Cozart to have season-ending shoulder surgery

Halos acquire McCreery, Thole from Dodgers; Lucroy placed on concussion list

July 13th, 2019

ANAHEIM -- The Angels made several roster moves before Friday’s game against the Mariners, including infielder being moved to the 60-day injured list with season-ending shoulder surgery looming on Wednesday, and catcher being placed on the 7-day concussion list retroactive to Tuesday.

Fellow catcher was reinstated from the 10-day injured list after missing 17 games with a left hand sprain. Additionally, the Angels acquired lefty Adam McCreery and catcher Josh Thole from the Dodgers for cash considerations Friday. McCreery was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake, and Thole was assigned to Triple-A as well.

Cozart, on the injured list since May 27, met with Dr. Keith Meister in Texas last week, as well as Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles. He learned that he re-tore his labrum on a swing in Minnesota in mid-May and that’s what was giving him issues. His surgery will not fix the torn labrum, but will instead clean up the areas around it in hopes that it causes the pain to subside. Cozart previously had surgery to attach nine anchors in his shoulder a year ago.

“It definitely is better knowing what I have going on,” Cozart said. “It’s not ideal because from a surgery standpoint, it’s not necessarily going to fix that issue. I’m going in for a clean up right now. The doc doesn’t feel comfortable fixing [the labrum] right now, basically, for my career.”

Lucroy, meanwhile, suffered both a concussion and a fractured nose after the Astros’ Jake Marisnick collided into him at home plate on Sunday. Lucroy will see a nose specialist on Monday, and said his concussion symptoms have been surprisingly mild. It’s the third time he’s been diagnosed with a concussion in his career. Lucroy said there’s still no timetable for his return, as he’ll know more on Monday.

“I thought it'd be a lot worse than it is,” Lucroy said. “In all honestly, I haven't really had the kind of symptoms I've had in the past when I've had a real bad concussion. But I'm feeling pretty good from that angle. We're going to keep an eye on it.”

Lucroy also said he had a chance to communicate with Marisnick, who reached out via text. Marisnick was suspended two games for the collision and while Lucroy said he’s moved on, he did explain to Marisnick that he left a lane open to slide in foul ground.

“I don't think he was trying to hurt anybody,” Lucroy said. “However, I did give him the whole lane, the whole foul territory to slide. I did tell him that in the text. As a catcher, when a play's at home, I always try to give the runner some place to slide. That's what the new rule says, you're supposed to do that. If you don't, you can get called for interference and then they'll get the run. We communicated, and it is what it is."

With Lucroy out, Angels manager Brad Ausmus said he’ll split the playing time relatively evenly between Dustin Garneau and Smith. Thole gives the Angels some depth at Triple-A, as the 32-year-old has played in parts of eight seasons in the Majors, but his last appearance came in 2016.

McCreery also gives the Angels some relief depth, as the 26-year-old has posted a 4.04 ERA with 39 strikeouts in 35 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A this year. McCreery, a local product from La Verne's Bonita High School and Azusa Pacific University, was in the Angels' organization from 2014-2016 before being traded to the Braves for righty Jhoulys Chacin.

“He’s maintained the bat-missing ability that we tend to value here,” Angels general manager Billy Eppler said of McCreery. “We could also stand to improve our catching depth because we’ve had some adversity there. I think that the Dodgers did a solid for Josh by putting him in a situation to maybe have a higher probability of at some point getting back to the big leagues this season.”