Injuries continue to cast shadow on Angels

This story was excerpted from Rhett Bollinger’s Angels Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ANAHEIM -- The injuries keep coming for the Angels.

Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani tore his ulnar collateral ligament in his right throwing elbow on Aug. 23 and won’t pitch again this season but remained in the lineup at designated hitter until he injured his oblique on a swing during practice on Monday.

Ohtani was held out of the lineup for four straight games from Monday to Thursday but could return as soon as Friday or Saturday. Ohtani, though, will need some sort of surgery to repair his elbow, but his agent, Nez Balelo, said on Monday that they are optimistic about his recovery because the tear is in a different part of the elbow.

And then on Thursday, right-hander Jaime Barria was placed on the injured list before the game with right hamstring tightness, outfielder Mickey Moniak was scratched from the lineup just 10 minutes before the game with back tightness and infielder/outfielder Luis Rengifo sustained a left biceps strain after a practice swing in the on-deck circle in the first inning. Moniak is expected to be fine but the initial prognosis didn’t look good for Rengifo.

The Angels have 15 players on the injured list and have used the IL 33 times this year for 28 different players. That group includes Mike Trout, who has played in just one game since July 3 after fracturing the hamate bone in his left wrist on a swing, and Anthony Rendon, who has been out since July 4 with a bone bruise in his shin. Trout has yet to start swinging since being placed on the IL for a second time with the injury on Aug. 22, and Rendon has declined to talk to the media since being on the IL and hasn’t started baseball activities.

The Angels’ main objective was to improve their depth in the offseason but manager Phil Nevin said it’s been difficult to handle so many injuries to key players this season. Things started to especially turn when Gio Urshela, Zach Neto and Rendon went down with injuries in mid-June.

“We’ve been through a lot,” Nevin said. “It wasn’t that long ago, and sometimes it feels like it was a long time ago, but we were in a playoff spot. We won three out of four in Texas and then in a matter of five minutes, I lost three players. And then a few weeks later, we lost Trout and Anthony again. I'll never make excuses. We have players here. We've just certainly been through a lot as a team and we’ll use it as a learning moment.”

The Angels are headed toward their ninth straight losing season and haven’t made the playoffs since 2014. Nevin said he believes there’s still reason for optimism going forward because of the emergence of several youngsters this season, such as Neto, Moniak, Logan O’Hoppe, Nolan Schanuel and José Soriano.

Reid Detmers, 24, Chase Silseth, 23, and Patrick Sandoval, 26, are in the rotation, and injured rookie relievers Ben Joyce, 22, and Sam Bachman, 23, showed flashes of dominant stuff before getting injured. Silseth is currently out with a concussion but could return at some point next week.

“I don't think you have to look any further than the young talent that's come up here and played well for us,” Nevin said. “Starting with Zach at the beginning of the season and Logan. What they’ve meant to our club. The emergence of Mickey, some pitchers like Soriano in the ‘pen. I still call our young pitchers a work in progress. They’re learning with talented stuff and are just going to continue to get better. We’ve got some guys in our bullpen who are hurt right now but won’t affect them next year. These guys are exciting for a future.”