{"id":176523,"date":"2026-02-13T13:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/176523\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:17:15","slug":"early-bullpen-workouts-cast-an-ominous-tone-on-opening-day-staff-makeup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/176523\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Bullpen Workouts Cast An Ominous Tone On Opening-Day Staff Makeup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Injury reports are going to be a staple of this Los Angeles Angels season, especially with <a href=\"https:\/\/roundtable.io\/sports\/mlb\/angels\/news\/key-angels-pitcher-loses-arbitration-battle-against-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:the pitching staff.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">the pitching staff.<\/a> The Angels signed a half-dozen or so wounded pitchers coming off injuries, so it wasn\u2019t exactly surprising that they got a report on a key reliever that wasn\u2019t all that positive.<\/p>\n<p>Relievers Ben Joyce and Robert Stephenson threw their first bullpen sessions as the Angels reported to camp, and the results were mixed, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/los-angeles-angels\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Anthony Franco of MLBTradeRumors.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Anthony Franco of MLBTradeRumors.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Joyce is coming off season-ending surgery last May, and his initial bullpen after reporting was Joyce\u2019s first work off the mound since the operation. It went reasonably well, but the Angels still don\u2019t know if he\u2019s going to be ready for opening day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d rather him miss two weeks than six months. We\u2019re going to take our time with guys that need it and kind of see where it goes,\u201d Minasian said to Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register and other reporters.<\/p>\n<p>That comment doesn\u2019t quite match up with the results of the workout, but the reports on Stephenson were more ominous. He was active for about a month last season after struggling with a nerve issue in his biceps, and the reliever was shut down for the final week of the season due to elbow inflammation.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Stephenson spoke to reporters relayed the news that he\u2019s been experiences symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), which is a narrowing of the nerve canal that often leads to irritation and more serious injuries. The reliever was given an injection, and he opted not to undergo surgery, so it doesn\u2019t appear he\u2019s received a diagnosis of full-blown TOS, according to Franco.<\/p>\n<p>Stephenson also conceded that he\u2019s \u201ca little bit behind everybody\u201d at the moment, but he expressed confidence that he\u2019ll be available for Opening Day. Joyce and Stephenson are two of the Angels\u2019 most viable candidates to close games, but none of this is all that surprising.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, new rookie manager isn\u2019t ready to name his closer.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the benefit for us is we have options and we can be flexible. But in that ninth inning, I wouldn\u2019t put a name out there to be our closer right now,\u201d Suzuki.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to the Angels version of \u201cReliever Roulette!\u201d In other bullpen news, Fletcher reported that non-roster invitee Nick Sandlin underwent arthroscopic elbow surgery in October, but the reliever is scheduled to throw his first bullpen session this weekend, which would clear the way for his appearance in Cactus League games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Injury reports are going to be a staple of this Los Angeles Angels season, especially with the pitching&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,84014,73824,84013,2866,74644,48806,17203],"class_list":["post-176523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-anthony-franco","tag-ben-joyce","tag-jeff-fletcher","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-nick-sandlin","tag-robert-stephenson","tag-the-angels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}