Jack

Lopez

Seattle doesn’t have a ton of depth at the keystone entering spring training, so López makes a ton of sense as a break glass in case of emergency stopgap. The 32-year-old journeyman got into a career-high 27 contests last year for the division-rival Halos. He’s spent close to a decade bouncing around the upper minors between several organizations, sipping the occasional cup of coffee when the opportunity arises.

It’s the first outright assignment for Stefanic, who made his MLB debut for the Angels in July 2022 and was up and down several times since. He hit .232/.317/.275 in 264 plate appearances over 2 1/2 seasons. Of the three infielders here, Leblanc probably has the best chance of helping a team. The Angels, though, gave him just 28 plate appearances, in which he homered twice and walked seven times.

Neto is dealing with a shoulder injury, and the hope from Ron Washington was that he could return for the final two games. The best will now be the final one. Nolan Schanuel is also out for the Angels while dealing with a knee bruise. Jack Lopez is playing shortstop and Niko Kavadas is playing first base.

López homered in the 8th inning to push the Angels’ lead to 2-0. It was the first career homer for the shortstop, who has now hit safely in six-straight games despite entering the day with a .213 average. He’s also driven in four runs over that span. With just five games left in the season, López will look to continue this hot streak and close out the year on a high note.

There was some hope that Stefanic could return to the lineup Saturday after being removed from Friday’s game, but he’ll get another day. Brandon Drury (hamstring) is also out Saturday, so it’ll be Jack Lopez getting the start at second base for the Angels.

Drury went 1-for-2 in the contest before exiting. Jack Lopez has replaced the infielder in the field. Drury will likely undergo testing to determine the severity of the injury before his status going forward is revealed.

The 31-year-old infielder signed a minor league deal with the Angels this offseason. He hit 12 home runs with a .754 OPS in 104 games at Triple-A. López last played in the majors with the Red Sox in 2021.

López is back in the fold with the Angels as additional organizational depth and hasn’t appeared in the majors since getting into seven contests for the Red Sox back in 2021. At 31 years old, he’s merely emergency infield depth at this stage of his career.

López, who got into seven games for the Red Sox during the 2021 campaign, gives the Angels some extra middle infield depth following last week’s decision to promote top prospect Zach Neto from Double-A Rocket City. The 30-year-old played in 95 games last year for Triple-A Toledo in the Tigers’ system, batting .167/.205/.287 with six homers and 11 steals in 311 plate appearances.

No roster move has been made. The pair of middle infielders will remain with the Tigers until the Triple-A Toledo season kicks off in a few weeks. López appeared in seven games with the Red Sox last year and was in camp as a non-roster invitee. Kreidler was a fourth-round pick of the Tigers back in 2019 and advanced to Triple-A last year. They’ll function as extra organizational infield depth in the minors to open the 2022 season.