‘I thought I could handle the pain.’ José Suarez’s shoulder issue puts Angels in a bind
José Suarez pitched all of 2⅔ innings Sunday before all the Angels position players, manager Phil Nevin and athletic trainer Mike Frostad went out to check on him.
Standing on the back of the mound in the middle of the meetup, Suarez picked up the rosin bag, bounced it in his hand and plopped it back onto the dirt. Then he, Nevin and Frostad departed the field, back into the dugout, Suarez retreating toward the clubhouse with left shoulder discomfort. Chase Silseth replaced Suarez on the mound for the bulk of the game.
The Angels have shown depth among their position players and bullpen. The one place they do not particularly have that depth, however, is in their starting pitching. Suarez’s injury is worrisome for two reasons for Nevin.
The Angels lost 10-1 to the Texas Rangers on Saturday, but the team is in a first-place battle and believes its depth will help offset adversity.
“Any of my players get injured, I’m concerned about them,” Nevin said after the Angels’ 16-8 loss to the Texas Rangers at Angel Stadium. “In particular, our starting rotation, we don’t have a lot of depth, yes. So it’s Silseth’s stretched out, where we go from here, I’m not sure. We’ll talk about it.”
Anthony Rendon‘s three-run home run in the first inning gave the Angels a 3-0 lead, but the Rangers had 17 hits off four pitchers to take two of three in the series.
The Angels came into this season banking on Suarez picking up where he left off 2022, helping fill out the back end of the rotation. Despite persistent struggles through most of April, he displayed his most promising outing in his penultimate start, when he kept a strong Milwaukee Brewers team from scoring over five innings. There was optimism on progress for his season.
For now, neither Suarez nor the Angels know the severity of his injury, but he is scheduled to have an MRI exam on Monday. Suarez said after the game that his shoulder pain started in the second inning. He continued pitching, alerting Nevin to his injury after he had given up his second home run and seven earned runs total.
“I thought I could handle the pain and keep pitching,” Suarez said in Spanish, “but it’s a pain I actually couldn’t handle.”
The Angels will be OK without Suarez in the next turn through the rotation. As they planned out in spring training, they have as many starters as they do to ensure Shohei Ohtani can get his minimum five days of rest between starts. The Angels’ off day Thursday gets Ohtani his usual amount of rest, with Griffin Canning filling out the last start.
That means the next time the Angels will need a sixth starter will be during their next homestand, which begins May 19.
On Friday, general manager Perry Minasian said that in the event the team needed another starter, because of injury, production or otherwise, that they are comfortable enough with their internal options to make starts.
“I think there’s a group of arms at the minor league level, there’s a group here that are currently pitching in the bullpen, we feel comfortable making starts if we needed to,” Minasian said, “and I will cross that bridge when we need to.”
The Angels have three pitchers in their bullpen who have made starts: Silseth, Tucker Davidson and Jaime Barría.
Silseth was recalled from triple A on April 26, to fill Austin Warren’s spot in the bullpen after Warren (Tommy John surgery) went on the injured list. He made seven major league starts (28.2 innings) last year, when he made his debut, with a 6.59 earned-run average, and a 1.57 WHIP (walks and hits/ innings pitched).
Davidson started 11 of 12 games last season between the Angels and Atlanta Braves, posting a 6.75 ERA and 1.71 WHIP. The Angels have preferred Barría’s contributions in the bullpen, where he spent all but one game last season, though he had primarily been a starting pitcher for the Angels in his first four seasons in Anaheim.
Shohei Ohtani has been outstanding on the mound this season. The rest of the Angels’ rotation has delivered mixed results, albeit better lately.
At their triple-A affiliate, pitchers Kenny Rosenberg, Jake Kalish, Jake Lee, Luis Ledo, César Valdez and Jonathan Holder have made starts for the Salt Lake Bees. Of that group, Rosenberg and Lee have the best ERA, 3.82 after seven starts and 33 innings and 4.68 after six starts and 25 innings, respectively. Rosenberg also has the best WHIP (1.55) and most strikeouts (33), but has typically pitched four-plus innings per start, with just one start of five complete innings and one start of seven complete innings.
At their double-A affiliate, pitchers Sam Bachman, Coleman Crow, Mason Erla, Landon Marceaux, Victor Mederos, Brett Kerry and Jose Soriano have made starts for the Rocket City Trash Pandas. Of that group, Crow has the best ERA (1.88) and WHIP (0.63) and the most strikeouts (31), but also has not pitched since April 26. Pitchers at that level have been using tackier baseballs as part of an experiment by MLB.
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