Angels add 3 pitchers to IL, including 2 to COVID-19 list
The Angels shuffled their pitching staff on Wednesday by placing three more pitchers — including two of their five starters — on the injured list.
Only Dylan Bundy, however, was placed on the 10day injured list with a specific injury, a right shoulder strain. His injury was announced shortly before the start of the Angels’ game in Baltimore, so there was no immediate word on how much time Bundy might miss. The Angels also put starter Reid Detmers and reliever Austin Warren on the injured list, with no listed injury. The Angels also have reliever José Marte on the injured list without a specific injury.
All three are on the COVID-related injured list.
Players can return as soon as they clear the COVID protocols, rather than being out a specific number of days.
In the meantime, the Angels will need to figure out who will start on Friday and Saturday against the San Diego Padres at Angel Stadium. They currently have just three healthy starters: Shohei Ohtani, Jaime Barria and José Suarez. Ohtani pitched on Wednesday night and Barria is scheduled for today’s series finale.
The moves allowed the Angels to bring up two relievers, veteran righthander Jake Petricka and right-hander Elvis Peguero.
Peguero, 24, was one of the pitchers the Angels received from the New York Yankees in the Andrew Heaney deal at the deadline. He started the season at Class A and has now been promoted three times.
Peguero has a 2.79 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 51-2/3 innings across three minor league levels this season.
“Big arm, sinker-slider guy, kind of intimidating looking fella,” manager Joe Maddon said. “The high end of his stuff is something we haven’t seen.”
Peguero is the second newly acquired pitcher to be recalled by the Angels, joining Marte. He pitched two innings in his big league debut on Friday.
Maddon said the Angels need to “take advantage of this moment” to get a look at the young pitchers so they can have a better idea of how they could help in the long term.
Petricka, 33, is not a prospect, though. He has pitched parts of seven seasons in the majors, not since 2019. The Angels signed him to a minor-league deal earlier this summer. From 2013-15, he had a 3.24 ERA over 144-1/3 innings with the Chicago White Sox.
Barria bounceback?
Barria has come back to earth after an encouraging three starts.
Barria has allowed eight earned runs in five innings in his last two games. He had allowed five earned runs in 19-2/3 innings in his first three starts.
Part of the issue is that his velocity has declined.
In his eye-opening July 25 start at Minnesota, Barria averaged 94.1 mph with his fastball, which was up from his previous bigleague stints. Since then, his average has been below 93 mph each game.
“His fastball that first game we saw him here was really good,” Maddon said. “And it hasn’t shown up that way since. Nothing wrong with him. We’ve just got to see if we can get that out of him somehow.”
Maddon also said Barria has fallen behind in the count too much, which has impacted his ability to use his slider.
Notes
Outfielder Justin Upton (calf) was not in the lineup on Wednesday, but Maddon was hopeful that he would be available to pinch-hit. ... The third player the Angels called up to replace the three pitchers was utilityman Kean Wong, who adds to their bench depth while Upton is dealing with the calf issue . ... Maddon said so far the Angels “haven’t spoken about” a call up for Triple-A infielder Mike Stefanic, “but I anticipate that it will (be discussed).” Stefanic is hitting .346 with a .955 OPS for Salt Lake. A 25-year-old undrafted free agent, Stefanic hit .345 with an .843 OPS at Double-A before earning a promotion.