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Some good news today, regarding the beleaguered Halos starting rotation: Tyler Skaggs will be returning to an MLB mound on Saturday. Skaggs has been on the DL since the beginning of May, thanks to a strained oblique injury. His rehab was thought to take about 10-12 weeks, and that estimate proved to be pretty close in the end.
Off today, but according to my colleagues at the park: Tyler Skaggs is starting Sat. Troy Scribner on Friday. Jesse Chavez to pen. #Angels
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) August 2, 2017
It’ll be good to get Skaggs back, now if we can just see Andrew Heaney in that rotation, we’ll have a more stout set of starters than we’ve had for a large chunk of this injury-laden season. If Skaggs goes down with another injury between this Saturday and the end of the season, then I will scorn the baseball gods more than I’ve ever scorned before (that’s some pretty serious and gnarly scorning).
In other rotation news, Jesse Chavez has apparently been moved to the bullpen today. It doesn’t really seem to have much to do with Skaggs’ return, at least it didn’t appear that way to me when I read the news. I still found it fairly odd, but at least I then saw the Halos plan on putting Troy Scribner in Chavez’s slot. Ok, they want to take a look at Scribner some more, that’s the reason...right? Well, maybe not.
If they don't start Chavez the rest of the season, the Angels will save $1.7 million. His incentives would have shot up with his next start.
— Pedro Moura (@pedromoura) August 2, 2017
Whoa, that’s some diabolically frugal maneuvering there from the Angels’ front office, if that’s really their main motivation (which, c’mon, it totally IS). If there’s anybody that has the capability of being hilariously frugal, it’s Arte Moreno and company, and how many times can you say someone is hilariously frugal? Not that often, but hey, at least this time we’re laughing with the Angels’ front office, and not at them (well, at least not about this particular tidbit, although your mileage may vary).
So we’ve got Skaggs mended up and ready to make his dashing return, Scribner gets some more time in the MLB spotlight and Jesse Chavez gets to go hang out in the bullpen, with plenty of time to think of all the feria Arte Moreno is holding back on him. Ouch.