Angels skipping Ohtani start against Texas

Anaheim Angels starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani is skipping his next start, the team announced today.

The Texas Rangers face the Angels in a three game set in Arlington starting on Monday. Ohtani last pitched on Wednesday, August 9. Given the Angels work with a six man rotation, if Ohtani had stayed in his normal spot in the rotation, he would have been due to pitch against the Rangers in the series finale on August 16. Instead, the Rangers hitters will miss facing the Angels’ ace.

The Rangers will presumably face Patrick Sandoval and Lucas Giolito in the first two games of the series, then either face Reid Detmers, who would move forward one spot in the rotation and pitch on four days rest, or a spot starter on Wednesday. As currently situated, the Rangers would have Max Scherzer, Jordan Montgomery and Jon Gray going in those three games.

The timing of this isn’t great for the Angels, who were aggressive buyers at the trade deadline despite being underdogs to make the playoffs. Once the trade deadline passed the Angels lost seven in a row and have lost 9 of their last 11 heading into their game at Houston today. They are now at 58-60, 12.5 games back in the A.L. West, and 6.5 games back of the final Wild Card spot. and 10 games back of Houston, which is currently holding the second Wild Card spot.

Ohtani’s 3.6 bWAR as a pitcher is more than the bWAR the Angels have gotten from every other starting pitcher they’ve used this season, and is third in the American League.