Los Angeles Angels News and Notes: Injury Updates

Nick Tropeano came out of Monday night's game with soreness in his elbow. Will he be the next player to go down? Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
Nick Tropeano came out of Monday night's game with soreness in his elbow. Will he be the next player to go down? Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Angels have had more movement this season from Triple-A Salt Lake City and Anaheim than there are grains of salt in the Great Salt Lake. Here is an update of some of those injuries.

The only thing that is more active than a Jered Weaver curve ball is the Los Angeles Angels disabled list.  The Angels are close to finally getting back one of their young pitchers back to the majors as Tyler Skaggs had his best start in the minors on his rehab trail.  Last Thursday Skaggs pitched seven innings only giving up one hit and no runs with 14 strikeouts.

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Skaggs is scheduled to start today for Salt Lake City.  If all goes well today Skaggs next start could be in Anaheim.  The Angels have not given any indication as to when Skaggs will make his 2016 debut, but with an outing like last Thursday’s you would probably think it will be soon. Skaggs is 2-2 with a 2.03 ERA in six starts for the Bees.  Couple this with the fact that Nick Tropeano came out of last night’s start against Texas with soreness in his right elbow.  Tropeano will have an MRI later today to determine the seriousness of his injury,

With the Los Angeles Angels having an off-day on Thursday Skaggs could pitch next Sunday in Houston on his regular five days rest. If Skaggs is not ready yet then the Angels could turn to Jhoulys Chacin who pitched four scoreless innings in relief of Tropeano Monday night.

The best case scenario for the Angels would be for Tropeano to have no significant injury and be able to make the start on Sunday.  In that case Skaggs would have to bump someone from the rotation. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now with speculation.  No matter how you look at it though, it will be nice to have Skaggs back when he is ready.

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In other injury news Geovany Soto was placed on the disabled list Monday due to inflamation in his left knee.  Soto just got back off the DL a week ago after he had surgery on to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee.  So promote Carlos Perez back to the majors to replace Soto, right?  Nope, the Angels instead promoted Triple-A catcher Juan Graterol.  Graterol is batting .292 with one homer and 19 RBI’s in 46 games for the Bees.

Graterol was signed to a minor league contract in January as he was granted free agency after playing last season in the New York Yankees organization.  Graterol has been a career minor leaguer who will make his Major League debut when he gets his first action with the Angels.  He has played in the minor leagues for 11 years with a career .268 batting average.

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So why wasn’t Perez promoted?  According to Alden Gonzalez of MLB.Com Mike Scioscia wants Perez to continue to play every day and get at-bats in hopes of fine-tuning his swing.  “I think he’s starting to get comfortable in the batter’s box,” Scioscia said. “We want him to keep moving that along, and then we’ll re-evaluate some things at some point.”

Craig Gentry who has been on the disabled list since April has been sent on a rehab assignment in Salt Lake City.  If Gentry is able to come back he will help provide some depth in the Angels outfield.  However, Cliff Pennington, who has been on the DL since June 1st with a left hamstring strain, was transferred to the 60-day DL.  At first glance this may look like Pennington may not be back for awhile, however he will be eligible to return on August 1st as his 60 days will be up.  Again the Angels have not given any indication as to when Pennington will return so that could be in two weeks or two months.

So let’s see what happens in the next couple of weeks.