the postseason.

MLB Announces All-Star Starters

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Major League Baseball announced the starting lineups for the 2021 All-Star Game this evening. The starting lineups are determined by fan vote. This year’s All-Star Game will take place in Coors Field on Tuesday, July 13. The starting pitchers and reserves will be announced at a later date.

National League

American League

*On the 60-day injured list

Angels Transfer Mike Trout To 60-Day Injured List

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The Angels are planning to transfer superstar outfielder Mike Trout from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list, manager Joe Maddon told reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times and Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). The move will create 40-man roster space for the previously-reported selection of outfielder Scott Schebler.

There’s no cause for alarm, as Trout’s transfer is largely a procedural move. He’s ruled out for sixty days from the date of his original IL placement- May 18- not from here on out. He’ll be eligible to return on July 17.

Trout is progressing well from a right calf strain, Maddon said today. He’s begun taking swings in the batting cage, and the team expects he’ll embark on a minor league rehab assignment some time around the July 12-15 All-Star Break. When Trout first went down, the prognosis was he’d miss six-to-eight weeks, so it seems he’s on pace to return just after that projected timetable. Before the injury, the game’s top player was off to perhaps the best start of his career. Trout has a .333/.466/.624 line through 146 plate appearances this season.

Angels Select Scott Schebler

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The Angels are expected to select the contract of outfielder Scott Schebler before this evening’s game against the Yankees. Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com was among those to note that Schebler has joined the team in the Bronx. Infielder Kean Wong was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake, but the Angels will need to make another transaction to clear space for Schebler on the 40-man roster.

Schebler, who signed a minor league deal with the Angels over the winter, briefly appeared on the big league club earlier in the season. He tallied just 27 plate appearances before being outrighted, but he’s done well at Salt Lake. The left-handed hitter has a .281/.355/.523 line with eight home runs across 172 plate appearances with the Bees. Triple-A West, like its predecessor the Pacific Coast League, has played extremely hitter-friendly. Nevertheless, Schebler’s offensive production has been nine percentage points better than the league’s average, by measure of weighted runs created.

Best known for his time with the Reds, Schebler has appeared in the majors in each of the past seven seasons. He was a regular for Cincinnati between 2017-18, popping 47 homers across those two seasons. Schebler’s never been one to draw many walks, though, and he’s better suited for the corner outfield than center. He wound up squeezed out of Cincinnati early in 2019 and has only tallied a cumulative 123 major league plate appearances over the past three years.

The Angels have been without Mike Trout and Dexter Fowler for extended stretches, and Justin Upton recently went on the 10-day injured list with back soreness over the weekend. That’s left Los Angeles rather thin in the outfield. General manager Perry Minasian told reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register) over the weekend that Trout hasn’t begun running or any sort of baseball activity. Trout, who’s been out since May 18, could be a candidate for a transfer to the 60-day IL, if the Angels don’t expect him to return to big league action before the July 12-15 All-Star Break.

Latest On Mike Trout’s Calf Injury

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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.

West Notes: Angels, Adell, Mariners, France, Diamondbacks, Widener

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Angels manager Joe Maddon spoke with his GM Perry Minasian about potentially turning to top prospect Jo Adell in the wake of Mike Trout’s injury, per Mike DiGiovanna of the LA Times (via Twitter). Ultimately, the Angels feel Adell needs more development time and that takes precedence to the team’s need in the short-term. Adell has hit .246/.319/.631 in Triple-A, but his strikeout rate remains disconcertingly high at 36.1 percent. Elsewhere out west…

  • Ty France could be back as early as tomorrow for the Mariners, per Corey Brock of the Athletic (via Twitter). Left wrist inflammation sent France to the injured list in the middle of May. France has walked at a career-best 10.5 percent rate in 153 plate appearances this season, but his numbers have otherwise been a touch down from last year. Still, despite a .278 BABIP and .137 ISO, both of which should rebound at least a touch, France has still been five percent better than average with the bat. If he’s not back on Tuesday, the Mariners regardless expect him to return at some point in their series against Oakland.
  • Taylor Widener was removed from his start today with right groin discomfort, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (via Twitter). Widener had just been activated from the injured list after a groin injury, so this is certainly an unwelcome development for the right-hander. He lasted just 1 2/3 innings before handing the ball to the bullpen. The bullpen did a nice job keeping the Diamondbacks in the game, but they ultimately lost 4-3 to the Rockies, their eighth straight loss.

