SEATTLE \u2014 Right-hander Ben Joyce didn\u2019t make it quite to the end of the season, but it was close enough for him to feel good about coming back from shoulder surgery.<\/p>\n
The Angels placed Joyce on the injured list with a right shoulder impingement on Thursday, with four games to go in the season.<\/p>\n
Joyce, who had shoulder surgery in April 2025<\/a>, said he didn\u2019t feel his shoulder bouncing back as he\u2019d hoped after his outing on Saturday, so the Angels decided not to push it for the final games of the season.<\/p>\n Joyce had his rehab stalled in May by a similar feeling, delaying his eventual return until August.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not concerned structurally,\u201d Joyce said. \u201cI think it\u2019s just 16 months out of surgery. I think it\u2019s part of the ups and downs. \u2026 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to affect anything long-term. It\u2019s just right now in a spot where we don\u2019t feel comfortable pushing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Joyce, 26, pitched in 16 games, working 15\u2153 innings. He had a 4.11 ERA, with 18 strikeouts and nine walks.<\/p>\n Joyce suffered two losses and he blew three saves, including one of the losses.<\/p>\n He showed he still had his fastball, averaging 101 mph with his four-seamer and topping out at 104.5 mph. He acknowledged that he never really got the feel for his slider, though. The lack of a dependable offspeed pitch was one of the reasons he struggled at times.<\/p>\n Joyce will now have the winter to try clean up those issues for next season. He said he won\u2019t throw \u201cfor a little bit, like anybody else\u201d but then he\u2019ll have what he called a normal offseason.<\/p>\n Overall, he was pleased with what he showed in his return.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was encouraging to know I still have it in there,\u201d Joyce said. \u201cI have the velo and stuff. When I first came back it was probably the best I felt pitching. It just sucks that (this discomfort) couldn\u2019t have been a week later, but it just caught up with me I guess. I\u2019m excited going into the offseason to have a relatively healthy offseason and to see what I can do with a healthy offseason in a full season next year.\u201d<\/p>\n Manager Kurt Suzuki agreed that this shutdown is more a precaution than a concern.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just being smart about it,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cThere\u2019s no need to push him at this point. He came up and he pitched enough and did really well for us. I think the biggest thing was him coming up and showing that he\u2019s ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n The Angels recalled right-hander Trevor Martin to take Joyce\u2019s roster spot.<\/p>\n CHAMPIONS<\/p>\n A day after Double-A Rocket City celebrated the Southern League championship, Suzuki said those players made important steps in their development by winning the title.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019ve been in this game, you understand that there\u2019s learning how to win,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cThat\u2019s something that\u2019s very important. I think that\u2019s something that gets overlooked a little bit. Those guys showing the ability to win a championship means a lot and goes a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortstop Arjun Nimmala<\/a>, the Angels\u2019 top prospect, hit a home run in the clinching game of the best-of-three series against the Biloxi (Miss.) Shuckers on Wednesday night. Right-hander Tyler Bremner<\/a> pitched five scoreless innings in Game 2, which Rocket City lost.<\/p>\n The Angels had not won a championship in Double-A since 2008.<\/p>\n UP NEXT<\/p>\n Angels (LHP Reid Detmers, 6-8, 3.47 ERA) at Mariners (RHP Bryce Miller, 4-9, 3.99 ERA), Friday, 7:10 p.m., ABTV, 830 AM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 Right-hander Ben Joyce didn\u2019t make it quite to the end of the season, but it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,5,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,4,185],"class_list":["post-813550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-angels","tag-angels","tag-baseball","tag-la","tag-la-angels","tag-laangels","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesangels","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117329143026370477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813550","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=813550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}