Angels Injury Update: Quietly struggling Nolan Schanuel hits IL, joined by 2 pitchers

The Los Angeles Angels' promising young core represents hope in the fanbase that maybe things will get better one day. That is all Angels fans have. The successes of Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel, Logan O'Hoppe, Christian Moore, José Soriano and Reid Detmers this season show that down the road the team can end the longest active playoff drought in baseball. Well, Neto had an injury scare recently, O'Hoppe has fans calling for his demotion of late, Moore has been unimpressive in his infield timeshare after returning from the injured list and Schanuel is now injured.

Angels Injury Update: Quietly struggling Nolan Schanuel hits IL, joined by 2 pitchers

Per Jeff Fletcher of The OC Register, the Angels' 23-year-old first baseman has been nursing a wrist injury for a week, and it's bad enough for the team to place him on the 10-day injured list. Matthew Lugo will re-join the Angels' active roster, and Niko Kavadas is expected to take over as the team's every day first baseman while Schanuel is absent (although Oswald Peraza was inserted into Sunday's game to pinch hit for Kavadas and play first).

Schanuel's production has not been great recently, even before he tweaked his wrist last week. For the month of August, he is slashing .208/.301/.278/.579 -- those are all his lowest marks in any month this season when you exclude his four games played in March. He has his second worst K% and worst BB% in a month this year, as well. Schanuel is regressing in a major way after many people said he was the single best at bat in the Angels' lineup.

It's never a great sign when a team's replacement players get injured. Víctor Mederos and Carson Fulmer are plug-and-play pitchers for the Halos -- they are not the most hyped talents in the world, but they are serviceable at the big league level. Mederos is a young pitcher who is trying to carve himself out a role in The Show, and Fulmer is trying to hold on for dear life. This is quite an unfortunate turn in their careers, although they still accrue big league pay checks on the injured list!

The Angels are going to still be operating with four starting pitchers and eight relievers (you're safe for now, José Fermin). Chase Silseth was recalled from Triple-A for the second time in a week for the bullpen, and José Soriano was activated off the paternity list/restricted list to re-join the rotation.

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