The floundering Los Angeles Angels will be without Taylor Ward for a while after placing the right fielder on the 10-day injured list Sunday with a hamstring strain, the team announced.
Ward, 28, began the 2022 season on a torrid pace with hits in all but four of his first 30 games of the year. He was batting .370 with nine home runs over that stretch, but missed four games after colliding with the outfield wall on May 20. Ward returned May 26, but had a .167 batting average afterward with only four hits and nine strikeouts.
The Angels have lost 10 straight to spoil a strong start to the season and tumbled back to 27-27 on the year with a 7-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday. Ward is far from the only player on the team to suffer through a recent rough patch at the plate, as even three-time AL MVP Mike Trout is batting .103 during the team’s current losing streak.
Replacing Ward on the active roster is Jo Adell, who began the season as the Angels’ starting left fielder. After batting .215 through his first 19 games of the season with 24 strikeouts and just one walk, Los Angeles sent Adell down to the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees on May 3. In 19 games in the minors, Adell batted .222 with six home runs, 13 walks and 28 strikeouts.
Adell, 23, was a top-10 draft pick in 2017 and was ranked as one of the top prospects in MLB when he made his Angels debut in 2020.
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