The Los Angeles Angels announced that David Fletcher will miss some time with a bone bruise on his right hand that he suffered on Sept. 10 against the Houston Astros.
The 28-year-old has been limited this season, but after attempting to play through the week, admitted the hand was making it difficult to swing a bat. Thankfully the Angels don’t believe the injury to be serious following negative x-ray results.
Fletcher has posted a .259/.296/.349 line with an 82 wRC+ this season, and according to MLB.com the Angels wanted to take the pressure off of him after diminishing results:
Interim manager Phil Nevin said it wasn’t fair to Fletcher to keep playing through the injury, so he was placed on the 10-day injured list after the game.
With less than a month to go in the season, the Angels should be in no hurry to get Fletcher back to the field, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he was slow played for the remainder of the year.
Nevin brought Fletcher off of the bench in two of his three appearances this week and went 1-for-6 at the plate, looking clearly uncomfortable.
Andrew Velazquez to miss rest of season
Angels shortstop Andrew Velazquez had recently stumbled onto a breakthrough that had the potential to change his trajectory as a batter. Velazquez dropped being a switch hitter, focusing solely on hitting from the right side.
He had seen immediate success since making that change, and there was hope that it would provide him a future with the Angels. Unfortunately, he won’t have the rest of the 2022 season to prove that his recent spike in production is permanent.
On Tuesday, Velazquez was removed from the Angels’ 3-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians after hurting his knee. An MRI revealed a torn meniscus, requiring surgery. The recovery timeline is 6-8 weeks, meaning Velazquez will miss the remainder of the 2022 season.
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