Injuries hurt Stoneman’s flexibility

Bill Stoneman has a tough enough time making trades under the best of circumstances. This summer will present an even stiffer challenge for the Angels’ general manager, whose leverage leading up to the July 31 trade deadline has been compromised by the struggles and inactivity of some of his best bargaining chips.

Last July, Stoneman agreed to send Ervin Santana, one of baseball’s most promising young pitchers at the time, and infielder Erick Aybar to Baltimore for shortstop Miguel Tejada, but the deal was nixed at the last minute by Orioles owner Peter Angelos.

Those two players, based on 2006 values, could have provided the foundation for a package to acquire a player such as Texas first baseman Mark Teixeira, Chicago White Sox outfielder Jermaine Dye, Cincinnati outfielder Adam Dunn or possibly Tejada if he comes off the disabled list this month.

But Santana, who won 28 games before his 24th birthday, is 5-10 with a 5.97 earned-run average and is in danger of losing his rotation spot to triple-A left-hander Joe Saunders, and Aybar, whose value shot up with his stellar play in May and June, is out until August after undergoing surgery on his right wrist.

To compound matters, Bartolo Colon is struggling, with a 1-4 record and 9.07 ERA in his last eight starts, second baseman Howie Kendrick is on the DL because of a fractured finger, and the Angels have a shortage of high-end, close-to-big-league-ready pitching prospects, which potential trading partners covet.

“Injuries can take care of your depth pretty quickly,” Stoneman said. “Our health has to improve. One of the things that happened in 2002 is we stayed relatively healthy. We got some nice years from some players, but we were healthy all year. We have enough talent here. If it’s healthy, we’re fine.”

Unlike the last two seasons, when the Angels pursued a big bat, they don’t have as clearly defined a need this summer.

Though they rank 13th in the league in home runs and have gone eight games and 76 innings without a homer, they rank second in batting, seventh in runs and fifth in on-base percentage.

“We don’t hit a lot of home runs, but we’re scoring enough to support the pitching,” Stoneman said. “And with our pitching, we can shut down good hitting teams.”

Does Stoneman feel a sense of urgency to make a trade?

“To me, the urgency is if you have the opportunity to do something that makes you better, you do it,” Stoneman said.

“But if you don’t have the opportunity to do something, you have to have the discipline not to. So far, we haven’t had the opportunity to do something that would really help us.”

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Catcher Mike Napoli, on the disabled list because of a sprained left ankle suffered in a home-plate collision at Baltimore on July 1, caught in the bullpen and did some defensive drills Saturday. He has been throwing and running the bases lightly, and, according to Manager Mike Scioscia, probably will be activated in Tampa Bay on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.... Aybar had the cast on his right wrist removed Saturday and will begin light range-of-motion exercises this week.

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com