ANAHEIM, Calif. - Nolan Schanuel’s season is over just as it seemed to be finding real traction.
After battling a calf injury early, the Angels first baseman finally got rolling in the summer and pushed his numbers to a .276 average with a .736 OPS. But Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said before Friday night’s game that Schanuel is not expected to return from a right intercostal muscle strain after suffering a setback during his rehab assignment.
“Just went on a rehab assignment and it wasn't feeling any better,” Schanuel said. “Came back and talked to (head athletic trainer Mike Frostad) and the training staff, and they just thought it was best to take it easy and get back to being healthy.”
Schanuel went on the injured list on August 21 and began his rehab assignment with Triple-A Salt Lake on Sunday. He was scratched from Wednesday’s game, and said he felt the issue immediately in the first inning of that outing. Baseball activity kept irritating it, and after a day of hoping it would settle down, he returned to Anaheim to meet with the Angels’ training staff and sort out the next step.
He ends the year hitting .301 with a .789 OPS over his final 50 games played.
“He started the year a little slower, battled some injuries, some nagging stuff,” Suzuki said. “Once he got healthy, that's when you saw him take off.
I mean, it was line drive after line drive. It was pretty impressive.”
Schanuel said the injury should not affect his offseason plans. Even with the missed time, he said this year taught him plenty about his game and what needs attention this winter.
“I think just understanding that I can be a really good contact bat in the lineup,” Schanuel said. “Hit for a high average, get on base and power will come. I think if my power shows in doubles, then that's the kind of hitter I have to be.
There was better news elsewhere on the Angels’ injury front. Left-hander Samy Natera Jr.’s MRI came back clean, with no damage, and he is avoiding surgery.
He remains on track for a normal offseason. Natera is still in talks with the training staff about what comes next, but said the current plan looks like six weeks of rehab before building arm strength like he would in a typical offseason.
Not every update was as positive. The Angels placed Kyren Paris on the 10-day injured list with a right index finger fracture retroactive to September 15.
Paris said he hurt the finger fielding ground balls before Thursday’s game and expects to miss three to four weeks. That ends his season, though he is also set up for a normal offseason.
Friday also marked Ducks night at Angel Stadium, the annual crossover event that brings members of the Anaheim Ducks to the ballpark to take batting practice and throw out the first pitch as they prepare for training camp.
This year’s Ducks participants in batting practice were Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Beckett Sennecke, Tim Washe and Sam Colangelo, with A.J. Greer and Nick Jensen also around the ballpark.
The baseball swings took a little adjusting.
“It’s tough,” Gauthier said. “It’s far. It’s a lot farther in person than it is over the TV.”
“It’s hard,” Sennecke said. “It looks close, but it’s farther than it looks.”
Colangelo, who grew up in Boston as a huge Red Sox fan and played baseball until he was 12, was one of the few Ducks to string together some solid swings. Gauthier came close to a homer a couple of times, but those drives landed on the warning track.
Carlsson and Gauthier were scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game, though Carlsson admitted he had never thrown a baseball before. He stopped by Dick’s Sporting Goods on Thursday to buy one “just to feel one for once.”
“I just want to get it there,” Carlsson said. “If it goes over, left, right, I don't care. I just gotta not skip one.”
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The appeal is obvious for a club searching for reliable outs after the starters hand over the lead. Watson has trimmed his numbers sharply since the move, posting a 1.88 ERA and 0.98 WHIP, and he has earned a bigger role in the process. The larger question for the Angels is whether this is the start of a real bullpen answer or just a late-season burst from a pitcher who was barely on the radar a few weeks ago. [Read more 🡒]
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The challenge now is less about what they have done and more about how much the Angels should ask them to do from here. Urenas rise has put him in the mix for AL Rookie of the Year consideration, and Detmers has looked like a pitcher the organization can lean on for years to come, but both are also carrying more innings than they have before. For a team not playing for a postseason chase, the balancing act is clear: keep the development momentum going without pushing either arm too far. [Read more 🡒]