{"id":9507,"date":"2025-07-20T02:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T02:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/9507\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T02:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T02:49:09","slug":"al-west-notes-trout-rangers-rodgers-waldichuk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/9507\/","title":{"rendered":"AL West Notes: Trout, Rangers, Rodgers, Waldichuk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Trout<\/a> was hitting .179\/.264\/.462 when a bone bruise in his left knee sent him to the injured list on May 2, but since being activated from the IL, Trout has been closer to his old superstar form in batting .287\/.432\/.483 over his last 183 plate appearances.\u00a0 It might not be a coincidence that Trout has excelled since exclusively acting as a designated hitter since his return, as the Angels have been cautiously managing his leg health in the wake of both the bone bruise, and a variety of other leg injuries over the years.\u00a0 Trout did take part in some right field drills prior to Friday\u2019s game and came away feeling good, though he told MLB.com\u2019s Rhett Bollinger<\/a> and other reporters that the team doesn\u2019t yet have a timetable set in regards to an in-game return to right field.<\/p>\n

Both Trout and interim manager Ray Montgomery are eager to see Trout return to right field, with Montgomery noting that freeing up the DH spot would allow more players to get partial rest days.\u00a0 Time will tell when Trout is entirely physically ready to go, though there must be some slight sense of \u201cif it ain\u2019t broke\u2026.\u201d within the Angels\u2019 decision process.\u00a0 Trout has been so hammered by injuries in recent years that if regular DH duty allows him to stay in the lineup and post big numbers, the Halos surely have to be considering whether limiting Trout to just cameo appearances in the outfield could be the best course of action going forward.<\/p>\n

More from the AL West\u2026.<\/p>\n

The Rangers had interest in Kyle Finnegan<\/a> when the reliever was a free agent last winter, and the club has had\u00a0 interest in Pirates closer David Bednar<\/a> dating back to at least last season\u2019s trade deadline, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News<\/a> writes.\u00a0 These two relievers could therefore be particular names to watch as Texas looks for help at the back of its bullpen, along with a few other closer candidates that Grant cite as possible deadline candidates.\u00a0 Texas is an even 49-49 entering today\u2019s play, so it remains to be seen if the Rangers could buy or sell<\/a> at the deadline.\u00a0 Speculatively, a trade for Bednar would help for both this season and as a jump start on the 2026 plans, as Bednar is arbitration-controlled for one more year.\u00a0 Finnegan, meanwhile, is just a rental since he signed a one-year contract with the Nationals in the offseason.
\nBrendan Rodgers<\/a> suffered a concussion and a nasal fracture after a scary collision<\/a> with teammate Edwin Diaz<\/a> in a game with Triple-A Sugar Land yesterday.\u00a0 As a result, the Astros told the Athletic\u2019s Chandler Rome<\/a> and other reporters that Rodgers has been returned from the minor league rehab assignment that only just began with yesterday\u2019s abbreviated Triple-A outing.\u00a0 Rodgers was placed on the big league 10-day IL just over a month ago due to an oblique strain, and while the start of his rehab assignment indicated that he was getting close to a return, his timeline is now completely up in the air as he deals from these new injuries.\u00a0 Over 128 plate appearances for Houston, Rodgers has hit only .191\/.266\/.278.
\nKen Waldichuk<\/a> has reached the end of his 30-day rehab window, so the Athletics activated the southpaw from the 60-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A Las Vegas.\u00a0 Waldichuk underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2024, and he clearly isn\u2019t yet ready for the bigs based the results during his rehab assignment.\u00a0 Over 15 1\/3 minor league innings, Waldichuk has struggled to a 7.63 ERA and almost as many walks (16) as strikeouts (17).\u00a0 Should he get on track, Waldichuk could emerge as an option for the A\u2019s rotation or bullpen in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Trout was hitting .179\/.264\/.462 when a bone bruise in his left knee sent him to the injured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[8812,49,48,9631,9632,9633,4011,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-9507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-brendan-rodgers","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-david-bednar","12":"tag-ken-waldichuk","13":"tag-kyle-finnegan","14":"tag-mike-trout","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}