Los Angeles Angels: Who’s up, who’s down (and who’s on the mend)

The Los Angeles Angels 2017 season has already started to look like 2016 in regards to the disabled list. With two starting pitchers and three bullpen arms currently on the DL, the team has had to get creative. With that said, let’s look at Who’s Up, Who’s Down, and how things are going on the disabled list.

Tapping the teams top prospects has been something the Los Angeles Angels have not had the luxury of doing very often since calling Mike Trout up in 2011. The system has been largely barren or had prospects in the lower levels of development. However, 2017 has brought the first arrivals of some the team’s top prospects.

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In an attempt to help the short handed pitching staff, Brooks Pounders (# 3), Alex Meyer (# 8), and Keynan Middleton (# 5) have already made their 2017 debuts.

Who’s Up. Middleton made his MLB debut friday night against the Houston Astros.

Who’s down. Brooks Pounders was just been sent back to Triple A Salt Lake. The reliever has shown improvement as of late. However, he will continue to work on his pitching at Triple A. Daniel Wright who has continued to have mixed results with the big club, joins him at Triple A. Alex Meyer remains up with the team for now, but the young pitcher will need to begin producing results to remain in the rotation, depleted as it may be. Meyer, in two starts has an ERA over 9.00. A continuation of that performance will land him back in Triple A.

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Who’s on the mend. Luis Valbuena has returned, though it’s only been since Tuesday. Relievers Andrew Bailey and Cam Bedrosian are at different stages of throwing, but remain out with an undetermined return date.

First baseman CJ Cron also remains on the DL with no word whether he will return when his 10 days are up early next week. Garrett Richards remains on the 60 day DL, out until at least June. Richards has yet to be cleared to resume throwing as he deals with biceps issues and nerve irritation. Huston Street also remains on the 60-day DL as he works to come back from a lat strain suffered in spring. However, at last update, the Angels remained hopeful that Street would be ready to return on June 1st. Tyler Skaggs is also out for a good chunk of time, landing on the DL for 10-12 weeks after leaving his most recent start on April 28th. The oblique strain has left Skaggs frustrated as well. The left hander shared his frustration with the Los Angeles Times:

"“I feel like I was back to the pitcher I used to be in 2014,” Skaggs said. “I let my team down, I’m letting myself down because I put a lot of work in this offseason to be ready to go. Kind of a freak thing that happened. I’m not too happy.”"

The pitcher received a platelet rich injection into the injury and will now wait and heal.

Next: Angels prospect Joe Gatto continues to impress

In conclusion, the Los Angeles Angels continue to hope the moves will help stabilize their pitching corps. Additionally, they hope the offense will begin to click together better.