Angels move Richards to 60-day DL

The Angels have transferred right-hander Garrett Richards to the 60-day disabled list after he has experienced a “strength deficit” in his biceps, the team announced on Twitter.

The Angels said Richards, who was on the 10-day DL while dealing with a biceps strain, had an exam recently and it revealed “mild improvement in biceps strength and irritation of the cutaneous nerve which is contributing to his strength deficit.” The test came nine days after he had a test on his cervical spine, which the results were negative, and the team said they were going to keep doing tests on him until the find the cause to his injury.

Because of the new findings, the Angels made a series of moves along with his placement on the 60-day DL. Among those was sending Alex Meyer down to Triple-A Salt Lake after he only went 3 ²⁄₃ innings for Los Angeles in a spot start Friday against the Blue Jays.

The Angels need to desperately fill this huge void in their rotation now that they know they will be without Richards, whose injury is the second major one for him in his four seasons with the team. He missed most of last season with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament, an injury which he tried to treat with a stem-cell injection rather than having surgery. Richards showed prior to his injury in 2016 that he could be the Angels’ ace. In 2014, he went 13-4 with a 2.61 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP in 26 starts. He followed up that season by pitching over 200 innings for the first time while going 15-12 with a 3.65 ERA in 32 starts, then had a 2.34 ERA in six starts last year before being shut down for the season.

The Angels can open up serious talks about acquiring White Sox starter Jose Quintana. If they don’t want to look outside the organization, they can give prospects Nate Smith or Jaime Barria a shot or wait until free agency.