Notes: Injuries to Anderson, prospect Soriano

TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Angels had their first notable injury of the spring, as reliever Justin Anderson suffered a Grade 2 left oblique strain while playing catch Tuesday and will be out four to six weeks, manager Joe Maddon said Thursday.

Anderson, 27, had a legitimate shot to make the roster, as he was on the Opening Day roster last year and is one of the hardest throwers on the club. But he’ll now open the year on the 15-day injured list for pitchers.

“There is not a whole lot he can do right now,” Maddon said. “I was watching the video and he’s got a tremendous arm. But we’ll just have to play that out. Sometimes that benefits you in the long run when a guy gets a break from an injury like that and he’s more available at the end of the season, fresher. We’ll see how it plays.”

Anderson explained that it came on his second-to-last scheduled throw while throwing on flat ground and that he felt totally fine leading up to camp and had thrown off a mound multiple times, including Saturday and Monday without any issues.

“I had two throws left in my throwing program and the next thing I know, someone stabbed me in the side, it felt like,” Anderson said. “I tried to push through it and there was nothing behind it. No torque. No nothing. When it happened, it was a freak thing. It was a pain I never felt before, that’s for sure

Anderson posted a 5.55 ERA with 60 strikeouts and 32 walks in 47 innings last year after registering a 4.07 ERA with 67 strikeouts and 40 walks in 55 1/3 frames as a rookie in '18. He had a 3.89 ERA at the end of July but struggled the rest of the year, allowing 12 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings over his final 10 outings while fighting through a trapezoid injury that caused him to miss a month from early August to early September.

But Anderson worked with a chiropractor this offseason and said his trap injury was behind him, only to injure his oblique for the first time in his career Tuesday.

“I spent all offseason getting that together,” Anderson said. “That was good to go, as far as I’m concerned. I worked with a lot of people in the offseason to help control that and learned some new things about it. That was great, then I came out here on Tuesday. It’s pretty unfortunate it happened. Just another day playing catch, and then it felt like I was stabbed in the side.”

Soriano undergoes Tommy John surgery

Angels prospect Jose Soriano underwent Tommy John surgery last week and will miss the 2020 season. Soriano, ranked as the club’s No. 9 prospect by MLB Pipeline, is coming off a strong season that saw him post a 2.51 ERA with 92 strikeouts and 51 walks in 82 1/3 innings between Rookie-level Arizona and Class A Burlington last year. The 21-year-old was considered at least two years away from reaching the Majors but will now see that pushed back by at least a year.

Angels tidbits

• Shohei Ohtani took batting practice on a lower field without any issues and also shagged flyballs in right field. The Angels are still coming up with a target date for his first bullpen session but it should come soon, Maddon said.

“My body felt good overall,” Ohtani told Japanese media members. “I felt good hitting the ball. I thought it was a good first outing.”

• Anthony Rendon, Tommy La Stella, Andrelton Simmons and Jared Walsh are among the position players who have arrived to camp early. La Stella has been standing in during bullpen sessions while Simmons has taken ground balls at short. Rendon arrived to camp on Thursday. Angels position players report Sunday with the first full-squad workouts set for Monday.

• Right-hander Jaime Barria came into camp noticeably slimmer and said he lost 14 pounds during the offseason.