The Angels announced they’ve placed infielder Gio Urshela on the 10-day injured list with a fractured left pelvis. Michael Stefanic was recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake to replace him on the active roster.
Urshela was forced out of yesterday’s win over the Rangers in the first inning. He was on crutches postgame and imaging has evidently revealed a fracture. The team hasn’t provided any kind of timetable but it seems likely he’ll be out past the minimal ten days.
It’s a brutally timed injury for team and player alike. The Halos lose a starting infielder for the second straight day. Rookie shortstop Zach Neto landed on the shelf last night with an oblique strain. Anthony Rendon isn’t on the injured list but is out of tonight’s starting lineup after being hit in the wrist with a pitch. Rendon finished last night’s game despite being in too much discomfort to swing because of the Halos’ lack of infield depth.
That’s not the case tonight — Brandon Drury was serving a one-game suspension for arguing with an umpire yesterday, while Stefanic is now on hand — but it highlights how quickly the Angels have been put in a precarious position. Losing Urshela likely thrusts Jared Walsh into everyday first base duty for the time being. The former All-Star has been off to a brutal start after returning from a season-opening IL stay. Walsh is hitting .119/.257/.186 in 27 games.
Urshela, acquired from the Twins over the offseason, has had a fine but unexciting first season in Orange County. He’s hitting .299/.329/.374 over 228 trips to the plate while splitting his defensive work between the two corner spots and occasional shortstop reps. He’s made plenty of contact offensively but is walking at a meager 4.4% clip and only has two home runs.
That’s a downgrade from the .285/.338/.429 line Urshela posted during his lone season in Minnesota. The injury will prevent him from building towards last year’s production for the time being. Depending on how long he’s sidelined, it could deal a hit to his market value. He’s slated to hit free agency for the first time in his career next offseason, making this a pivotal season for him.
The Halos enter play tonight with a 39-32 record. They’re four and a half back of Texas in the AL West and a game out of the Wild Card race. It’s shaping up to be an aggressive summer for Perry Minasian and his staff as they try to capitalize on Shohei Ohtani’s final season of arbitration control and push into the playoffs. Infield additions looked like a potential deadline goal even before the injuries to Neto and Urshela. That’d be all the more true if one or both is out for a long period of time.
ouch
Yeah that just hurts to think about.
We’ll it looks like Walsh is going to at least a couple more weeks to get it turned around. I wish him well.
DFS Walsh ASAP! Just be thankful he’s not making 30 million..
Looks like Daniel Murphy will be on the fast track to Anaheim
This sucks. He’s been so good and provided so much versatility.
For sure JJ, his versatility to play all IF spots was his strength, and a good asset for the Angels. I’m ok with his limited pop, since he has a solid BA. Great plug n play and super utility guy if they were all healthy. The crappy thing is, he was the perfect guy to fill in for a few weeks for Neto. This is why Neto’s injury stings a bit.
David Fletcher?
Stefanic doesn’t offer much in the way of defense. He also isn’t going to be the most versatile since he is only 5ft 9in.. He does provide quality at bats each time up. He had a 62 game on base streak earlier this year. Might not be a bad call up since we had Walsh Rengifo and Velazquez in a row today.
GoogleMe – Did you mean to say Stefanic is not versatile or did you mean lacks power?
I meant versatile as compared to Urshela, who can play a multitude of positions. At 5ft9, you’re not going to put him at 1B. He pretty limited to positions, 2B and maybe occasionally 3B.
Stefanic doesn’t have much power either, but I wouldn’t say iit is due to height. Altuve is only 5ft6 and does pretty well in the power department.
There are a few stop gap INF on minor league deals that the Angels may want to check in on.
fangraphs.com/roster-resource/free-agent-tracker?&…
Jose Iglesias, Didi Gorgrious, Niko Goodrum, …
Also Johan Camargo just opted out
@urnuts
So when are you going to list an infielder that’s suitable for a contenders bench?
From the FA list in the middle of the season?
