{"id":671970,"date":"2026-04-09T22:39:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/671970\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T22:39:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:39:18","slug":"angels-reliever-undergoes-another-season-ending-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/671970\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels Reliever Undergoes Another Season-Ending Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Robert Stephenson underwent ligament and flexor repair surgery, ending his 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>Stephenson signed a three-year, $33 million with the Angels ahead of the 2024 season, but missed the year run its entirety after getting Tommy John surgery. The right-hander returned to the Angels in May 2025, but only made two appearances before landing back on the injured list.<\/p>\n<p>He came back towards the end of Aug. 2025, making 10 appearances, but landed back on the injured list towards the end of the season with another elbow injury and hasn\u2019t pitched since. He was solid when healthy, allowing just three earned runs through 10 innings pitched, but couldn\u2019t string together a ton of appearances due to his injury history.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-od-removed-fetchpriority=\"high\" data-od-xpath=\"\/HTML\/BODY\/DIV[@class='elementor elementor-246431 elementor-location-single post-252681 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-angels tag-angels tag-robert-stephenson mv-content-wrapper']\/*[2][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[4][self::DIV]\/*[4][self::FIGURE]\/*[1][self::IMG]\" data-dominant-color=\"5a4a46\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #5a4a46;\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Robert-Stephenson-Angels-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Sep 19, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Robert Stephenson (24) pitches in the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images\" class=\"wp-image-252682 not-transparent\" \/>Sep 19, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Robert Stephenson (24) pitches in the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The Angels initially didn\u2019t think Stephenson\u2019s injury was anything to worry about, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/2025\/11\/11\/angels-add-john-gibbons-adam-eaton-to-coaching-staff\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">general manager Perry Minasian stating<\/a> he would be ready at the start of spring training this year.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the veteran suffered a setback in spring training while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/48437804\/angels-robert-stephenson-season-elbow-injury\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">attempting to pitch through thoracic outlet syndrome symptoms<\/a> he experienced in the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis guy wants to pitch, this guy wants to be good,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/48437804\/angels-robert-stephenson-season-elbow-injury\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Suzuki said<\/a>. \u201cUp until he had that setback in spring training, he was in a good spot mentally. He was excited, he was happy to be back on the mound. So this is heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Angels\u2019 bullpen has been decent since the beginning of the season, as they currently rank 11th in terms of ERA. They\u2019ve vastly improved from last season despite Stephenson\u2019s absence, and will hope to keep producing good results throughout the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Robert Stephenson underwent ligament and flexor repair surgery, ending his 2026 season. Stephenson&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,5,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,4,9393],"class_list":{"0":"post-671970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-angels","8":"tag-angels","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-angels","12":"tag-laangels","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-angels","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesangels","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-robert-stephenson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116377156003239744","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}