MARCH 17: While Heaney will resume his throwing program Sunday, he’ll start the season on the injured list, Fletcher tweets.
MARCH 13: Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney has been shut down due to ongoing discomfort stemming from inflammation in his left elbow, the team revealed to reporters (Twitter link via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). While that’s clearly unwelcome news for a Halos staff that has been ravaged by injuries over the past several seasons, the good news is that an MRI has already been performed, with no structural damage being found.
It’s not clear yet just when the Angels believe Heaney will be ready to throw. Fletcher notes that Heaney dealt with a similar issue last spring but wound up missing only a week and a half of the regular season. Meanwhile, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger tweets that Heaney is optimistic he’ll be able to resume throwing in the near future. However, he’s only totaled 1 2/3 innings this spring, which seemingly makes it unlikely that he’ll be ready to start the season in two weeks.
Heaney, 27, pitched to a 4.15 ERA with 9.0 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, 1.35 HR/9 and a 41.2 percent ground-ball rate in 180 innings of work (30 starts). That marked only the second time in his career that Heaney was able to make more than five starts at the MLB level or pitch more than 100 innings. To this point, the clearly talented lefty — he’s a former first-round pick and consensus top prospect — has been snakebit by injury issues, most notably including Tommy John surgery.
With Heaney now looking decidedly unlikely to be ready to take the mound early in the season, the Angels project to rely upon Matt Harvey, Trevor Cahill and Tyler Skaggs as the top three arms in the rotation. Jaime Barria and Felix Pena are strong candidates for those final two rotation spots, although the Angels do have alternatives including offseason pickup Dillon Peters, who has been sharp thus far in Spring Training (one run in 10 innings). Nick Tropeano isn’t expected to be ready for the opener either, while J.C. Ramirez and Shohei Ohtani aren’t options following 2018 Tommy John surgery.
It begins
It begin when Angel make bad hire at training staff. Period.
Mets minor league IL system
…the angels
Keuchel. I dare you
they need to
For what? To lock up 3rd?
ROFL! So harsh. Come on, its to early in the season to hulk-smash the hopes of Angel fans.
Have you looked at the A’s starters? You people are comical.
Comical? Well there WAS a joke in there.
It’s a joke that you are worried about the A’s. The A’s wish they had the Angels pitching.
“The Angels should really sign Dallas Keuchel to show Mike Trout they want to win.” …. “Dallas Keuchel hits the injured list for 3 months”….. “The Angels were so stupid to sign Keuchel. He’s over 30, you think they would have learned by now to not sign pitchers that are regressing, now Mike Trout is going to leave”
at the very least making an effort shouldn’t hurt
The only way Trout stays if he gets stupid stupid money.
The same people who are begging for Kuechel would be the same people calling the Angels stupid a year from now for signing him. These are the same people who wanted Heyward and Crawford.
Good for him for taking $3MM in exchange for 10% of his career earnings upfront from that firm investing in player risk. Does anybody remember what it’s called or any other notable players they’ve invested in?
FanTex I believe it was
3MM for 10% of his career earnings still seems highly possible to turn into a net loss for him. He’s made 8.1 so far (signing bonus included) And he’s got 2 more go arounds with arbitration. Followed by a potential foray into Free agency. That company has a pretty decent chance of turning a profit on that one.
Fantex can’t touch previous earnings…..Fantex has earned roughly 500k off of Heaney so far. They’re still in the hole for $2.8M and Heaney would need to make $28M for Fantex to break even.
I wasn’t aware when he signed the deal. They need more than that then. The PV of the 3.39MM they gave out is considerably higher than recovering that much over 10 years. Realistically it’s more like 35 more for them to turn a small profit on it.
Time value of money
We were tracking who signed deals with Fantex back when it first became a thing, but they began being incredibly quiet about players signing with them, and the legal issues for companies with similar business models (Big League Advance) only further quieted things, it seems. There’s only a small handful of players publicly known to have signed such agreements, but they’re listed here:
mlbtraderumors.com/2016/05/list-mlb-players-agreed…
M. Franco
Fantex is the company. As of 2016, the other players that have it are Yangervis Solarte, Collin McHugh, Tyler Duffey, Maikel Franco, and Jonathon Schoop.
They’ll never recover enough cash on Solarte or Duffey.
So I guess for the company, they are betting 3MM up front that a player will eventually make more than 30MM in his career. I think those odds have to be pretty good.
Wow shocking!!
Do the Angels prefer to only acquire extremely fragile pitchers? Or is their training regimen so insanely torturous that even those who survive it are permanently maimed?
Good luck to Matt Harvey!
Mets West
If Halos were serious about making a legit run and keep Trout’s interest they might want to look at Kuechel.
They looked at Keuchel, and now he has a sprained elbow.
That’s kinda funny
Upvote
He’s been healthy his whole career so I wonder…….
Does it really matter? This team is going nowhere fast.
talking about you and your team?
There are still options out there. Go get someone before they sign! Injuries will continue to hit the pitching staff.
I’d like to see Dillon Peters get a look. No need to push the panic button… yet.