So Stymeedone you believe what we are bringing up are suitable for starting for a contender?
You talking to me or stymeed? I feel it’s kind of stupid to think that there would be a MI that is a FA at this point in the season that would be “suitable for a contender’s bench”.
I think that Stefanic is hitting 25% better than average in AAA, but that doesn’t mean much in the majors. Losing Neto and Urshela punches huge holes in the lineup that are not going to be easily filled and definitely can’t be filled by guys that are FA at this point in the season. If they were good enough to play for the Angels, they would at least be on some teams minor league roster. .
Stefanic is strictly a 2B, so that means Drury will be at 1B more often than not. His defense is less than ideal there but his bat is better than Walsh.
If there is any reason for optimism it’s that practically every team has key injuries. Like the Angels will have to do, they try to patch up holes with who they’ve got.
outinleftfield – I aree mostly about Stefanic. I do think he can play other positions. He played all over the field last year. Drury should stay at 2nd and bring up Trey Cabbage as another option for 1st . I think he is tied with Adell for the minors HR lead at 19. I have no idea about his glove but he has big time power and a 969 ops. I was surprised to see he also has 19 stolen bases.
Last season Stefanic was hurt almost half the year and played 21 games for the Angels at 2B, and 68 games at 2B and 6 at 3B for the Bees. He doesn’t have a particularly strong arm so 2B is the only place his defense stands up.
In 2021 he played all the infield positions and LF and RF between AA and AAA.
In those 2 seasons, the only position he posted even average defensive metrics is 2B.
Iglesias is in El Paso for the Padres isn’t he?
This seriously sucks. Neto and Urshela back to back. We expected Rendon to not play much, but this means 3/4 of the infield is out tonight. Urshela might not be back this season, so that is huge.
It is telling for Fletcher that even with these two injuries, he was not called up. His major league career is over.
Yes the Padres just resigned him to another minor league deal
Fletcher is out on the bereavement list right now. He lost someone so his career isn’t over.
He was placed on the bereavement list on Tuesday. I thought that was 3 days and he was expected back tonight.
He’s not on the 40-man so that’s a consideration too.
Man, we cannot catch a break. I understand the ups and downs of the game, but I wish these guys could have some good luck for once.
We did catch a break. We get three games against the Royals and a five game schedule next week. It’s a nice time in the schedule for this to happen.
Break? 1 extra day off next week is not much of a break at all. There looking at 2 starters out a month plus. As far as playing the Royal’s, they should beat them regardless.
These 2 injuries are a bit of a blow, hopefully the fill ins can step up, and keep this recent momentum going.
Teams often play seven games in a week. For a ten day period, the Angels play six games against the Rockies and KC and two against the Dodgers.
If Neto is back in ten days, this was a really good time for him to go down. If it goes on a little longer, it’s against the White Sox. Two weeks from now, the schedule picks up again. If this happened two weeks from now that would have been a bad break.
The Angels are fortunate it happened during a soft window.
Urshela isn’t very good. Neto’s injury is critical. What makes you think he’ll be put a month?
Because obliques u could be out anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks. I was just going with the average, so about a month. But that said, the only break I see in this is, if it is only 2 weeks.
But as far as Urshella, I to don’t think that’s nearly as significant a blow as Neto. I do like Gio in a Super Utility roll thou, if everyone was healthy.
The break is the timing. If this is more than two weeks, which is nothing but speculation, then timing is less relevant. But if this would have happened two weeks from now and not two days ago, two weeks, four weeks, no difference.
But if this is two weeks, and it could be, it’s a huge break. This gives the Angels two weeks to figure something out.
We’ll see, let’s hope it’s only 2 weeks. You can easily get by for 2 weeks, for whom ever it is.
Neto is now Brian Downing, but Downing played an entire year with an oblique injury. Neto is great. Let’s hope he’s back in two weeks. I’m Hopeful.
