Torn ACL puts end to Fowler’s season
Upon hearing the news that his season is over, Dexter Fowler didn’t spend any time lamenting his bad luck.
An MRI of Fowler’s left knee showed a torn ACL that will require season-ending surgery.
“I just want to tell everybody that the comeback season has commenced,” Fowler said before the Angels’ game against the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday in Dunedin, Fla., was rained out.
“At the end of the day, these are the cards I’ve been dealt,” Fowler said. “I’ve got to deal with them and go at it like that. The doctors said I’m going to have a full recovery, so I’m excited to hear that.”
Fowler collided with Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Marcus Semien on Friday night. That night it was diagnosed as a bruise, and the next morning when Fowler felt worse, they upgraded it to a sprain, placed him on the injured list and sent him for an MRI exam. The MRI showed the structural damage.
Fowler is 35 and in the final year of his contract. He is coming off a disappointing season with the St. Louis Cardinals, and now he won’t have the chance to prove he has bounced back.
Still, he doesn’t believe this injury will be the end of his career.
“I want to continue to play,” Fowler said. “I still think I’ve got a lot left in the tank… If I get a chance to keep playing, I love that. But, at the end of the day, I feel that I’ve always given it all I could give. I’m happy to give more and I think I still have a lot more to give.”
Fowler was 5 for 20 at the time
of the injury, and just starting to show signs of improvement after a slow start in the first few games. Manager Joe Maddon, who knows Fowler well from their days together with the Chicago Cubs, said it’s as much a loss in the clubhouse.
“He’s one of those glue guys, man,” Maddon said. “He really makes a difference. You talk about it all the time, about clubhouse guys, but this guy really is one. And he works the room every day. And I watch it and it’s fantastic. So we’re gonna miss him.”
In the short term, the Angels will go with the players currently on the roster to man right field. Juan Lagares started in right field on Saturday and was in the lineup for Sunday’s game before it was rained out. José Rojas and Jared Walsh can also play right field.
For a longer term solution, the Angels have several choices from the players currently playing at the alternate site in Arizona.
Taylor Ward and Scott Schebler both had strong performances in spring training. Ward hits righthanded and Schebler hits left-handed. Ward is on the 40-man roster and Schebler isn’t.
Jo Adell is also working out in Arizona. In spring training he showed much more progress at the plate than in the field. Brandon Marsh also could be an option, but he missed significant time in the outfield in spring training because of a shoulder injury, and he still hasn’t even played Triple-A.
“It’s hard for me to imagine that they’ve tightened up their game to the point that you’d want to bring them yet,” Maddon said of Adell and Ward.
The Angels also have veteran Jon Jay currently traveling with the team as part of the taxi squad. Although Jay had a tough spring, Maddon said he’s looked better in workouts this weekend in Dunedin.
The players in Arizona are currently playing a few informal games a week against the Arizona Diamondbacks’ alternate site players. There aren’t the same level of reports or data on those games as there would be from normal minor league games, so Maddon said he didn’t have many specifics on how each of the players has performed so far.
Rendon out
Anthony Rendon was out of the lineup for Sunday’s game with a sore left groin, which he felt making a throw late in Saturday’s game. Maddon said he is “anticipating he will not play tomorrow” but didn’t know beyond that.
“There’s no immediate concern that it’s going to be an IL thing, but it could be,” Maddon said. “I’m just not sure.”
Rojas was in the lineup at third on Sunday, and would presumably get the start on Monday also.
Rain shuffle
Sunday’s game was called just about two hours after the scheduled first pitch, with the teams set to make up the game on Anaheim on Aug. 10. They will play a split doubleheader that day, with the Blue Jays as the home team for the 3 p.m. game and the Angels as the home team for the 7 p.m. game. Both games will be seven innings.
Alex Cobb, who was scheduled to start on Sunday, will now pitch on Monday in Kansas City, followed by Dylan Bundy and Griffin Canning in the final two games of the series.
Shohei Ohtani, who is currently dealing with a blister, is expected to throw a bullpen session on Monday to assess how close he is to returning to the rotation.
Slide rule
A day after an umpire’s interpretation of the rulebook opened the floodgates in the Angels’ 15-1 loss to the Blue Jays, Maddon reiterated that he doesn’t like the five-year-old change to the rules governing slides.
After a series of injuries to middle infielders, rules were tightened to restrict the way runners can go into bases to try to disrupt the defense.
On Saturday night Jonathan Davis slid with his feet clipping the legs of Angels shortstop José Iglesias, causing Iglesias to make a bad throw to first. Maddon argued that Davis had violated the rules, but he conceded that he was arguing a rule he doesn’t fully support.
Maddon believes that baserunners can be taught to aggressively break up double plays safely.
“With good technique, nobody’s gonna get hurt,” Maddon said. “It’s not about guys getting hurt to me. People get hurt. It’s a tough game it’s not an easy game. You just can’t legislate against injury.”