Angels mailbag: About Garrett Richards and next year

What is up, Angels fans? Your ball club of choice rebounded from a losing streak to win some games last week, but not too many. They are still 52-72 and on pace to finish 68-94 and pick fourth in the 2017 MLB draft. Off Monday, they play in Toronto and Detroit this week.

This weekly feature is the forum to get responses to any queries regarding the Angels or anything else, submitted through my email (pedro.moura@latimes.com) and Twitter accounts (@pedromoura). Let us begin.

There have been a lot of roster moves. That much is certain. Two hundred and two moves, to be exact, and 21 designations for assignment. I can’t find an exact record anywhere, but know that the number is certainly higher than normal. MLBTradeRumors.com’s year-long tracking of league-wide DFAs yields a recent total of 340, or about 11 per team. 

Given the state of the team, I do not find this in any way surprising. The fewer certain major leaguers you employ and the more injuries you sustain, the more transactions you must make.

Mike Trout has stolen more bases this season than he did in either of the last two seasons. He is also doing quite well at it, with 20 successes in 23 tries. He will never swipe 49 bases in 54 tries again, as he somehow did in 2012, but this year’s rate supplies a veritable threat to the opposition each time he reaches. That is significant.

I get that Trout is the best baseball player alive and that is fascinating, but he is not one of the Angels’ problems.

The plan is for Garrett Richards to throw from progressively farther distances over the next several weeks, building stamina and testing out the viability of his healed ulnar collateral ligament, and then pitch in instructional league sometime between mid-September and mid-October. If he cannot pitch by then, the Angels can apply for a special exemption to allow him to pitch in the Arizona Fall League, which begins in mid-October. If that goes well, he’s in their rotation next year. If it doesn’t, he has Tommy John surgery, and sets his gaze on 2018.

In talking to Richards a few days ago, I learned he does not believe he’ll need many innings to discern his readiness to pitch next season. He was saying he’ll require only a couple appearances of a couple innings a pop. We will see. Doctors who perform this stem-cell therapy regularly and monitor their patients note everyone is asymptomatic until they throw at 75% effort. Richards is not there yet. 

This is a common, understandable question. I believe it has been covered here at one time or another, but to run it down again for interested parties: Escobar has the second-highest batting average in the American League, and has carried that clip pretty much throughout the season. But average is by far his best feature. 

He has not hit a home run since April, and he is not hitting excessive doubles or triples to compensate. His isolated power is the fourth-lowest among qualified hitters. His defense is below average at third base, according to advanced metrics and scouts who observe him regularly. He is one of the worst base runners in the sport, according to the same sources. It appears those two traits owe more to his effort than his technique.

He is not nearly as valuable as a .320 average typically indicates. There’s also the matter of a fit. He cannot play shortstop anymore, has barely played second base, and has given varying indications about his willingness to do so. Not many teams could benefit from a third baseman this season, and one club that could, San Francisco, reportedly had concerns about his behavior. Escobar does not own a good reputation.

Cliff Pennington is under contract, so I’d bet on him over any other player to be the primary starter at second, now that the Angels designated Johnny Giavotella for assignment over the weekend. But I’d still take the field over Pennington. 

At third base, I’d take Escobar over the field. He has a $7 million team option for next year or a $1 million buyout, so the Angels must decide if he’s worth at least $6 million to them or someone else. Yes, probably.

The real question is who the Angels plan on playing those positions beyond 2017. We do not know the answer. Let’s see if we can obtain clues before season’s end. Kaleb Cowart has an opportunity now.

This is a question I’ve held off answering for a bit, and I’m sure it’ll be addressed again in some form in September. Some I’ve spoken to in the sport think there’s a chance. Others do not. The certain thing is that it if Garrett Richards is not able to pitch next year, it becomes less likely, and, the way I see it, almost entirely unlikely. That would entail a rotation fronted by Matt Shoemaker or Tyler Skaggs, with the other man as the No. 2, Ricky Nolasco as the No. 3, and some combination of unproven or unsuccessful starters in the other spot. It is hard to see such a team being good. There will be money to spend, but not much more than it will cost to sign one impact free agent.

It depends on how Lincecum finishes off the season, but it’s hard to imagine someone offering him another starting-rotation spot next spring. He could come into camp on a minor league deal or aim for the bullpen, but besides his preference to pitch on the West Coast, there’s not much else that would keep him in Anaheim. 

That’s it for this week. Check back each Monday to see the latest answers, and send questions in to the below addresses at any time.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura