TEMPE, Ariz. \u2014 Grayson Rodriguez\u2019s position in the Angels\u2019 rotation to start the season is now in question.<\/p>\n
Manager Kurt Suzuki said on Thursday that Rodriguez, who hasn\u2019t pitched in the majors since July 2024, has been slowed down.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe felt some soreness,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cWe backed him up. We\u2019ll see how he recovers. If he comes back in a couple days and says, \u2018I feel freaking great,\u2019 then we\u2019ll go from there, but obviously if he doesn\u2019t then we\u2019ll kind of take the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suzuki said Rodriguez played catch earlier Thursday, and then described his condition as \u201cdead arm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suzuki said that Angels general manager Perry Minasian \u201cwants to be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez, 26, has been dealing with injuries since 2024, so any issue sends up a red flag.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez last pitched on Friday. He threw 85 pitches in 4\u2154 innings, with four walks and five strikeouts. His fastball averaged 94 mph and topped at 97 mph.<\/p>\n
At that point, Rodriguez said he felt good<\/a>, but he was disappointed by the walks.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, I wish I\u2019d thrown a lot better this spring, but so far I\u2019m healthy and you can\u2019t really ask for much more than that,\u201d Rodriguez said last week.<\/p>\n Although the Angels are being cautious with Rodriguez, Suzuki said they aren\u2019t placing any limits on him this season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of when they come here they\u2019re going to pitch, which is why (Minasian) is kind of playing it safe with him,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018Hey man, gotta try to keep it safe with you and when you\u2019re ready to go, you\u2019re ready to go. If you need a few more days or a week or two weeks or a month, we just want to make sure he\u2019s ready to pitch when he pitches, because he\u2019s had some arm injuries and we just want to make sure we get ahead of it.\u201d<\/p>\n If Rodriguez is unable to start the season in the rotation, that would seemingly mean that both Jack Kochanowicz and Ryan Johnson would start the season in a rotation<\/a> that also includes Jos\u00e9 Soriano, Yusei Kikuchi and Reid Detmers.<\/p>\n Suzuki, however, wouldn\u2019t close the door on other pitchers. The Angels still have Alek Manoah<\/a>, George Klassen<\/a> and Walbert Ure\u00f1a in camp.<\/p>\n Klassen is scheduled to pitch against the Dodgers in the first game of the Freeway Series on Sunday night. Suzuki said he\u2019s not sure who will pitch the other two games.<\/p>\n PROSPECT GAME<\/p>\n The Angels lost, 4-2, to the Cleveland Guardians in the Spring Breakout game on Thursday, with all the Cleveland runs scoring in the fourth inning against Trey Gregory-Alford.<\/p>\n Right-hander Dylan Jordan, who started, and right-hander Nate Snead each pitched two scoreless innings. Snead hit 100 mph.<\/p>\n Right-handers Chris Cortez, Najer Victor and Jared Southard also pitched scoreless innings. Cortez struck out three, around two walks.<\/p>\n The Angels didn\u2019t score until Denzer Guzman hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n NOTES<\/p>\n The Angels reassigned left-hander Tayler Saucedo and outfielder Jos\u00e9 Siri to minor league camp. \u2026<\/p>\n Outfielder Josh Lowe played in a minor league game on Thursday morning. Lowe said he played outfield and didn\u2019t have any problems. He also accelerated his throwing program. Throwing is more of an obstacle than hitting or running for Lowe, who has been dealing with an oblique issue this spring. \u2026<\/p>\n Infielder Vaughn Grissom, who had a cortisone shot in his sore left hand, reported that his hand was feeling better, but he was sick. Grissom has been out since March 12, so there\u2019s a possibility that the missed time causes him to start the season on the injured list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEMPE, Ariz. \u2014 Grayson Rodriguez\u2019s position in the Angels\u2019 rotation to start the season is now in question.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,2866,1334,127],"class_list":["post-228195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228195","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=228195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}