Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval left tonight’s begin towards the Dodgers within the third inning. After strolling former teammate Shohei Ohtani, Sandoval started shaking his arm and known as for a coach. The Halos introduced the preliminary analysis as forearm tightness.
It appears truthful to presume Sandoval will head for imaging within the subsequent couple days. Whereas it’s too early to know whether or not he’s going through a big absence, the southpaw’s response on the mound and the analysis are clearly trigger for concern.
Sandoval labored 2 1/3 scoreless innings tonight. He nonetheless has an uninspiring 5.08 earned run common over 79 2/3 frames on the season. The 27-year-old’s underlying indicators are fairly a bit extra promising. Sandoval has punched out a strong 23% of batters confronted whereas maintaining the ball on the bottom 45% of the time. He has issued just a few too many walks (9.9% price), however he seems to be like a mid-rotation arm at his greatest. Sandoval carried an above-average 11.7% swinging strike price into tonight’s begin.
Between 2022-23, Sandoval was considerably quietly one of many higher starters within the league. He topped 140 innings in each seasons, combining for a 3.50 ERA over 55 begins. Whereas Sandoval was more practical in ’22 than he was a yr in the past, he has typically been a vivid spot amidst a troublesome few years in Orange County.
As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored in a bit for Entrance Workplace subscribers simply this week, Sandoval seemed like a really interesting commerce candidate. Steve famous the parallels between the Angels hurler and Miami’s Jesús Luzardo, who’s considered among the best (if not the highest) controllable beginning pitcher who’s more likely to transfer this summer season. The Angels haven’t proven the identical willingness to deal key gamers because the Marlins’ new entrance workplace has, but Los Angeles GM Perry Minasian would get no scarcity of calls on a wholesome Sandoval.
Tonight’s damage at the very least complicates that chance. An prolonged absence would take a deadline deal off the desk solely. The Angels management Sandoval by way of arbitration for 2 seasons past this one. He’s making $5.025MM this season in his second of 4 arbitration years after qualifying as a Tremendous Two participant in 2022.
