The Angels announced that they had placed their right hand Jack Kochanowicz on the 15-day injured list with right elbow swelling. On the left Sam Aldegheri recalled from Triple-A in place of Kochanowicz.
Kochanowicz told reporters, including MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger, that his elbow has been bothering him in his past three games. Kochanowicz tried to move past it, but will now head to IL in an attempt to make a full recovery. He will have an MRI tomorrow. Aldegheri is available out of the bullpen for now, per Bollinger, but he could slot into the rotation if needed. Kaden Dana again George Klassen other candidates in that area.
Kochanowicz is having a good season as an Angel overall, which is not to say great. The 6’7″ righty totaled 64 innings over 13 starts, recording a 6.05 ERA in the process. Kochanowicz has a 5.38 xERA, 4.98 FIP, and 5.00 SIERA, which suggests he’s been somewhat unlucky, but he’s still ineffective. Really, boss Kurt Suzuki he was noncommittal about keeping Kochanowicz in the rotation before the IL placement was announced. “[We will] talk about it and see what our options are,” Suzuki told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.
The fact that Kochanowicz has held onto his position this long speaks volumes for the lack of rotation of the Angels in the background. José Soriano again Reid Detmers. The former has cooled off after a hot start but still has a 2.72 ERA in 76 innings. Detmers has solid peripherals that suggest he should improve on his 4.26 ERA. Otherwise, it’s a rookie Walbert Ureña he has a 2.68 ERA and a low 51.4% strikeout rate, but also a 4.53 SIERA due to a high walk rate. Grayson Rodriguez he has allowed 19 runs in 18 innings since returning from injury.
Yusei Kikuchi is on the 60-day IL and won’t return until late July at the latest, according to the team’s official injury report. Dana and Klassen are both on the 40-man roster as depth options, and Dana was Top-100 last year according to MLB.com. However, neither Dana nor Klassen performed well in Triple-A this year despite high levels of low ball.
Working for Kochanowicz is his high groundball rate (54.6% in 240 1/3 major league innings), 72-percentile fastball velocity, and much-improved slider (-6 run value in 2025, +1 this year). Granted, the Angels aren’t competitive and can afford to give the 25-year-old Kochanowicz a lot of freedom. Still, his low ball rate and decent stuff are interesting in their own right, so it wouldn’t be out of place to see Kochanowicz back in the rotation upon his return. The Angels only have four starters currently per FanGraphs’ RosterResource tool, so Kochanowicz could earn his spot as the fifth starter.
Aldegheri returns to the Majors as a long reliever for now. He has spread three big league appearances around three recalls and options this year, this being his fourth recall. Aldegheri has a 7.24 ERA in 46 innings over nine starts at Triple-A in 2026. His major league record consists of an uninspiring 5.26 ERA in 37 2/3 innings from 2024-26. It wouldn’t be surprising if Aldegheri appeared in one game and then was picked again, with one of Dana or Klassen getting a temporary replacement spot with Kochanowicz out.
Photo courtesy of William Liang, Imagn Images
