The Los Angeles Angels placed Brandon Drury on the 10-day injured list Sunday with a left shoulder contusion, while fellow infielder Andrew Velazquez was recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake.
In addition, infielder Jake Lamb was released after he was designated for assignment Friday.
Drury missed his second consecutive game Saturday, with manager Phil Nevin suggesting the issue was more than just bumps and bruises.
“I’ve been around him a long time and he doesn’t take himself out of games,” Nevin said. “I watched him play 2 1/2 weeks with a broken hand and I’ve also watched him fight through an oblique injury. This is one of the tougher guys I’ve been around so when he tells me his hurting and can’t play, I know something’s wrong.”
After a slow start in his first season with the Angels, Drury is batting .277 with 14 home runs and 45 RBIs. Without him over the past two games, the Angels have scored three total runs in losses to the Arizona Diamondbacks, with Los Angeles on a season-long four-game losing streak.
Drury, 30, is a career .255 hitter with a .746 OPS, 93 home runs and 322 RBIs over 720 games in nine seasons for seven different clubs.
Velasquez, 28, was batting .231 with a double and three runs scored in 12 games for the Angels earlier this season. He is a career .194 hitter with 10 home runs and 37 RBIs in 233 career games over six seasons with five clubs.
Lamb, 32, batted .216 with two home runs and five RBIs in 18 games for the Angels this season. In 723 major league games over 10 seasons with seven clubs, Lamb is a career .235 hitter with a .753 OPS, 96 home runs with 342 RBIs.