Everyone is trying to figure out why Fletcher hasn’t been recalled.. but the main reason is probably a combination of financials and team roster. Am I wrong to think his contract doesn’t currently count for the team’s payroll? Also, bringing up the people they have doesn’t require some big roster moves – Stefanic is already on the 40 man. I guess they could move Urshela to the 60 to bring up Fletch.
It might be because he’d only be up here for a few days and he’d have to go through waivers to be sent back down. He may only be called up if it’s a permanent spot.
Halo11Fan – I agree about Fletcher , but the fact that the MLB bereavement list is 3 to 7 days . They needed someone now. They could still replace squid with him when he is activated.
The contract still counts in full. That was only ever a tax thing and that changed after the Rusney Castillo debacle.
I still like the infield we have. I think Stefanic will be really good. He reminds me of Howie Kendrick
Fractured pelvis… 10 days should be all you need.
“Infield additions looked like a potential deadline goal even before the injuries to Neto and Urshela.”
Angels fans, do you agree with the quote above from the article? Prior to Neto and Urshela going down, the infield mix consisted of Rendon, Neto, Drury, Urshela, Walsh and Rengifo with Velasquez, Soto, Fletcher, Stefanic and Murphy at AA and AAA.
Before the injuries, I would have said Perry’s priority would be a couple of power arms for the back of the bullpen and an additional arm for the rotation. What do you guys think?
Agreed pitching at the deadline would have been the focus.
Before the recent injuries, I believe most had the main deadline trade need was a solid #2 SP. A high leverage RP would still be nice, even with the Pen pitching and looking solid right now. You never have enough pitching so they say.
I agree about the infield not being an area of need prior to the two injuries. Would rather have seen Minassian go after a starting pitcher to take some of the load off the bullpen.
They need a rotation piece. Giolito would be a nice pickup. Or Cease if they want to unload a haul for him. Anderson is garbage, Detmers can’t get through the 3rd offensive rotation, Sandoval is inconsistent, Canning and Barria are 5 inning pitchers, tops. Need a solid #2 that can eat innings.
Thumbs up for the user name alone!
I would agree with the Angels could use some upgrade in the infield. I believe the Angels could use an upgrade. It get overlooked because the Angels are scoring a fair amount of run, but Drury, Walsh, Rengifo, and Urshela are below average in run expectancy.
If Arte was willing for go over the tzx threshold and the Angels had the pieces to pull off a Goldschmidt loaner, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Walsh batting .119?!!! I knew he was struggling, but I had no idea he fell off a cliff!
He has never climbed up that cliff this year. It doesn’t seem to me like he is seeing the pitches well at the plate. Some of his swings are so bad.
Maybe Ohtani can play infield, too? All kidding aside, this really sucks though, we all want October Angels! They seem to have had the worst injury luck in the majors since king Trout came on the scene.
Urshela, acquired from the Twins over the offseason, has had a fine but unexciting first season in Orange County.
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:Let me fix that for you..
Urshela is having his worst year since 2018, projecting to 5.6 HRs per 600 ABs, with a 3.6/1 K/W.
FWIW, I thought it was a fine low-key signing, but it’s okay to admit he’s had kind of a weak season. MLB-R having a rough few weeks.
Yeah because Urshela was signed to provide power. I’m sure they were looking for 30 hrs from him…
No, but they were expecting an wRC+ of better than 93.
Joe and I agree on something. How’d that happen? 🙂
Neto is great. I bet we agree on that as well.
I love Neto. He is the type of overachiever/surprise success story the Angels haven’t had since… Since they started trying to buy wins with titanic contracts like Pujols, Upton, and Rendon.
In other words, he broke his hip. Usually this is a grandma injury. I actually agree with the comment above about this not being that great a season for him. He may have been hitting over .300, but he only had 2 HR, .703 OPS, and 94 OPS+. With everything they’ve called up from the minors, ironically he was looking like one of the weaker links when he was acquired to be the depth they’ve been lacking. Still a tough break. Hope for a speedy recovery.
Curse of the tarnished halo continues….