Mike Trout To Miss 6-8 Weeks With Calf Strain

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In devastating news for the Angels, superstar center fielder Mike Trout will miss six to eight weeks as a result of the right calf strain he suffered Monday, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reports. The Angels have placed Trout on the 10-day injured list and recalled lefty Jose Quijada to take his spot on the roster for the time being.

It couldn’t get much worse than this for the Angels, who again haven’t been able to capitalize on Trout’s excellence this year. Already mired in a six-year playoff drought, the Angels are off to a subpar 18-22 start despite Trout’s best efforts. The 29-year-old future Hall of Famer has slashed .333./.466/.624 with eight home runs over 146 plate appearances, and he leads all qualified position players in wRC+ (199) and fWAR (2.5).

Unfortunately, this will go down as another injury-shortened year for Trout, who after averaging 158 games per season from 2013-16 averaged just 129 games from 2017-19. Trout also missed seven games in the shortened 2020 season, which amounts to roughly 12 percent of the season.

As a result of this news, baseball fans won’t have the privilege of watching Trout again until July or later, and his absence will obviously weaken the Angels’ lineup to a significant extent. There’s simply no realistic way to suitably replace Trout, the game’s preeminent player for several years. The Halos have used Scott Schebler and Juan Lagares in center when Trout hasn’t played this year, but they pale in comparison to the eight-time All-Star and three-time MVP.

The Angels do a pair of touted outfield prospects in Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh, either of whom could come up with Trout unavailable, though that’s unlikely to happen in the immediate future, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. Adell has fanned 21 times in 57 Triple-A plate appearances (36.8 percent), while Marsh has still only logged six total games in Triple-A to this point in his career. While he’s 6-for-22 with a trio of extra-base hits in that time, Marsh has punched out nine times in 29 plate appearances (31 percent), and it seems the Angels feel he could yet benefit from additional development time.

Mike Trout Suffers Right Calf Strain

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Angels center fielder Mike Trout left their game against the Indians on Monday with a right calf strain, the team announced.  He exited after just one inning and was replaced by Juan Lagares.

This hopefully won’t lead to a stint on the injured list for Trout, who has been in typically great form to begin the season. The 29-year-old has batted .333./.466/.624 with eight home runs in 146 plate appearances.

There would be no way for the Angels to effectively replace Trout, a future Hall of Famer, for an extended span. Trout aside, the Angels have used Scott Schebler – whom they outrighted earlier this month – and Lagares at center this season. It goes without saying that those two pale in comparison to Trout.

Angels Activate Anthony Rendon; Mike Trout To Return Monday

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The Angels have activated third baseman Anthony Rendon from the 10-day injured and optioned infielder Luis Rengifo, the team announced. Rendon had been on the IL since April 12 with a left groin strain.

Now in the second season of a seven-year, $245MM contract, Rendon has continued to thrive since leaving the Nationals for the Angels in free agency. He was one of the majors’ premier performers last season and got off to a good start this year before going on the IL. So far, Rendon owns a .290/.378/.387 with one home run in eight games and 37 plate appearances. The Angels turned to Rengifo, Jose Rojas and Jack Mayfield at the hot corner over the past couple weeks, but no one from that trio has come close to replicating Rendon’s production.

In another piece of welcome news for the Halos, center fielder Mike Trout will return to their starting lineup Monday in Texas. Trout last played on April 22, when he suffered a bruised left elbow on a hit by pitch from the Astros’ Cristian Javier. Fortunately, the game’s preeminent player avoided a serious injury.

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