Weaver has 'positive' rehab outing with Angels' Class-A affiliate
Jered Weaver pitched for the Class-A Inland Empire 66ers on Thursday as he continues to get closer to making his return to the Los Angeles Angels' rotation.
Weaver, on the DL with hip irritation since late June, has been working toward a comeback for more than a month now.
By all accounts, his Thursday outing went swimmingly for him and the Halos, as he told Gabriel Rizk of the O.C. Register: "Mechanically, everything was coming together, so it was a positive and a step in the right direction, for sure. Just being able to throw my off-speed stuff out in front and getting out over my front side was a lot better. ... It was nice.”
The Angels will have to get creative in order to work him back into the rotation, considering the success of Matt Shoemaker, Andrew Heaney, Hector Santiago, Garrett Richards and C.J. Wilson, and Weaver is well aware of that: “It would be a little tougher to chew if we weren’t performing out there, but we’ve got five guys in the rotation who are throwing really well. At the same time, I still want to get out there.”
Still, having 'too many good pitchers' is a problem most teams would go to great lengths to have, so the Angels aren't exactly in a difficult spot - they just have to find a way to make it work.
Rizk notes that Weaver will join the Angels in Los Angeles this weekend when they take on the Dodgers, but the veteran noted that, "I’m going to wait to see what the trainers and coaching staff say and kind of go from there" regarding when he might make his next start.
