OC Register: Angels looking for answers to rash of oblique injuries

[AngelsWin.com]

ANAHEIM — Patrick Sandoval added his name to a puzzling list when he came out of his Monday start with an oblique injury.

The Angels placed Sandoval on the injured list on Tuesday, making him the fifth player on the team to be sidelined with an oblique, joining two-way star Shohei Ohtani, outfielder Jo Adell, left-hander Matt Moore and shortstop Zach Neto.

When Manager Phil Nevin was asked if he had any theories as to why his team has suffered such a rash of oblique injuries, he said he didn’t know.

“I think we’re all trying to rack our brains on that,” Nevin said. “I’ve not seen anything like it, to be honest with you. We’ve had several this year. These guys all work. They work hard. They’re in the weight room. They’re doing their work. I like to sit here and say it’s bad luck, but we really have no idea. It’s something we’re constantly trying to think about.”

The Miami Marlins lead the majors with seven players on the injured list with oblique injuries, according to the database at FanGraphs. The Angels and Minnesota Twins are second with five.

Neto missed about a month. Moore missed six weeks. Adell missed 10 weeks. Ohtani, whose season was ended by the oblique injury, will end up missing the final month.

Overall, there have been 63 players this season to go on the injured list with an oblique injury, a little more than two per team.

With the exact same training staff last year, the Angels had only one (José Quijada). They didn’t have any in 2021. Adell said his injury in late 2021 was an oblique, but officially it was listed as an abdominal injury.

The overall major league total is slightly up from 56 in 2021 and 46 in 2022.

“That’s probably something we’ll look into,” Nevin said. “We always are, anytime there’s injuries, whether it’s one or whether it’s four or five of one thing, you are always trying to figure out how do we make this better?” Nevin said. “How do we keep guys from getting hurt? There’s always new technology with things. We’ve got to dig deeper.”

Overall, the Angels have used the injured list an MLB-high 42 times with 35 different players this season.

Left-hander Reid Detmers and right-hander Carlos Estévez are the only Angels players who so far have been on the active roster every day this season.

HOPING TO STAY

Nevin’s contract is up at the end of the season, and he was clear that he would like to stick around.

“I love being here,” Nevin said. “I love everything about it. Even coming and sitting with (the media) every day. And you know how I feel about the players and the staff and the relationships I build with the staff and everybody. Of course I want to be here. This is a dream job for me. I’m home and I’m doing what I love to do.”

Heading into Tuesday’s game, Nevin had a record of 116-147 since taking over after Joe Maddon was fired in June 2022.

NOTES

Rookie first baseman Nolan Schanuel was not in the lineup on Tuesday night after fouling a ball off his leg on Monday. “He’s got a pretty good bruise,” Nevin said. “A little swelling. He wanted to play today. … I don’t want him to hurt anything else by limping. He’s still got a little bit of a limp. He’ll be back in there tomorrow.” …

Left-hander Kolton Ingram was recalled to replace to Sandoval on the roster.

UP NEXT

Rangers (RHP Dane Dunning, 11-6, 3.88) at Angels (RHP Griffin Canning, 7-7, 4.39), Wednesday, 6:38 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM

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