Hoping for Gio Gonzales
Agreed, he’s a durable innings eater… something the angels haven’t had in awhile
Classic Angels story. Keuchel would get hurt just fielding the phone call from the Angels. Stay away DK……and Mr.Trout, you take care of yourself, and in 2 years, run for your life!!!!
Why they haven’t already signed Keuchel is completely baffling to me.
Same can be said for the Padres.
Not really. Padres are in the late stages of a rebuild and have lots of close to Major League ready arms they want to give a chance to, with an unusually large percentage of them being southpaws. Keuchel isn’t as much of a fit as you might think. The Angels on the other hand are facing a sense of urgency to start making the postseason so Mike Trout doesn’t get discouraged with the team. They gotta take a risk as opposed to running in place like they have the last 4 years.
If the Angels are trying to convince Mike that they will add big name free agents to contend then they need realize that ship has sailed. He’s been around the team long enough to know what that organization is all about.
It sucks being an Angel fan right now but I appreciate their effort and intentions when they sign guys like Hamilton, Vlad, CJ Wilson, Upton, Pujols, Simmons, Ohtani, Teixeira, Greinke, etc. Obviously, the contracts don’t always work out but it shows the guys in the clubhouse that they want to win. Maybe having experience with bad contracts is why they don’t want to add a #3 starter on the wrong side of 30 and trending down.
If that is the case (and I’m not saying it isn’t) then the best thing they can do is trade Trout. It won’t be popular with fans but losing him for nothing but a draft pick after 2020 will be even worse.
Of all the players you mentioned, the only ones they signed were Pujols, Hamilton, Vlad and Wilson. Ohtani chose them and the others were traded for.
@ PFF – Agreed, especially if it is clear they will not contend next year by the end of the trade deadline. Of course this is all moot if he agrees to sign a huge extension.
@ Honk – Sign/trade. My point remains. They make an effort to stay competitive and Trout probably sees that. They shouldn’t feel obligated to sign FAs just to make Mike happy. The Angel’s window is closed and they probably would rather develop their farm and wait for the Astros dominance to end.
If you’re baffled, then let me explain: Between what Keuchel believes he is worth, and what ANY team’s GM thinks he is worth is a difference of tens of millions of dollars. He would get interest on a shorter deal with a high AAV, or his requested 5-year deal at greatly reduced AAV (not the stated $100M/5 yr contract he is seeking).
This isn’t about the Angels specifically; his former team who knows him very well isn’t signing him for the next 5 years at $20M AAV, especially since he profiles as a #3 starter at best for most of the next 5 years.
What on earth are they doing out there? Do they have a trainer who just yanks their arms out of socket, or beats their shoulder with a hammer? This is out of control.
I’m a Rangers fan and I even feel for the Angels. Injuries have been an ongoing saga for years. Sucks for their fans
With that being said why did their 2 starters that signed this off season are both injured prone starters? that made no sense in signing 2 starters with a history of arm injuries.
the Angels are the AL version of the Mets
The Angels have guys hurt their wrist signing a contract
Bust
The Angels seem to have several slightly above average to average oft injured pitchers that they are all running together. Seriously, I can’t keep track of Heaney, Skaggs, and Tropeano with all their injuries.
As is tradition…
All the Angels injury jokes are both funny (some are clever) and very old. I’m sure Heaney will only miss a couple weeks but they should still go out and sign DK!
I took 17 comments for someone to somehow relate this to Trout. The “Trade Trout Trolls” must be having a meeting or something.
Get better Heaney.
Angels should sign Gio Gonzalez.
Just gonna day that. He’s never had an arm injury in his career. But maybe that’s a reason he should stay away lol.
Problem arise though. Free agent pitcher miss spring will start season late or on time and bad.
Angel should go for gusto though. I love the Tigers, but baseball more. I join every and yell, “We want October Trout!”
At this point, I like the Angels better for a trade. Either eat Grienke contract all and send back nothing. Or eat less Grienke contract and send back good prospect.
Only problem is Grienke has a limited no trade and the Angels are one of those teams on his no list.
Time to at least check in on Gio Gonzalez
Apparently 3 mil minor league contract is too much…..this is pathetic
I’m just thankful that none of you are in the FO.. and relieved that the Angels havent signed a declining DK or a GG
No need to panic yet!
Finally, he was healthy and taking a step forward to he’s potential last season. It’s a shame he struggles to stay healthy. He still can become a solid middle rotation guy.
They really need to go get both Gio & Dallas. They could both help possibly get that team to a WC title.
At the very least, Gio.
I want the Braves to sign Gio, but I could see the Halos taking him, too. One of these two needs to.
It seemed like such a ridiculous move when the Dodgers traded Heaney to the Angels but unfortunately for him he’s been quite a bust so far.
get well soon!
This is worrisome, but it doesn’t seem serious. Who thought he wouldn’t be on the IR? If the Angels can stay relatively healthy, they’ll one again play meaningful games into late September, which they have four of the last seven years, if they don’t then they won’t.
As is tradition
Pujols will still by in Anaheim the year after Trout leaves. Think about that.
Pujols will also be in his age 42 season. And 3 full years left.
You guys have this report written before the season even starts for the Angels. Just fill in the name and good to go!
Dallas Keuchel will be signed by opening day…. but to whom?