Erick Aybar’s Injury Might Move Needle On Angels’ Taylor Featherston
- Updated: August 16, 2015
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Can Taylor Featherston stick with the Los Angeles Angels for six more weeks?
Judging by his numbers — a .135/.196/.202 slash line with 32 strikeouts in just 100 plate appearances being in the big leagues the entire season (!) — you would say no, of course. But Featherston isn’t your average 25th man/utility infielder on an American League club; he’s a Rule 5 Draft pick.
And with being a Rule 5 Draft pick, Featherston must stay in the Major Leagues with the Angels all year long, or else he’ll be offered back to his original team (the Colorado Rockies) in exchange for some cash. Judging by how long the Angels have stashed him at the very bottom of their roster thus far, there’s likely little way they’d ever consider giving Featherston back now.
That’s cool for Featherston, who gets to (likely) spend the rest of the year in the big leagues. That’s not as cool for the prediction I made about Featherston six months ago, when I hypothesized he’d find himself back in the Rockies’ organization before the year was up.
And increasingly, it’s not very cool for the Angels themselves, who are now in the thick of a playoff race with the road only getting more difficult and a starting shortstop, Erick Aybar, that may be banged up bad enough to miss more time than the couple games he’s already panned.
Remember, the Angels traded away a utility middle infielder last month when Josh Rutledge went to Boston in exchange for outfielder Shane Victorino. All of a sudden, the Angels could’ve really used him to come up from AAA and spell Aybar in short stints.
And since the Angels can’t send down Featherston (he’d have to be offered back to Colorado), the club is really two infielders down whenever Aybar is out. That’s a tough task for a team trying to leap frog Houston for a division title and some kind of shot at the playoffs.
Something drastic might have to happen at this point for the Angels to really offer Featherston back to Colorado and use the roster spot on an entirely new shortstop, but this conundrum with Aybar — at the worst time for Los Angeles — underscores exactly the issue I wrote about when Featherston was first selected this winter.
If you stash a Rule 5 Draft pick away on a bad ball club, that’s one thing. But put him on a team that’s expected to win, and, well, it’s only a matter of time before a future Hall of Famer has to play third base because you’re effectively playing with a short bench and a non-existent rookie bat in the 25th spot on the roster.
Hopefully the Angels have a long-term plan with Taylor Featherston’s Major League career, because he hasn’t been that, and his spot on the roster could legitimately hurt a playoff push. The Angels had better hope Aybar’s absence isn’t long enough for Featherston to prove himself a weak link on an otherwise increasingly consistent roster.
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