Angels right-hander Jack Kochanowicz told members of the media, including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, that he will be undergoing Tommy John surgery. He’ll be out of action until the second half of the 2027 season. He is already on the 15-day injured list and will be transferred to the 60-day IL as soon as the Angels need his roster spot.
It’s obviously a brutal blow for Kochanowicz and the Angels alike. The righty has logged 240 1/3 innings for the Halos over the past three seasons, allowing 5.88 earned runs per nine. His 13.4% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate aren’t great figures but he has induced grounders on 54.6% of the balls in play he has allowed. He now won’t be able to add to those totals for quite a while.
The only silver lining for Kochanowicz is that he will collect big league pay and service time for the rest of the year. He came into this season with his service clock at one year and 12 days, so he will be at 2.012 at the end of the campaign. The IL goes away in the offseason, so the Angels will have to decide whether or not to add him back to the roster for the winter.
While Kochanowicz’s number haven’t been amazing, the Angels aren’t in a great position to be losing more rotation depth. The Halos have been struggling to put together a serviceable rotation for years. The club’s starters have a collective 4.76 ERA this season, which is better than just three other clubs in the majors, a key reason why the club is in the basement of the American League with a 25-42 record. Yusei Kikuchi is sidelined with a shoulder issue and has an uncertain timeline. Now Kochanowicz won’t be a factor for the remainder of the year.
With Kochanowicz hitting the IL a few days ago due to elbow inflammation, the rotation is now down to José Soriano, Reid Detmers, Walbert Ureña and Grayson Rodriguez. Urena and Detmers are scheduled to go tonight and tomorrow. The club is then off on Thursday and may not need a fifth starter right away, but they will eventually need to fill that spot.
Sam Aldegheri has been starting in the minors and pitching long relief outings in the majors, so he could be an option, though he has an ERA over 7.00 in the minors this year. George Klassen and Caden Dana are on the 40-man roster and currently on optional assignment, so one of them could be recalled. Klassen has an ERA near 6.00 in Triple-A on the year. Dana’s 4.31 ERA doesn’t look amazing but isn’t too bad in the context of the Pacific Coast League. His 12.2% walk rate is too high but he is striking out 26% of batters faced. Alek Manoah was outrighted off the roster last month and then jumped into the Triple-A rotation but hasn’t able to get through three innings in his recent outings.
Given the state of the depth, the Halos could look to external options. Considering their place in the standings, it wouldn’t make much sense to make a headline-grabbing trade, but they could perhaps look to the waiver wire or guys with other clubs who have opt-outs or upward mobility clauses.
Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images
