The Angels got a bit of a scare recently when right-hander Chase Silseth was placed on the 15-day injured list due to right elbow inflammation and was sent for an MRI. Thankfully, that MRI found just inflammation and no ligament damage. The pitcher himself gave the good news to members of the media yesterday, including Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com, adding that he hopes to be back in about three weeks.
That’s obviously a much better outcome than the worst-case scenario of some kind of surgery that would have wiped out the rest of his season or even part of next year. Silseth was able to toss 52 1/3 innings for the club in a swing role last year with a 3.96 earned run average, showing enough promise to get a rotation job here in 2024. His first two outings didn’t go especially well, resulting in six earned runs allowed over eight innings, but it’s possible the injury was playing a role there.
With Silseth out, the Angels bumped José Soriano into the rotation, alongside Reid Detmers, Patrick Sandoval, Tyler Anderson and Griffin Canning. Soriano struck out six opponents in four innings last night but also allowed four earned runs on six hits.
It’s just one start and Soriano could certainly get in a better groove going forward, but he also may hit an innings limit at some point if he were to stay in the rotation. He underwent Tommy John surgery in both February of 2020 and June of 2021, meaning he hardly pitched over the 2020 to 2022 period before throwing 65 1/3 innings last year between the majors and minors. Perhaps he can hold down a rotation spot for a few weeks while Silseth is out and then slide back into the bullpen, allowing him to grow his workload relative to last year but without hitting a wall. The Angels are still interested in seeing what he can do as a starter over the long term but they are surely aware that he can’t suddenly launch into the 200-inning range this year.
Turning to the bullpen, Robert Stephenson is going to start a rehab assignment this Sunday, per Bollinger. He was the biggest signing for the Halos this winter, netting himself a three-year, $33MM deal. But he hasn’t yet made his debut as an Angel since he experienced some shoulder soreness during the spring and began the season on the injured list. He recently said he’s targeting a late April return and this seems to be in line with that.
After being acquired by the Rays last year, Stephenson was one of the best relievers in the league. He posted a 2.35 ERA in his 42 appearances, striking out a tremendous 42.9% of batters faced while walking just 5.7% of them. Since he was previously a first-round pick and highly-touted prospect, this seemed to be the long-awaited breakout that didn’t materialize in previous seasons as injuries got in the way. The Angels are still waiting to find out if their bet on Stephenson was a wise one but it seems he’ll be able to join the club shortly.
Getting both Silseth and Stephenson healthy will be good for the club, bolstering both the rotation and the bullpen. The Halos are out to an even 6-6 start through 12 games, but that’s largely in spite of some poor pitching. The club’s collective ERA of 5.09 this year is 29th out of the 30 clubs, ahead of only the Rockies and their dreadful 6.57 mark.
So, which is it? Pitch clock? Guy throwing too hard with spin? Lack of sticky stuff?
Here’s to a speedy recovery for both players and a strong season ahead for the Angels!
pitch clock … !!! … these rule changes suck … sorry … I am an old timer … I go to a game for the game and experience … longer the game the better … young kids could care less about 3 hours or 2 hours … sorry Manfred sucks
@redlion0414
Kids don’t even care about the game. Even the NBA has been destroyed because they wanted more focus on the personalities than the game. Now we see ridiculous high scoring games that are almost robotic. It has become unwatchable, just as is happening with MLB. What’s the point of going to a baseball game anymore when half the team is on the DL? What exactly are you paying to see? AAA players? I could save my money and actually go watch a AAA game.
Silseth and Soriano are good for 2-3 innings. Usually.
Had Perry spent that 3/33 on Clevinger and Lorenzen with the above 2 in multi inning roles we’d be a drastically better team.
We have no starting depth and Clevinger signed for 3M and Lorenzen 4M within the past few weeks! I understand staying away from the long term 25M per pitching contracts but we have no excuse for not adding some rotation depth at those prices! Again the Angels choose not to have a contingency plan for pitching injuries or poor performance!
Recently signed Clevenger 3M and Lorenzen 4M would have been some nice pitching depth which every team needs over a 162 game season! Come on Angel front office U can’t believe we have enough rotation depth to make it through the season!
Im still surprised the Angels have ignored Lorenzen the last two years. I thought he pitched well for the Angels the one year we had him. You don’t want to pay pitchers to come here, yet that was at least one deal that was super afforable..
As for Silseth.. people still think he’s going to be serviceable? *shrug*
Anyone else not getting alerts from the app the last day or so?
I’m getting about every other
Does it really matter? And their 1st baseman is hitting below .100 without power, the Rendon contract has actually made the Orioles contract for Chris Davis look better, and the reclamation RPs are doing as expected. Same failed strategy every year. Angels fans don’t boo and it’s happening a lot this season.
This is the 100th iteration of the Angels signing a 31 year old player, coming off of a career year year (in this case, a career 38 IPs with TB). Do they think that, if they continue to do this every year, it will eventually work?
And Adell has an .894 OPS with the 2/1 K/W that’s always held him back. But the 34 year old Hicks, with the .556 OPS, and the 31 year old Sano, with the .640 OPS at DH, are taking all his ABs.
This is bordering on sad.
The scare would be if Silseth went out and pitched again.
Even at 100% health this is a 72 win team. Perry needs to be fired for incompetence, but he won’t because his owner is even more incompetent, and pulling Perry’s strings like the feckless puppet he is.
It seems like Perry is doing what he can within the constraints of ownership’s requirements.
It’s hilarious to hear bullish Angel pundits talk about .500. 3 of the wins were against a terrible Miami. They’ve lost 3 of 4 series already. They did this last year when they overrate their victories against the patsies of the league. They’ve reframed or moved the goalposts to the rookies as now “development at the major league level.” Which is a new one. Although last year they were labeled as hitting all the benchmarks, major league ready, they showed the video of the phone call to the callup majors and brought the parents, sand they were all in for the playoffs remember?
The Angels ownership and GM have ADHD and make decisions that underline this disorder.
We’ve reached a dark age when elbow inflammation & DL stint for pitchers is “good news”