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Angels Put Promising Young Starter On IL Due to Back Issues
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- Angels Put Promising Young Starter On IL Due to Back Issues
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
Los Angeles Angels starter George Klassen is one of several Halos starters who has submitted a remarkable pitching performance in August, but the Angels will be without his services for what both he and the team hopes will be a brief stretch due to a back issue.
The injury was reported by Rhett Bollinger of MLB com, who said that Klassen has been placed on the 15-day IL due to left lower back inflammation, with the injury occurring before yesterday's 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies .
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The symptoms date back before that, however. The move was retroactive to Thursday, per Bollinger, which was when Klassen started to feel the symptoms after allowing two earned runs over 5-1/3 innings against the Cleveland Guardians .
The hope is that the injury is minor, Klassen stated and he hopes to return in mid-September.
"It's getting better," Klassen said. "Just need a little rest, I think. It's a long season, we're getting to the back end of it. So in just a couple of days, we'll be all right."
Klassen has had an uneven season, but lately he's been impressive. Overall he's gone 2-2 with a 3.67 ERA, 24 strikeouts and 21 walks in 27 innings, but his early April starts were generally poor. Since then, per Bollinger, he's had a 2.01 ERA with 18 strikeouts and 11 walks in 22-1/3 innings in four starts.
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"A lot of positives to take from every day and days in between," Klassen said. "Just keep building off things and stacking them."
The hope is that the injury is the result of an accumulation of innings, with Klassen having piled up over 100 of them between Triple-A Salt Lake and his time with the Angels.
"He felt it a little bit, and obviously, just out of precaution," Suzuki said. "Just want to make sure that we can get it before it turns into something big. But he's not concerned. I'm not concerned, either. It's just to stay ahead of it."
The Angels made a pair of promtions with Klassen now out until Sept. 11, adding relievers Mitch Farris and Blake Weiman from Triple-A Salt Lake. Farris has also had an uneven season that's been a distinctly mixed bag.
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Klassen now looks like a part of the Halos' future, although it's hard to imagine Suzuki being a part of it with interim GM John Mozeliak still pondering who's going to be running the team next year.
"He's been great," Suzuki said of Klassen. "He's been making huge strides, and I think the consistency has been getting better and better every time he gets out. You can kind of see the comfort level within every start, right?"
Klassen was supposed to start against the New York Yankees tonight, but his spot will now be taken by rookie Walbert Urena, who's also piled up a lot of innings.
