Angels right-handers Gerardo Reyes and Brendan McCurry will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the 2021 season, the team announced to reporters (Twitter link via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com). Reyes was already known to be dealing with a UCL sprain and was recently removed from the 40-man roster. McCurry, a former Astros and Athletics farmhand, signed a minor league deal with a spring training invite over the winter.
Reyes, 27, came to the Halos in the August trade that sent veteran catcher Jason Castro to the Padres. He appeared in one game this spring but departed early. The righty didn’t pitch in the Majors for the Padres or Angels last season but did log 26 frames with San Diego in ’19. He was knocked around for a 7.62 ERA in that time, but Reyes also showed a blistering heater that averaged 97 mph while punching out 32.5 percent of opponents (against a passable 9.4 percent walk rate).
Reyes has kept his ERA at 3.57 or better in every minor league stop since 2017, steadily increasing his strikeout rate along the way. A second straight season without pitching in a conventional game setting won’t do him any favors, but he’ll give the Angels a potential power arm out of the ’pen in 2022 and beyond, assuming he successfully rehabs the injury.
McCurry, 29, has yet to make his big league debut but carries a career 4.03 ERA with quality 26.2 percent strikeout and 7.2 percent walk rates in 205 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball. He’s slated to be a minor league free agent again next winter.
The Angels announced a few other injury updates, including a hip injection for righty Luke Bard that will slow his spring progression. He’s expected to be re-evaluated in 72 hours, tweets MLB.com’s Jack Harris.
Change the name to the Los Angeles Tommy johns of anaheim already!
Two at a time?! Wow.
Maybe they can get a volume discount.
You think Dr. Andrews has a punch card? Get 9 TJs and the 10th is free?
They’re trying to save money by only needing one operating room
It’s a large room and it’s filling up quick.
BOGO!
Didn’t even know the other guy was with us.
Hopefully getting away from Eppler’s penchant for Max velo/Max effort guys will stem this tide a bit. It’ll take a while.
Reyes was a typical Eppler acquisition. With typical Eppler results.
The Angels better hope Ep-
This is spot on. Granted TJs plagued the Halos before Eppler, but Epplers strategy of trading for max velocity only accelerated the problem. Guys throwing year round and then throwing max effort is killing arms.
Right, like Bob Feller and Walter Johnson werent max effort.
Or 1968 when they pitched 350 innings they didn’t “try” hard.??
No, people are more brittle because of everything they all do that is similar today… What are those things?
I’ll give you a hint, clean food, clean training vs dirty food and sedantary lifestyle. Guys arms are falling off at record pace EVERYWHERE!
Some serious “journalist” will emerge someday and talk about glyphosate (herbicides and pesticides) who’s not afraid to get sued or suicided — Gee, why did the Nats went all organic in ’16?
When the 2019 Yankees had 19 of their 25-man roster on the DL, and everyone thought that was normal…
Those guys reached back for the big fastball when they really needed it. They threw hard for their era, probably hard for any era, but they also mixed speeds and locations. They also gave themselves the off season to rest and recover.
They are also two of the greatest to ever play the game.
Nowadays players not on the level of Feller and Johnson try to go max effort on every single pitch. Every one, every time, and often throw year round. The body is bound to break that way.
Bob Feller and Walter Johnson were probably bagging groceries or going fishing in the off-season when they were growing up. The averaging pitching arm needs 4 months to recover. Year round pitching is killing arms.
Gost prior to 1969 the mound was 15 inches high. Today it’s 10. How about we start with raising the mound and see how pitchers respond. It will never, ever happen.
With the proposed rule tinkering experiment in the minors, MLB has zero intention of helping pitchers. If they can end their careers before they reach pension eligibility, MLB wins.
The Angels better hope Eppler knew what he was doing. Between Mayers, Buttrey and Pena the Angels are betting their season these guys come through.
These guys are going to get the first shot. If they fail, it means the Angels are going to throw away a half dozen games before finding suitable replacements.
If anyone thinks Claudio and Guerra are suitable replacements, they are nuts.
Faria and Sandoval make bullpen along with Barria
Unless there is an injury, Angels 61. Neither have any shot at making this team.
Eppler’s strategy involved acquiring a high number of high risk prospects. Inevitably a few would hit.
Pena seems to be a hit and Mayers has looked great since adding a third pitch. Buttrey? He needs to step it up.
Ideally Claudio and Guerra are allowed to stay in the lower leverage roles. That’s why they are here.
Hope these guys heal up and get back at it.
For the Angels, this isn’t really news anymore. Thankfully the MLB arms look solid so far. Cobb pitched a gem yesterday.
Angels fans are getting out their TJS bingo cards.
Still waiting for the news on Packy Naughton. We heard UCL sprain a week or two ago. Knowing our medical staff and history, that usually only means one thing.
Probably means his swelling is still severe+MRI is unable to get a clear shot of the tear
It’s a weird sports profession where, up front, you know if you’re successful at it there is a 25% chance you’ll have major arm surgery removing 1 1/2 years of your short career.
Both these players hurt their arms pitching for other teams. TJ isn’t an overnight condition.
Reyes was hurt when he came over, this is not an Angels TJ story
Their fortunes will turn on March 26 when my nephew reports to Arizona. He’s already had his TJ surgery and worked his way back to throwing. Hoping he can get back on track and restart his professional career. If he throws well, probably A level. Fingers crossed.
Low or High A? I plan on attending some games this season in San Bernardino, home of the Inland Empire 66ers.
Lmao at the clowns in the comments cracking jokes. Reyes was far from a lock to even make the team and Mccurry was a spring training pitcher. Angels are actually not looking too bad this spring. Alex Cobb is looking sneaky with his heavy splitter, Quintana looking crisp, Ohtani was hitting 98 and hitting 400 foot bombs, Upton is smoking the ball rn had 2 hrs the other day, Regnifo looking like he might be able to carve out a super utility role, Jo Adell looks like a entirely different player this spring, we’ll see how things pan out come regular season, hopefully they can stay healthy for the most part.
I’m with yah, early Spring results are looking good for some players, mainly with the guy’s that there gonna need to be solid contributors. Let go! Keep it Rolling!
will The Butcher of Anaheim’s curse ever be broken? My god Mike, what have you wrought?
Tommy John pitched for Angels so discount on surgery.
There must be something in the water over there
Somebody needs to stop stealing Jobu’s rum…
Legend has it before he left, Mike Scioscia buried his smallest uniform there on the mound at Angel Stadium which is a size 7XL slim fit.
SugaMonkey: “Legend has it before he left, Mike Scioscia buried his smallest uniform there on the mound at Angel Stadium which is a size 7XL slim fit.”
Ha! That’s funny because he is fat.
My two cents on why so many pitchers have glass elbows these days….
I think it has to do with abusing the arms in youth baseball….and I’m talking about middle school age kids. Parents/coaches do things like have the kids workout and pitch year round with no season off to heal. Another way to abuse arms is to have a player pitch for two or three different travel ball teams and/or play in two different leagues to work around inning limits. Compared to the past, these kid’s arms are much more damaged by the time they are lucky enough to get drafted.
Joe Maddon has no idea how to manage a pitching staff. This is spring training stuff and he’s probably not involved in pushing these kids to injury. However it’s fitting that he’s at the helm. Going to be a long season for the Angels.