The Los Angeles Angels have relied on a number of arms in their bullpen to navigate through another injury-riddled half season, including multiple veteran options and prospects from Double-A.
José Soriano joined the big leagues at the start of June, bypassing Triple-A, and has since been a solid contributor. Among the more seasoned pieces, Chris Devenski had been one of the more relied-upon guys for most of the first part of the regular season.
Heading into the break, Devenski had logged 33.2 innings pitched, his highest usage since the 2019 season when he was with the Houston Astros. The right-hander unfortunately had his most troubled appearance of the year, allowing five runs on five hits, sustaining a minor injury, per Jeff Fletcher of the O.C. Register:
Starting with the latter, Nevin explained on Monday that right-hander Chris Devenski felt something in his right hamstring on Saturday but did not alert the Angels until before Sunday’s game.
“He thought it was just a twinge and a cramp but it’s a little bit more than that,” Nevin said. “He came in. He tried to throw and realized he’s not going to be able to really push off and land like he wanted to.”
The Angels have lacked consistency in their bullpen, and aside from his blow-up outing against the Astros, Devenski had posted a 3.82 ERA, 3.83 FIP with a .211 batting average allowed:
Nevin said Devenski “was crushed” by the realization that he was unable to pitch.
The unfortunate piece to the puzzle is the unknown with Devesnki and his upcoming availability. For now, the Angels are still on standby until they find out more:
Nevin said they’ll have to wait for the inflammation to subside before they can have a gauge of how much time he’ll miss.
“Hopefully it’s not long,” Nevin said. “We’ll probably get better answers in the next couple days. Talking to (head athletic trainer Mike Frostad) today, he doesn’t feel like it’s anything significant. No tearing or anything like that, but certainly enough to keep him off the mound for a little bit.”
Thankfully, the Angels welcomed back left-hander Matt Moore, who has been wildly productive. Calling up Jimmy Herget, and using Jacob Webb in some new situations has been a difficult spot, but Nevin is doing his best job navigating until they can hand off the reigns to All-Star closer Carlos Estévez.
Angels roster has ‘worked really hard’ getting to this point
Manger Phil Nevin has guided them to a decent spot, continuing their battle in the American League West. However, the largest battle remains internally, with their struggle to maintain a clean bill of health.
Numerous injuries have taken down key players for the Angels including Anthony Rendon over various periods, a few arms to season-ending surgery, and even Mike Trout suffering a broken bone in his hand. Regardless of that, general manager Perry Minasian is proud of the roster.
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