Losing This Starter Would Be A Big Blow, But It Looks Like He’ll Be Out For a While
The Los Angeles Angels went into the season with Yusei Kikuchi as their reliable veteran option in the rotation, but it’s starting to look like the “reliable” part of that description might have to be scrapped or amended.
Kikuchi was officially placed on the IL on Sunday, which was four days after he left his start against the Chicago White Sox early with what was described as left shoulder tightness
The left-hander underwent an MRI on Friday, but the Angels still don’t quite know what’s going on. That’s typical with shoulder injuries, and it looks like he could miss significant time.
“He’s got some shoulder stuff, some soreness,” general manager Perry Minasian said in a piece written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com . “We're just waiting on how it progresses. He’s getting looked at and he’ll get looked at again. So we’ll go from there. Once we have something to report, we’ll let you know.”
That’s a typical answer from Minasian, but the numbers tell a more accurate story. Kikuchi’s velocity has ben down, and as a result his ERA is up to 5.81.
Kikuchi has been adjusting his arm angle as a result, but there’s no way to tell if that contributed to the injury. Minasian also mentioned the WBC as a possible cause, which makes sense given the rapid ramp-up many pitchers did to prepare early for the tournament.
“It's hard to say,” Minasian said when he was asked to try and pin down the cause. “You could bring up the WBC, you could bring up the arm angle, I don't know.”
The result is that this could end up being a tryout year for some of the Angels’ young pitchers. Right-hander Caden Dana could be next up, given that Bollinger mentioned his last start at Triple-A Salt Lake in which he gave up one run in five innings while striking out five hitters.
The decision to replace Kikuchi hasn’t been made, but the Angels don’t have a lot of good options. They gambled on Grayson Rodriguez being able to get healthy and slot into the rotation after trading for him, but that hasn’t happened yet.
“We've got guys we really like,” Minasian said. “We've got some young arms, so we'll just go from there and guys will get an opportunity. We currently have four homegrown starters in our rotation. So we'll add another one and see what happens.”
