The Angels’ playoff hopes took a serious hit when they lost Garrett Richards for the season in Wednesday’s game against the Red Sox. The right-hander suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in his left knee and was given a recovery timetable of six to nine weeks.
Without Richards, the Angels’ starting rotation is much less imposing. Hector Santiago and Matt Shoemaker have the club’s next-best ERA’s at 3.46 and 3.56, respectively. As a result, many expect the Angels to pursue starting pitching via the waiver wire -- such as Bartolo Colon and Scott Feldman -- but as Peter Gammons writes on Twitter, the Orioles and Yankees are “claiming everyone”.
The Angels have the best record in baseball, so they are last when it comes to making a waiver claim. That only makes things even more difficult for them to bolster their rotation with roughly five weeks remaining in the regular season.
