After a 9-5 start to the season, the Angels have lost 15 of their past 19 games, including a 13-1 loss to the Tigers on Sunday at Angel Stadium. This is a difficult period for the team.
Due to a bone bruise in his surgically repaired left knee sustained during an uncomfortable landing on first base in Seattle on Wednesday, superstar Mike Trout was placed on the 10-day disabled list on Friday. The Angels have had a difficult time lately, and general manager Perry Minasian spoke with the media on Friday about a number of issues.
Here are his thoughts on a few club-related topics:
When do you expect Trout back?
“It’s a bone bruise. No idea. Hopefully, it’s better sooner than later. I’m clueless about the timeline. That is most likely a first threshold till he is able to begin running. Once he begins running, we will have additional information.
Who do you see replacing Trout?
We obviously need some other guys to step up because baseball isn’t a one-player sport. We’ve performed poorly. It’s clear. I take it you go through it? It’s a seasonal phenomenon. Each squad goes through it. I was only observing it. The Padres suffered five straight losses. The Braves suffered seven straight losses. Thus, it occurs. Even excellent teams—or ones that have previously made the playoffs—go through periods like this. For us, it just means returning to playing solid, fundamentally sound baseball. It’s obviously never enjoyable to have Mike out. Although we feel that we have some people who can step up and are more than capable of being productive and helping us win games, we are a superior team when he is on the field.
Do you think you need to add another outfielder?
“I won’t take a month off. Taylor [Ward] has previously displayed streakiness. Hopefully, the bad streak is out, and the good streak is coming. We will make do with what we have. And there’s [Gustavo] Campero. In the games in Seattle, he performed admirably. In the minor leagues, he has performed admirably. Right now, we will travel with our current staff.
How concerning is this recent stretch?
You’re going to have some numbers that aren’t particularly impressive, right? You can pick a six-game or 10-game stretch from anyone and point to specific instances where they’re really struggling and offensively they haven’t scored. When you don’t score, that usually means you’re not getting on base, and we haven’t gotten on base, and we’ve struck out; I believe that teams go through periods where they don’t swing the bat well.Nevertheless, we swung the bat very well in a few early-season games that were productive. Therefore, I’m hoping we can go back. I’m expecting to regress back to some of the things we did earlier in the year, where we made more productive outs, better at-bats. These men are aware of that. I mean, the coaching and the work have been terrific. “Just execution, isn’t it?”
What have you thought about the coaching staff’s performance?
“I believe there are several perspectives. A lot of older players have their own hitting instructors, and those who have been in the league for a long time have essentially established themselves in a particular fashion. Now, things would be quite different if we had a bunch of young men who were all having difficulties. However, statistically speaking, our youthful players have outperformed our senior players to some degree.
What’s the level of concern with Ben Joyce’s shoulder?
“Yeah, it’s an issue. We’re going to give him a little more time. He’s going to play catch again, and we’ll see where it goes. It’s an issue because he didn’t feel well. It would have been great if he could have pitched tomorrow, but again, some guys take longer. We’ll just take it day by day and see where we’re at.”
What have you made of the bullpen?
Ryan Johnson has thrown the ball well, in my opinion. With the exception of the previous two nights [Wednesday and Thursday], [Reid] Detmers has thrown the ball well. Therefore, our bullpen’s back end has pitched effectively when we’ve been in close games and had opportunities to win. Not the front end. So the front end needs to obviously be better.”
